Oh, God: US Government About to Withdraw Decades-Old Scaremongering Over Cholesterol in Your Diet

Yeah.

The "Oh, God" is not about the withdrawal, which is a long time comig. The "Oh, God" is about the massive amount of shit the US government is going to have to eat regarding an enormous pile of horrible health advice -- exactly the opposite of healthy health advice -- they've been giving to the country for 40 years.

And because that is the standard health advice, it is also the safe harbor health advice, meaning doctors will give you that advice even if they know it's wrong because they also know that, it being the Industry Standard, it can never be held against them in a malpractice suit.

So, guess what. Eggs, which for 100,000 years of human history were considered healthy and vital, and then, for 30 years, were considered lethal, now appear to be healthy again.

This is going to be a long, ugly series of disclosures.

The nation's top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food, a move that could undo almost 40 years of government warnings about its consumption.

The group's finding that cholesterol in the diet need no longer be considered a "nutrient of concern" stands in contrast to the committee's findings five years ago, the last time it convened. During those proceedings, as in previous years, the panel deemed the issue of "excess dietary cholesterol" a public health concern. The most current finding was discussed at the group's last meeting.

The new view on cholesterol in the diet does not reverse warnings about high levels of "bad" cholesterol in the blood, which have been linked to heart disease. Moreover, some experts warned that people with particular health problems, such as diabetes, should continue to avoid cholesterol-rich diets.

But the finding, which may offer a measure of relief to breakfast diners who prefer eggs, follows an evolution of thinking among many nutritionists who now believe that for a healthy adult cholesterol intake may not significantly impact the level of cholesterol in the blood or increase the risk of heart disease. The greater danger, according to this line of thought, lies in foods heavy with trans fats and saturated fats.

...

The forthcoming version of the nation’s Dietary Guidelines - the document is revised every five years - is expected to navigate myriad similar controversies. Among them: salt, red meat, sugar, saturated fats and the latest darling of food-makers, Omega-3s. As with cholesterol, the dietary panel’s advice on these issues will be used by the federal bureaucrats to draft the new guidelines.

The publication offers Americans clear instructions -- and sometimes very specific, down-to-the-milligram prescriptions. But such precision can mask sometimes tumultuous debates that surround these issues.

“Almost every single nutrient imaginable has peer reviewed publications associating it with almost any outcome,” John P A Ioannidis, a professor medicine and statistics at Stanford and one of the harshest critics of nutritional science, has written. “In this literature of epidemic proportions, how many results are correct?”

Now comes the shift on cholesterol.

...

Other major studies have indicated that eating an egg a day does not raise a healthy person’s risk of heart disease, though diabetic patients may be at more risk.

I've actually been eating egg yolks lately in an attempt to goose my testosterone (do you know how testosterone levels have plummeted in the entire human population over the past few feminized decades?) , and, even though I sort of knew the anti-egg panic was bullshit, I still had that nagging fear in my head that Egg Yolks Would Kill Me.

Well, now I'm going to eat them without fear. BRB, gonna make some eggs and just eat the yolks.

PS, sorry about the long absence from the computer. First of all, my computer kept spazzing out and shutting down.

But I spent a lot of time pacing around. I don't know why -- maybe because I got 8 full hours of sleep last night -- but I got hit with a big jolt of excess energy, almost manic energy (but in a good way), and time flew as I got my 10,000 steps in without actually going for a walk.

Well, I got them in on the Fitbit, anyway, but the Fitbit is an easy turn and gives you almost 40% more steps than the Jawbone does.

Anyway, now that manic energy is sort of dissipated I'll start working.

After I eat my eggs, anyway.

posted by Ace at 02:46 PM

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