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Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease.

Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute Oakland CA Harvard School of Public Health Boston MA.

BACKGROUND: A reduction in dietary saturated fat has generally been thought to improve cardiovascular health.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this meta-analysis was to summarize the evidence related to the association of dietary saturated fat with risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and cardiovascular disease (CVD; CHD inclusive of stroke) in prospective epidemiologic studies.

DESIGN: Twenty-one studies identified by searching MEDLINE and EMBASE databases and secondary referencing qualified for inclusion in this study. A random-effects model was used to derive composite relative risk estimates for CHD, stroke, and CVD.

RESULTS: During 5-23 y of follow-up of 347,747 subjects, 11,006 developed CHD or stroke. Intake of saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of CHD, stroke, or CVD. The pooled relative risk estimates that compared extreme quantiles of saturated fat intake were 1.07 (95% CI: 0.96, 1.19; P = 0.22) for CHD, 0.81 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.05; P = 0.11) for stroke, and 1.00 (95% CI: 0.89, 1.11; P = 0.95) for CVD. Consideration of age, sex, and study quality did not change the results.

CONCLUSIONS: A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.

Siri-Tarino PW, Sun Q, Hu FB, Krauss RM. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease. J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jan 13.

Also @23 – Yeah, I know that it isn’t possible for many people, but I do think that it is something that everyone should experience if they get the chance.

@Meat=Slavery guy – You get all the other carnivores to stop eating meat, then we can talk. Yes, I do think that the way many slaughter houses treat the animals is horrible. Which is why I get as much of my meat as possible from sources I know haven’t done so. I eat wild game, pork, which I already explained the source of, and beef, which comes from a farm owned by people I know and butchered by a family-owned company that I know treats them humanely. Very rarely do I get meat from a store.

BTW, this is a more general comment about this sort of “shoving your face in it” tactic, not about these people in particular.

Saturated Animal Fat is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat. Vegetable and seed oils will harden you arteries, they are processed non-natural foods!

…

CONCLUSIONS: A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.

Your abstract and your conclusions do not match. How does “no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD” imply “one of the most nutritious foods you can eat,” and where does it say that it is any better than vegetable oils?

Then we place them in a scalding tank full of hot water (heated by one of the aforementioned fires). The temperature is measured by running your hand through the water, when you can dip your hand in quickly three times (two is too hot and four is too cool) then it is ready.

Why don’t you use a thermometer?

The method you describe for butchering sounds similar to how he would do it (though admittedly, he was more interested in selling the livestock and leaving the heavy lifting to his customers). It’s interesting to see that you up there in West-by-God-Virginia do it pretty much the same way as people down in south Georgia. From what I’ve read, this method is/was also common in rural Britain (at least in Yorkshire).

My grandfather used to sell to a Mr. Stripling (Harris Stripling, I believe), who ran a butcher shop & general store in Warwick. My grandfather and Mr. Stripling are both gone now of course, but Stripling’s General Store is still there, located now on the outskirts of Cordele. They still produce some of the best sausage I have ever eaten in my life. I don’t know if they still do their own killing, but I do know the pork is fresh and local, and that I am apparently a shill for their company now. Pardon the digression.

Boondocker, thermometers are fragile, unreliable, and easily lost (not to mention expensive) compared to the hands you’ve already got. lilomar’s method is better.

Xeni, I try to ignore the hatred and bile that vegetarians constantly direct against people with natural diets, but sometimes I just have to break out with “Carrot Juice is Murder” by the Arrogant Worms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM

^-^

gives one exactly the same feeling as a slave must have felt when reading the bad excuses for oppression in the 1800s.

No, because you, my friend, are not a pig. And no matter how sympathetic you feel to the plight of our fellow animals, you remain not a pig, and thus are not in the situation of the slave.

At best, you are the equivalent of a white anti-slavery activist.

To pretend otherwise is to frankly minimize and ridicule the suffering of the slaves you compare yourself to, much as comparing almost anything to the Holocaust belittles and minimizes the tragedy of that event. Which is why everyone makes fun of people who invoke Nazis in any conversation they find controversial.

But I personally am experimenting with a diet that involves more plant oils: flax, olive, coconut, sesame, and so on. And those fats can also be delicious and satisfying. There are many sources of awesome, and they don’t *have* to be from animals.

It’s just accepted that this animal died for your dinner — but there is so much care (to the point of reverence) taken with the preparation of meats that it does pay tribute to the producers who brought it to you (and the animal that gave its life).

It’s the same with other things, too — eggs might be a little dirty (but omg so fresh and so tasty), and dirt clings to carrots and potatoes — along with reminding you where it came from, the system here also reinforces that what you buy from local producers is fresh and real, too.

I chalk it up to a subcultural narrative which pits pragmatic, rational geeks against touchy-feely illogical hippies.

To call this attitude non-progressive is completely backwards. As a society, we will always eat meat. The healthy and responsible choice then, is to take ownership of where it comes from.

I’m Latino. The above process is done at least annually at my house. It is called making tamales. And tamales are tasty. Wanna know what is in menudo? Or chorizo? Because I have made both at home as well.

When I was a kid I used to butcher chickens I raised every year for the rest of the family coming up from LA. Only sheltered vegetarians get squeemish about something that is natural as eating bugs or worms if you are lost in the forest.

I don’t feel any guilt about eating locally raised food- certainly less than corporate farmers should feel about the fish kill numbers and the amount of forestland denuded across the US for mass farmed crops; I hardly think that is much better for the environment than the locally raised organic meat I make a point of buying.

Gloria: pigs are enslaved, confined, tortured and killed for your pleasure. There is similarity in that oppression.

That’s awesome for those of you who can do it (honestly, I’m not being facetious), but do realize that it’s just not feasible for most people in the U.S. today. The rest of us are just going to have to trust somebody with our meat.