On Tue, 4 May 2004 19:24:58 -0400, you wrote:

>Ken Stuart wrote:
>
> >In the article referenced in the thread "Paleo Article", it seems
> >clear that Cordain still seems to have not read "The Cholesterol
> >Myths" by Uffe Ravnskov, nor even read the summary at
> >http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm .
>
>I forwarded the above to Loren. He replied:
>
>You can go to my website: www.thepaleodiet.com under FAQ and read about the
>molecular basis on how saturated fats promote atherosclerosis by down
>regulating the LDL receptor. 

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is that there are thousands of laboratory discoveries that
don't apply to the real world, especially in medicine.   This is
because human physiology consists of many interwined systems.

Loren himself says in his page that he cites:

"Hence, the interpretation of whether or not dietary saturated fats
cause CHD in these interventions is confounded by a number of crucial
variables"

He goes on to say (and also in the reply):

" In animal studies, including primates, these confounding dietary
factors can be completely controlled and atherosclerosis is routinely
induced by solely feeding high amounts of saturated fats."

However, this statement is contradictory to the preceding statements
in that paragraph, where Loren points out that it is not just
controlling the dietary factors, but rather what the specifics are.
Were the primates given a diet that otherwise mimicked their natural
wilderness diet?   Or were they given "Purina Primate Chow" :), i.e.
some vendor-supplied laboratory animal food product?

In any event, I suspect that Loren has still not read the website
(nowhere does he say that he has read either the book or the site),
the relevant page is:

http://www.ravnskov.nu/myth4.htm

One paragraph from it is a good summary, he has many specifics:

" If heart attacks are caused by eating too much animal fat or
saturated fat, a rising intake in a population should of course be
followed by more heart attacks and a decreasing intake by fewer
attacks. No consistent pattern has been found, however. In a few
countries the changes have followed each other and the data from these
countries have been used eagerly to support national diet counceling.
But in many countries fat consumption has changed whereas heart
mortality has not, or vice versa; in many countries they have even
changed at opposite directions (54). 

In Switzerland, for instance, coronary mortality decreased after World
War II. During the same period intake of animal fat increased by 20
per cent (55).

In England, the intake of animal fat has been relatively stable since
at least 1910 while the number of heart attacks increased ten times
between 1930 and 1970 (56). "

[followed by many other citations.].


--
Cheers,

Ken