JK Gatto wrote:

>Between then and now, I've tried many "tweaks" of paleo, and non-paleo 
>lowcarb, What I'm doing now is LCIF (lowcarb intermittent fasting), i.e., I'm 
>eating one large meal a day, consisting of plenty of fatty meat, 
>   
>  Todd, I'd bet the farm that your system doesn't like sat fat.  Oliva
>  
>

We'll see.  When I got that blood test in 1997, I had lost 36 pounds in 
a few months *and* increased my intake of SFA.  In the process I was 
flooding my system with SFA, since human body fat, like the fat of 
fattened cattle, is about half saturated.  So as I was releasing stored 
body fat and eating lots of fatty meat, and since SFA downregulates the 
liver's LDL receptors, it wasn't exactly shocking that my LDL went up.  
But it was only 6 months between blood tests, and  heavier consumption 
of SFA (paleo) was only a part of that six months.  What I didn't know 
then was that many people experience a *temporary* surge in LDL when 
they start eating more fatty meats, but over time it tends to return to 
where it started, or even lower.  This is something that most clinical 
studies don't document, since they tend to be fairly short duration.  
But a few, such as Wolfgang Lutz, followed their patients for a longer 
period and saw LDL go back down, as HDL crept up.

In fact, 9 or so months later, still on the paleo diet, I was tested 
again.  I don't have all the numbers in my head, but I remember my total 
cholesterol had dropped to about 250 (from that high of 302) and my HDL 
had inched up a bit more, to 48.  My TG stayed under 100, and may have 
dropped a bit more.

Even my last set of numbers, from last fall, showed a continued rise in 
HDL, with little increase in total cholesterol.

Regardless of whether you think LDL has any medical significance, it's 
interesting to monitor it and to see how my body reacts to changes in 
diet.  From what I've been reading, the lowcarb intermittent fasting 
approach should improve my insulin sensitivity faster than paleo or 
lowcarb alone would do, and it'll be interesting to see how that affects 
blood lipids.

Todd Moody
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