On Sat, 27 Nov 1999, Ken Stuart wrote:

> The saturated fat recommendation is based on an entirely different factor than
> the usual one.   The current societal recommendation about saturated fat is
> based on some very weak correlations between ingestion of some saturated fat
> products and heart disease (cf Enig's web site).   However, much better studies
> show the highest correlation between heart disease and hyperinsulinemia, which,
> of course, is primarily due to excessive carb intake, due to the modern diet of
> grains.

Excessive carb intake is certainly one factor in
hyperinsulinemia, but saturated fat is another, because saturated
fats contribute to insulin resistance.  If insulin resistance is
high enough, even a moderate carb diet will lead to
hyperinsulinemia.  Since the Zone *is* a moderate carb diet, this
is a concern.  On a ketogenic diet, it is less of a concern,
because one is not eating enough carbs to get much of an insulin
response in the first place.  Thus, on a ketogenic diet one can
be insulin resistant without it being problematic (as long as
one's protein intake isn't too high).  Of course, one could also
say that insulin resistance makes one rather *dependent* on a
ketogenic diet, precisely to avoid hyperinsulinism.

Todd Moody
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