Thread by @DrBPHealth

In school, I was taught beef clogs arteries.

Specifically, saturated fat.

It raises bad cholesterol, which leads to the clogged arteries.

So, I dug into the subject to learn more & get to the truth.

THREAD

When I first dug deeper into the research, it seemed obvious.

The research indicated saturated fat does negatively affect cholesterol and increases atherosclerosis plaque (clogging of arteries).

But as I went deeper, that didn’t all add up.

There’s more to it.

And to fully understand why a large percentage of the research indicates this, it is based on a theory that was assumed as the “gospel truth”.

This diet-heart hypothesis led to countless research grants “proving” it… which also had financial incentives.

To fully understand the truth of beef’s effect on the human body & heart disease, we have to understand a little history first.

In the below bullet points, I am going to cover some brief highlights.

If you want a little more in depth read & history, you can read the article below.

But if you really want to educate yourself, I would highly suggest Nina Teicholz’s book, The Big Fat Surprise.

https://x.com/DrBPHealth/status/1846151619366334940

Here’s the quick highlights:

*1913- Russian scientist Anitschkow proposes high-cholesterol diet cause atherosclerosis, after rabbit experiment (flawed)

•1920’s-1950’s more & more middle-aged men (particularly) were dropping dead of heart attacks. This was a new phenomenon.

•1955- President Eisenhower has heart attack. In hospital 10 days.

•Prominent scientist, Dr. Ancel Keys, proposes diet-health hypothesis stating saturated fat & high cholesterol foods cause the clogging & subsequent heart attacks. This is from Anitschkow’s flawed experiment.

•Dr. Ancel Keys presents reaserch and evidence to “prove” this across a multiple country study…he happens to leave out lots of key data that states otherwise. But who needs that if it doesn’t fit in with the proposed theory!? (sense my sarcasm?)

•American Heart Association (AHA) started by concerned physicians. They needed funding to start educating public & make impact.

•Proctor & Gamble seed fund the AHA with a $1 million dollar donation.

•Proctor & Gamble just happens to have a vegetable oil based product low in cholesterol and no saturated fat that the AHA will promote. Hmmm.

•Dr. Ancel Keys becomes board member of AHA & heavily promotes staying away from saturated fats.

•Any scientist who disagrees, he publicly berates and bashes, even when evidence proves otherwise.

•Dr. Ancel Keys is a primary researcher on the Minnesota Coronary Experiment. The data gets hidden for decades and not published. Hmmm…

Maybe because when saturated fats were replaced with vegetable oils (seed oils), they had a lowering of cholesterol, BUT also had a 22% 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 in death rates from heart disease! It didn’t quite fit his dogmatic theory!

You can read the 2016 BMJ study that revealed it all here.
bmj.com/content/353/bm…

•1980- Food Pyramid is established to have a public campaign to educate nation on healthy diet.

Dr. Keyes theory, industry lobbying & corporate interests have massive influence on suggested food pyramid.

Even the Food Pyramid Committee adamantly disagreed with higher-ups in government.

They were overruled & the below food pyramid was released.

Do you notice where any foods that contain saturated fat are located?

Up at the top & in small amounts.

Beef would be included in this section.

However, beef and saturated fats are not the issue.

In fact, far from it.

Turns out, beef is very healthy for the human body.

If we step back from the decades of dogma telling us otherwise, we can look at ancient cultures and see something different.

In the Bible meat is almost always written about as a beneficial food.

The fattened calf was praised.

Outside of the Bible, the large majority of ancient cultures & tribes prized animal meat and fat.

But we don’t just need to look at ancient cultures.

We can look at our modern culture & science to tell us the same.

I’ll start with cholesterol "causing" heart disease.

For decades now we have had a battle against cholesterol.

If cholesterol truly was the cause, why haven’t we seen a dent in heart disease rates?

Heart disease (CVD) is the #1 killer in America. Second is cancer…which CVD has 2X the number of deaths as cancer, per year!

And this isn’t unique to America.

This is the same in practically every industrialized country.

But here’s the kicker:

We’ve had statins (cholesterol meds) since the early 1990’s

They're one of the most prescribed drugs in America

If they were so effective & great at combating deaths from CVD, why have we had negligible improvement in death rates over the last 4 decades?

I’ll tell you why:

Because we are “barking up the wrong tree”!

Cholesterol is the smoke.

We keep trying to put out the smoke.

How about we focus on putting out the fire instead?

Which is chronic systemic inflammation & insulin resistance.

And if Keyes theory wasn’t bad enough, we have known for decades that your blood cholesterol is not a reflection of your dietary cholesterol.

Only ~10-20% of cholesterol from food translates to your blood cholesterol. The truth is that 80-90% of your blood cholesterol levels are made by your intestines and your liver.

In truth, cholesterol is vitally important!

Cholesterol is:

•In every cell of your body

•Needed to make Vitamin D (a HUGE regulator of inflammation)

•Is a precursor to make your sex hormones (testosterone, estrogen, progesterone)

•Is a precursor to all steroid hormones

•Is needed to make bile acids (to digest fat)

•Plus, many more actions in the body!

When we arbitrarily lower cholesterol to “prevent” heart disease, we are actually creating more issues.

This is why statins often have noticeable side effects.

Some are more immediate like muscle aches & pains because statins block the production of CoQ10.

FYI:

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an antioxidant that helps generate energy in your cells and protects them from damage caused by free radicals.

It plays a crucial role in your metabolism.

Yes, your metabolism.

Your cells need CoQ10 & you don’t want to block the production of it.

Which means statins negatively affect your metabolism.

Some side effects of statins are more gradual like memory issues & cognitive decline.

Here’s a study that shows exactly that (see “conclusion”…it’s eye-opening!)
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22921881/

If you want to improve heart disease, saturated fat & cholesterol are not the boogie men creating the issue

You’ll need to address the root causes if you want to improve heart disease.

Primarily:
Chronic systemic inflammation & insulin resistance, which my courses address both.

And guess what beef does to both of these primary root causes?

Yep, beef improves them both!

Tomorrow in my free newsletter, I’m going to dive into beef more.

I will discuss:

•It’s metabolic effects
•The healthiest types of beef
•How & where to buy locally from a rancher (if you want)

Join us here, for free:
drbphealth.com/newsletter