[…] earlier posting 100 Blog Posts – Reflection on HBD Blogging and What Lies Ahead reviews the topics I’ve talked about in the beginning, including fertility trends, and health […]

[…] IQ and Death Trans Fat Hysteria and the Mystery of Heart Disease […]

“Impulsivity may also be part of the racial divide, Black people being more so than Whites. But that’s anathema for researchers.

Even closely related ethnic groups differ in behavior. For instance, the Danes are much more pleasure-seeking than the Swedes, no one (except possibly a social “scientist”) would contest that.”

Typical white American psuedoscientist response. How embarrassing.

[…] Health and body weight follow similar patterns (high heritability, zero shared environment). See my page Obesity Facts for more, or my post IQ and Death. […]

The idea about fat as the most dangerous compound as we ingested is absolutely ludicrous. The secret of fat na the composition of BMI is not strongly correlated. Weights are often a composition of how the person ingested his/her calories each day, and the form in which it is taken in. Activities and exercises also should be understood for more information, as these will level down the importance of fat. Fat should also be considered very important as it is the basic composition of phospholipids and our membrane for the transportation of our food and oxygens. Hormones are also lipids and while concentration ind reduction of fat is emphasised to reduce weight, calories is not the only explanation fo how people gain weight, but more of what ratio of food they are eating.

First of all, I really enjoyed reading your blog post; great analysis! There are several interesting aspects, however one that I found quite fascinating was the fact that the western hemisphere seemed to have a higher BMI as compared to the eastern hemisphere. Why is this? While reading through the blog, I kept that in mind, and thought that there might be factors in the lifestyles of people in the different hemispheres that posed significant effects on the BMI of people. One very possible factor is what people consume: food and water. The differences in food types between the western and eastern hemispheres are clear. According to Huffingtonpost, a study was done to investigate the differences in taste between Western and Asian cuisine. It was found that the harmoniousness of North American cuisine’s flavors really stems from its reliance on a few heavy-tasting products commonly associated with baked goods, especially milk, butter, cocoa, vanilla, cream, cream cheese, egg, peanut butter and strawberries. Many of these foods contain high amounts of fat, which suggest a reason to why the western hemisphere consists of a higher averaged BMI. What other significant factors could be a cause of this clear difference between the hemispheres?

I agree with what is being said about how the BMI varies according to different ethnic groups and genetics. An allele within the DNA within each person can greatly affect their metabolism rate and their body ability to maintain weight. The BMI can also varies between gender because men has less fat than women, which is been proven in this study (https://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=35431). As gender is determined by genetics, this show how BMI can be affected by genes as the author of this blog has said.

It’s interesting to now know that obesity can be associated with genetics of ethnic groups. The data shown clearly shows that within each ethnic group, there are no big differences in the average BMI between countries, and countries within that ethic group have similar BMI. With increasing development all around the world, I agree there is increase in food availability and decreased in physical activity. By looking at diet, I would have guessed that the BMI for Asians are much less than Westerners. In Asian countries, there aren’t many fat-shaming campaigns because average people aren’t fat, but advertisements around the cities influence the ideology of people that they should be skinny. It causes an anorexia problem, which is as concerning as obesity. Although most people think obese people have several health problems, it’s surprising to know that obese people are at less than double the risk for cardiovascular mortality.

I agree that the BMI is flawed and is not the best measure for weight or height. It is not accurate in determining obesity. As stated by http://healthland.time.com/2013/08/26/why-bmi-isnt-the-best-measure-for-weight-or-health/ , the BMI cannot distinguish between fat and muscle. So a person with a high BMI may be a very toned person and not at all overweight. Also, according to the journal Science, data from University of Pennsylvania shows that BMI does not take into account the different types of fats, their different metabolic effects on one’s health, and where the fats are located. The belly fat, visceral fat, is more harmful to health than fat that is under the skin. Visceral fat can disrupt the body’s ability to balance its energy needs and increases the risk of health complications because this type of fat wraps around inner organs such as the liver and releases hormones. Thin people can have visceral fat, so a person with BMI in the healthy range may not be as healthy as the BMI says so.

There are fat-shaming campaigns released to specifically humiliate fat people, and exclude them from the excepted society. Other than that, there are also campaigns created to raise those people as well. Yet, the purpose of these types of campaign would want to help fat people to be able love themselves for who they are. However, people can take it the wrong way, and see how they do not need to change their lifestyle. Thus, I think we should not go extreme on the campaign, like humiliating them or praising them, but we should warn them about the health issue instead. I know that warning might not help as much, like the no-smoking campaign, but it is better to do something than nothing. Also, going the harsh way might destroy the person’s feelings, and rather than suffering in obesity, they might try to starve themselves ,and suffer in anorexia instead. You mentioned that the BMI is not the most accurate method of measuring fat. However, I view that it is the easiest way to be able to give an idea to people on what countries should be concerned. With that, we could start from the country that has the highest averaged BMI, and work our way down.

Westerners are more likely to be obese, taking into consideration that fast-food suits their busy lifestyle well. Some kind of promotion about fast-food might be a good idea to get peoplt thinking about what they have been pounding in their body.

Thank you

I asked this question on Razib Khan’s post about the fallibility of science but got no answer. Do you think the secondhand smoke studies are good science ? It seems some choices we make especially around health and diet have moral judgements attached to them . People who don’t smoke feel quite free to criticize those of us who do . It seems we’re one of the groups outside the pale of PC protection . Smokers can be ridiculed , discriminated against and attacked with public policy discriminating against them . The term “politics dressed up as science” comes to mind. I’ve found a number of places online that claim the numbers in second hand smoke studies are fudged and I suppose it seems plausible considering the relentless campaign against smoking. So I’m curious , what do you say ?

“that guy had two more Nobel prizes than I had”: true, but one was the pishy, politicised Peace Prize. If, like any rational man, you count that as minus one, and add it to his well-earned prize in Chemistry, you can see that effectively he had the same number of Nobel Prizes as you.

: “It could go obesity -> consumption, or perhaps both are caused by some other factor(s) upstream.” Well that was Taubes’s point, no? That we are not getting fat because we’re eating more, but rather, we are eating more because we are getting fat. That the metabolic shift in adipose tissue handling comes first as a result of the food.

On some of the discussion above: before deciding that people don’t care how they look which makes them more unconcerned about fat, observation of women suggests it’s more complex. Women who feel like their figure it ok tend to be far more focused on appearance. The moment that “how you look” appears to leave your sense of control over it, I think it causes a release across the board to some degree. Kind of like being a bit poor in school years, and one would rather look like a rebel who doesn’t care than look like they ‘tried’ to dress acceptably but couldn’t quite succeed. (And there are sub-culture issues with appearance as well. The upper east coast cities, it’s more rare women leave the house without feeling ‘prepared’ while on the lower west coast especially smaller cities, sandals and wet hair from the shower is fine.)

I’ve spent many years reading research and discussion related to nutrition and obesity. The females in my family have — let’s see if I can phrase it properly — a genetically associated adipose disorder — called Lipedema (several spellings of this). While allegedly 11% of the female population it’s virtually unheard of at least to doctors, including those recommending the whole ‘eat less, move more, chop out your guts if that fails’ doctors in the west to women for whom none of those will actually touch the problem. Basically it seems to cover a few things including an ‘inflammation cascade’ that can cause ridiculous adipose gain and a surreal inability to ever get rid of the accruing adipose tissue in certain areas of the body (mostly hips to ankles, upper arms for some). It does not affect the hands, feet, head and neck, or trunk for most, which means the distribution is rather weird (tiny head on huge body, a waist and normal neck for a size that would normally have 6 chins).

When I say inability to get rid of it, I mean nothing works – not even starvation level anorexic dieting that could kill you from gradual organ failure, not even exercise even to the extreme, not even gastric bypass (which really just amounts to the former at least initially). And of course, gradual adipose accumulation isn’t like luggage like used to be believed, it has significant effects body-wide including on storing more. Here’s the thing though. This is defined by the ‘symptom’ usually of ‘utterly resistant’ adipose tissue in the hips and thighs. It’s not defined by simply having utterly resistant adipose tissue. So men could have this too but have it in the torso where they naturally put on weight (just as women do in the hormonal areas most affected by lipedema) and nobody would ever know.

Now, the diagnosis is based on visual evidence so let’s say a degree of overweight or obesity to begin with. But if you take that 10-11% and map it to the actual overweight+ population (15-52 age or so) you get a number more like 40-odd percent of those are likely lipedemic. But if you backed out that number from the stats for women, it would look like far more men were overweight+ than women which I refuse to believe for now. So this suggests that it’s something under the radar affecting men as well. This was discovered in 1940 or so but has managed to stay carefully under the radar, outside medical training, outside any funding or research, for for ~75 years. I’m starting to become a conspiracy theorist about it I think.

The numbers are huge enough to matter, even to population level stats. I just thought I would add that anomaly to your list of inexplicables.

Speaking of the 40-odd percent number, this article on lead toxicity (there is *no* safe level, and look at the sources of stats they are conservative and legit) is enough to make you wonder if maybe we are not actually missing one of the key elements in this soup all along. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/lead-poisoning-why-lead-p_b_609383.html

Of COURSE the patterns cluster by ethnic groups. The country boundaries used as enumeration units are products of (artificial) ethno-political divisions.

Geography 101…

[…] post a series of tweets I made on the subject. Much of the matter is discussed in my post IQ and Death (see also my post “Squid […]

[…] correlation between IQ and longevity is said to be about 0.2, which means high IQ people have a small tendency to live longer (actually, since IQ tests are imperfect measures of intelligence, typically having a […]

[…] #2 : See Jayman’s blogpost on global obesity rates which shows BMI averages for many individual countries and […]

At the start of the article you present 2 graphs with butter consumption in them. One shows a large, almost monotonic increase over the reported time scale. The second shows a shallow decline over the same period. The absolute numbers of each graph for butter are also wildly different. Why is this?

If the increase in obesity were due to the increase in calorie intake then we should expect a considerable lag between the eating and the increase. Looking at the first graph no lag is apparent. If anything the lag is the other way around. The increase in obesity started before the increase in calorie intake.

Try for this map, Chernobyl radiation levels in europe:

[…] 100 Blog Posts – A Reflection on HBD Blogging And What Lies Ahead – A review post, where I talk about the major themes and findings after 100 posts HBD […]

[…] quite a few other HBD’ers, I try not to focus so much on IQ. Although it is of preeminent importance, it is not the be-all end-all of when it comes to human traits, particularly traits that differ […]

I briefly read some of your posts about cardiovascular disease and death, and you noted the IQ is the strongest predictor of health and more importantly conventional wisdom dietary and lifestyle interventions do not alter mortality rates. If so, this should predict that conscientiousness has no link between mortality rates (as conscientious individuals are more likely to implement the recommended “common sense” interventions). Of course, this supposes that IQ and conscientiousness are not linked. I remember one study showing a negative correlation between IQ and conscientiousness, but it was probably in an academic setting. Perhaps, outside of an academic environment, the correlation may be positive between them,

http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2004-20177-003

Asides from avoiding tobacco consumption, since you do not think behavioral interventions affect health, how can conscientiousness mediate health outcomes?

But I am lazy. I have not done much research to even challenge your conclusions, and I took the conventional wisdom for granted: while I do believe genetics significantly affected health outcomes, I thought moderate lifestyle interventions could exert a significant modest effect.

[…] discussed in my posts on the matter (Trans Fat Hysteria and the Mystery of Heart Disease and Even George W. Bush Has Heart Disease). Of course, we are likely to run into trouble with antibiotics soon anyway (see Imagining the […]

[…] but what do we have to show for it? Not much, as previously discussed in my posts on the matter (Trans Fat Hysteria and the Mystery of Heart Disease and Even George W. Bush Has Heart Disease). Of course, we are likely to run into trouble with […]

[…] category of my posts on health, particularly my posts Even George W. Bush Has Heart Disease and Trans Fat Hysteria and the Mystery of Heart Disease), the “lifestyle” causation model of most of these diseases is in pretty poor shape. […]

[…] seen in my posts on the topic (the whole category of my posts on health, particularly my posts Even George W. Bush Has Heart Disease and Trans Fat Hysteria and the Mystery of Heart Disease), the “lifestyle” causation […]

I’m sure you appreciate what a small fluctuation that is, given that some people weigh 600 lbs.

[…] as we saw in my earlier post A Fat World – With a Fat Secret?, obesity clusters by ethnicity. Americans are not anomalously fat by global standards, at least not […]

[…] at birth across Europe, in 2004 (males top, females bottom, from here). As we’ve seen before, there is a distinct southwest to northeast gradient in life expectancy, following the rate of […]

[…] maps of life expectancy at birth across Europe, in 2004 (males top, females bottom, from here). As we’ve seen before, there is a distinct southwest to northeast gradient in life expectancy, following the rate […]

[…] you know I’ve had a few things to say about that (for which those who are familiar with this might know where I’m going with […]

Will flouride lower your baby’s IQ?

http://themindunleashed.org/2014/02/harvard-study-confirms-fluoride-reduces-childrens-iq.html

[…] 100 Blog Posts – A Reflection on HBD Blogging And What Lies Ahead […]

“It turns out that parenting doesn’t matter as much as we think. Indeed, short of extreme abuse or neglect, parents don’t affect how their children turn much at all. This includes not only children’s intelligence or their broad personality traits, but their life outcomes (including the things that “really” matter), like how much they earn, or whether or not they get in trouble with the law. This even includes how fat or thin they become, as was the subject of my second post (Should Parents Lose Custody of Obese Kids?). It also doesn’t matter if they grow up with a father present or with a single mother. It doesn’t matter if their parents are gay or straight. All those things are symptoms, of the true causes, not causes in themselves (the true cause being heredity).”

- OK. Since you’ve got a kid now yourself, Jayman, why not test this all out? Don’t abuse or neglect him, but don’t do much in the way of guidance or education either. No taking him to museums or science centers. You don’t even have to enroll him in school. Too much input after all. Just teach him very basic reading, writing and arithmetic, up to a minimal functional level. When he’s a teen do not, I repeat do not, attempt to teach him any ethics around sexuality. We’ll all check back on the experiment right here on this blog in the year 2034.

You game?

Jayman,

You may want to check out this study: “Reaction Time and Mortality from the Major Causes of Death: The NHANES-III Study”

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0082959

“Adjusted for age, sex, and ethnic minority status, a 1 SD slower reaction time was associated with a raised risk of mortality from all-causes (HR = 1.25, 95% CI 1.12, 1.39) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (HR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.17, 1.58). Having 1 SD more variable reaction time was also associated with greater risk of all-cause (HR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.19, 1.55) and CVD (HR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.33, 1.70) mortality. No associations were observed for cancer mortality. The magnitude of the relationships was comparable in size to established risk factors in this dataset, such as smoking.”

[…] Obesity Map, 2000-2011″ http://jaymans.wordpress.com/2013/… cc […]

[…] especially racial differences in such – but with other topics (see my previous milestone post, 100 Blog Posts – A Reflection on HBD Blogging And What Lies Ahead and my American nations series). In any case, I discuss the facts as they […]

So much debate has been going on about Trans fat and its effect on people’s health. I would say that there are other more risk behaviors that might contribute more to the upsurge of heart condition as well such as smoking. intergratedmedicine.com

This 2009 paper http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v63/n2s/abs/1602973a.html
claims: “Five retrospective case–control studies and four prospective cohort studies demonstrated positive associations between TFA consumption and CHD events.”
and concludes: “Controlled trials and observational studies provide concordant evidence that consumption of TFA from partially hydrogenated oils adversely affects multiple cardiovascular risk factors and contributes significantly to increased risk of CHD events.”

[…] IQ and Death […]

[…] Even George W. Bush Has Heart Disease […]

[…] Previously: Trans Fat Hysteria and the Mystery of Heart Disease […]

[…] modern hallmarks of the psychological differences between liberals and conservatives, as testified by my examinations of their fertility gap (see also Who’s Having […]

[…] Trans Fat Hysteria and the Mystery of Heart Disease | JayMan’s Blog […]

I find it hard to get excited about trans fats. Some people are claiming that they are bad for you. I distinctly remember when my mother gave me butter because it was better for me than margarine. Then my wife made us eat margarine because it was better for us. Now I’m back to eating butter – since the divorce. My relationship with the women in my life seems to correlate with my fat consumption.

I read Linus Pauling’s little book on Vitamin C and was blown away. What an argument! No wonder that guy had two more Nobel prizes than I had. He was brilliant but not as it happened correct. But then I placed my faith in Vitamin E. It cured both cancer and heart disease – everyone said so. That is until someone actually ran a real study and not just observe correlations,

Now of course we have regressed in the alphabet. My doctor and all the wise men of earth now recommend Vitamin D. OK , I take Vitamin D and I have to admit I like it better than Vitamin E – the pills are smaller.

I try to eat lamb chops and asparagus only. That way I can ignore trans fats discussions.

True a lot of factors to consider. Eastern Europeans drink and smoke and have lower IQs than the rest of Europe. It’s hard to separate the variables. And the world is changing; Mexico is now the most obese country. Poor people around the world can now access junk food and cigarettes. This trend should increase the importance of IQ and traits like impulsivity and conscientiousness.

@ Staffan:

“If you look at deaths per 100K inhabitants according to Eurostat we have, Norway 66, Sweden 84 and Finland 120. Those are big difference on genetically and culturally similar populations but they follow the degree of oceanic climate.”

Also follows ‘Pure alcohol consumption among adults (age 15+) in litres per capita per year’:-
Total:
Norway 7.81; Sweden 10.30; Finland 12.52;
(World Health Organisation recent data).

But as Jayman would point out it’s all correlational. Clearly there are many factors at play.

I think that the people who consume cheap low quality foods which contain ‘trans fats’ would probably be more likely to be from lower socio-economic classes [at least in UK where I live]; those types of people are also far more likely to be smokers too. So Jayman makes a key point about the worthlessness of observational/correlational studies [one that I've only recently started to take note of].

Climate sure looks like a strong candidate. Especially interesting is the fact that northern countries (in Europe) that have an oceanic climate have relatively few deaths from heart disease. If you look at deaths per 100K inhabitants according to Eurostat we have, Norway 66, Sweden 84 and Finland 120. Those are big difference on genetically and culturally similar populations but they follow the degree of oceanic climate. Maybe it has something to do with really low temperatures?

On the question of animal fat my attitude — which annoys my wife — is that anything that tastes that good can’t be bad for you.

[…] course, it’s worth noting that I’ve previously shown that CVD mortality rates can be linked to climate, at least in […]

[…] if you’ve been following along with this series, you’d know I’m going to say not so […]

[…] to healthcare technology, research activity, or system capacity on a per capita basis. Indeed, as with so many other things, the U.S. is very close to its progenitor nation, Great Britain (and secondarily, […]

[…] See also: 100 Blog Posts – A Reflection on HBD Blogging And What Lies Ahead: Health wisdom and obesity […]

Just pray to God, trust God, have faith.

Jayman, several weeks ago I made a comment on a survey you posted on your blog that purportedly divined the political leanings of the test participants. The following link is an example of the bias in so many surveys.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130811005342.htm

[…] aside from the previously featured demographic contraction (see Who’s Having the Babies? and 100 Blog Posts – A Reflection on HBD Blogging And What Lies Ahead: Fertility), but the impact on the psyche of citizens, as discussed in The Atlantic article Suicide and the […]

What a fascinating conversation. I am studying arts in medicine. We look at happiness, relaxation response, and how doing art positively influences the immune system. I wonder if one could study heart disease and those who sing? heart disease in those who consider themselves happy? Perhaps these studies are being or have been done. I’ll look. Otherwise, I agree that there is much more to learn about most things.

The risks for heart disease increase with age and they are greater if a family member developed heart disease at an early age. Fortunately, there are lifestyle changes that one can make to reduce the risks of developing heart disease. You can easily reduce the risk of heart diseases naturally.
The idea being live a healthier, more physiologically-sound lifestyle and drop your risk of not only heart disease but other chronic diseases. So eat to live healthy and always fit.

[…] [H2] JayMan points out everything we pretend to don’t know about exercise, weight, and health. […]

[…] JayMan points out everything we pretend to don’t know about exercise, weight, and health. […]

http://www.eupedia.com/europe/maps_Y-DNA_haplogroups.shtml

It’s genetic. Slavs and nords have higher blood pressure than people who have r1b y-dna, on average. That corresponds perfectly to your map. r1b people have lower blood pressure than EVERYONE on average. Especially basques and irish.

Also, unfortunately, red meat does seem to cause problems, but it’s the actual carnitine in the meat being digested by your gut. So if you eat red meat every day it can be an issue, but if you take occasional breaks it will help because the gut bacteria that digests the stuff in a way that causes an unpleasant side effect will die out.

“Fat people are not to blame for eating like pigs”

How can somebody with any shred of intelligence state such bullshit?

How come people in europe utterly shit on Americans when it comes to being thin? How come people in the 70s were far slimmer?

[…] 100 Blog Posts – A Reflection on HBD Blogging And What Lies Ahead […]

@OM

Incidentally, before becoming pretty much paleo (I say pretty much because I still occasionally eat good cheese) I was a raw vegan for over a year and was absolutely the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. My allergies and asthma went through the roof, the doctors had to put me on inhaled steroids, it was a living hell.

The funny thing about the Vegans vs the Paleos arguments is how each sees a world where their own diet is the gold standard and all others only get results by virtue of their proximity to perfection. Paleos think Vegans ought to add grass fed meat and natural saturated fat and the Vegans would be on the right road while the Vegans believe the exact opposite about the Paleos. It would be hilarious if it were not so pathetic. Jayman, I ask you: where did western civilization get all these overbearing full of themselves assholes and is there a return policy? (Yes, I know this is the puritan impulse, and I know Europe would give us the finger, but one can dream!)

~S

If it is correct that testosterone has protective effect effects on the heart, then the advice given to eat a low fat diet may be wrong, given that testosterone is made from cholesterol.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23549841

J Endocrinol. 2013 May 7;217(3):R47-71. doi: 10.1530/JOE-12-0582. Print 2013 Jun.
Testosterone: a vascular hormone in health and disease.

Kelly DM, Jones TH.

Source
Department of Human Metabolism, Medical School, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2RX, UK.

Abstract
“Coronary heart disease is a leading cause of premature death in men. Epidemiological studies have shown a high prevalence of low serum testosterone levels in men with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Furthermore, a low testosterone level is associated in some but not in all observational studies with an increase in cardiovascular events and mortality. Testosterone has beneficial effects on several cardiovascular risk factors, which include cholesterol, endothelial dysfunction and inflammation: key mediators of atherosclerosis. A bidirectional relationship between low endogenous testosterone levels and concurrent illness complicates attempts to validate causality in this association and potential mechanistic actions are complex. Testosterone is a vasoactive hormone that predominantly has vasodilatory actions on several vascular beds, although some studies have reported conflicting effects. In clinical studies, acute and chronic testosterone administration increases coronary artery diameter and flow, improves cardiac ischaemia and symptoms in men with chronic stable angina and reduces peripheral vascular resistance in chronic heart failure. Although the mechanism of the action of testosterone on vascular tone in vivo is not understood, laboratory research has found that testosterone is an L-calcium channel blocker and induces potassium channel activation in vascular smooth muscle cells. Animal studies have consistently demonstrated that testosterone is atheroprotective, whereas testosterone deficiency promotes the early stages of atherogenesis. The translational effects of testosterone between in vitro animal and human studies, some of which have conflicting effects, will be discussed in this review. We review the evidence for a role of testosterone in vascular health, its therapeutic potential and safety in hypogonadal men with CVD, and some of the possible underlying mechanisms.”

KEYWORDS:
Atherosclerosis, Inflammation, Testosterone, Vasoreactivity

Makes sense as Egyptians were huge wheat eaters, and the other cultures consumed it too.

If you research the history of wheat and how it has “evolved” since its first cultivation, its quite interesting.

Sissyphean, I just eat the least processed foods that I can. I grow some of my own food and supplement that with store bought organic fruits, veggies, seeds and nuts and have never felt healthier. Fermenting, soaking and sprouting are key.

Fermented coconut water, coconut vinegar, homemade saurkraut and homemade rejuvelac – all good for the gut.

The so called “paleos” have basically hacked the raw vegan movement and added cooked foods and animal products. Yet its hilarious how they think they re “cutting edge” and “something new” (have you seen that movie Jayman?). And the never give credit to the raw foodists who came before them (probaby because they are vegan). But also because they are such newbs that they don’t even know about the decades old raw began movement.

From what I gather paleos are your typical mainstream Americans, into having mainstream American jobs and consuming mainstream American culture, but think they are somehow unique for eating grass fed beef.

Come on!

Somebody needs to kick their butts and it just may be me who will do that.

This is not very likely but is there any evidence that the populations in the orange and red zones had *less* heart disease before the industrial revolution?

“He’s best known for his book bashing wheat for causing heart disease”

If population genetics is a significant factor then it seems to me the causes may vary with population genetics also i.e. there might be cause 1 for heart disease across all populations plus cause 2 for some populations and cause 3 for other populations. This might make it difficult to pin down the causes if the different populations were studied on the assumption they were the same.

“Yeah, the problem I have with nutrition is that everyone has their own theory…What you end up with is people grouping together into foodie camps more by ideology than by evidence.”

I think there’s a lot of truth in that but i think there is also another possibility which is that a lot of different theories may all be partially true i.e. they’re true for people descended from one particular population but not true generally hence masses of contradictory evidence.

“It’s now verging on the border of gross incompetence to exclude genetic makeup from these studies.”

Yes, and more that not taking it into account is possibly a major cause of death in itself.

[…] This fantastic blog entry by JayMan is a great example. Genetics control probably 90% of what we are. Yes, smart people can get really smart through training. Fast guys can get faster with training. Ussein Bolt spends a lot of time working on various aspects of his sprinting. He maintains a special diet and works his muscles in specific ways. None of it makes him a world class sprinter. He was born with it. His training and diet allow him to move from 1% to .0001% in the 100 meters. For the rest of us, diet and exercise is not going to significantly alter your health. Yet, “medical science” insists having an egg for breakfast or a cheeseburger for lunch is going to kill you. They insist we go in for regular physicals, despite no evidence that prevention does a damned thing. Supplements are a billion dollar industry, even though 90% are nothing more than pica. […]

Well put. Have to agree with you, although wouldn’t necessarily have agreed a few months back. Until I read that up to one third of ancient mummies from Egypt and the Americas show signs of probable or definite atherosclerosis, according to CT scans:-

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60598-X/abstract

Atherosclerosis across 4000 years of human history: the Horus study of four ancient populations

Interpretation

“Atherosclerosis was common in four preindustrial populations including preagricultural hunter-gatherers. Although commonly assumed to be a modern disease, the presence of atherosclerosis in premodern human beings raises the possibility of a more basic predisposition to the disease.”

In any case:-

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17212707

Human MHC region harbors both susceptibility and protective haplotypes for coronary artery disease.

“[.....]In conclusion, human MHC region harbors genes that protect from and predispose to CAD.”

Outstanding post.

Why the high CVD mortality in Afghanistan? High-velocity lead poisoning?

This may be yet another diversion, but take a look at an article which Mr. Mangan linked to recently:
“Correlation between oxysterol consumption and heart disease”

Yeah, the problem I have with nutrition is that everyone has their own theory with its own countless correlations drawn from gobs of pointless observational studies. What you end up with is people grouping together into foodie camps more by ideology than by evidence. You see militant hippy lefties on the veggie blogs, iconoclastic (and also often caustic) libertarians on the paleo blogs and regular folks making fun of the weirdos while populating the ‘lowfat run from death’ or ‘eat whatever, you’ll die either way’ camps.

I decided to take an experimental approach and try everything and see what worked best. Turns out that for me taking wheat out was an unmitigated good, even though I’m not celiac, I used to have asthma but when the wheat went away so did the asthma (and it comes back when I have some). I’m not going to generalize and suggest everyone must lose wheat, just my own experience. I eat a modified paleo-ish diet and can now maintain a trim, muscular physique in my late 30′s with minor weekly effort. I am currently working on fine tuning my muscles, which even though I have a solid build I never did as a younger man, and it’s going quite well actually. There is heart disease in my family but it’s nearly all late in life, 60′s plus with one outlier who died (ironically due to heart attack on a treadmill) in his late 40′s. I don’t lift so I can live until 80, I do it to look good, be strong, and so I can go and do anything I want. There’s no guarantee that any of us will live to see our 50′s or 60′s, that’s life, enjoy it while you can.

~S

[…] has an excellent blog post in which he discusses how there’s nothing you can do to prevent heart disease. He especially […]

Oh, also – I know of an academic publisher that might release it…