[…] 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 […]

[…] of ancestral relationship. It seemed obvious to me that a partial genetic explanation was likely (A Fat Problem With Heart Health Wisdom). This pattern could not be fitted to exercise habits (Exercise, weight loss, and keeping you alive […]

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If the US gov’t stopped subsidizing massive amounts of cheap, refined carbs, people would have a much easier time avoiding them. It is difficult when cheap, easy food is almost exclusively not good for you.

[…] recent series on diet and cardiovascular health has produced some interesting findings. Within these findings, I have […]

[…] we saw with my previous post on heart health wisdom, the connection between commonly used markers of health and actual risk of […]

[…] we saw with my previous post on heart health wisdom, the connection between commonly used markers of health and actual risk of […]

We all know that medical science has been very wrong about many subjects in the past. There is every reason to believe that modern medical science is also wrong.

Some examples.

Booze is good for you. Your doctor won’t tell you but the research is old and solid. The studies have been done many times with thousands of subjects over long periods. There simply isn’t any room for doubt. Moderate drinkers have less heart problems than heavy drinkers or teetotalers. You doctor is afraid that you will slide from social drinking (good for you) into heavy drinking (very bad for you).

Almost all diet advice is rubbish. The conventional wisdom is that you should exercise, eat lots of vegetables, cut down on the fat and eat complex carbohydrates. If you get overweight then you should diet – i.e. eat less of everything. We have been following this plan for a couple decades now and the result is that we have an obesity epidemic and those who can starve themselves down a couple pounds soon gain it back. Obviously there is something wrong with the advice. But know one will dare offer any other advice. Here’s mine. Eat only meat and green vegetables. No carbs at all. Don’t bother with exercise either. If you’re hungry eat as much as you wish, just no “comfort” food rich is carbs.

If you want to avoid heart disease – i.e. atherosclerosis (fat deposits in your arteries), eat a lot of fat in your diet. If you want to be thin, eat fat. Sounds counter-intuitive doesn’t it? Since the so called intuitive suggestions are known to be wrong, just maybe these counter-intuitive ideas might be right.

“Sure, but we’d have to wonder how the French are so genetically different from the Brits despite all the intermarrying.”

“After Norman conquest, Brits and French were one kingdom, lots of intermarrying”

Naughton’s twitters are inane. The Norman conquerors weren’t that numerous and weren’t particularly French to start with and there has never been anywhere remotely close to enough inter-marriage between the bulk of the two populations to create a homogenous whole. There isn’t even enough inter-marriage between the *regions* of countries to make the whole population completely homogenous unless they’re small enough (and flat enough) like Denmark.

Very good stuff. Geography connects to past diet. It would be odd if people hadn’t become adapted to their local diet and if it was studied properly i think lactose tolerance would turn out to be one of hundreds.

(This is the kind of thing my gut says will eventually revolutionize medicine – that the efficacy and side-effects of meds and foods will not only have racial differences but national and even regional ones also, based on adaptations to historic diet.)

“No one has been able to explain that.”

They closed the gap by dumbing everything down. If you have a high-jump where the bar is set at one foot high then almost everyone will pass and there will be no gap.

It’s not complicated.

In the UK’s case the original motivation was more about class than race but it’s the same blank slate nonsense where the true believers are desperate to prove IQ differences – if they believed in IQ which they don’t – are solely environmental.

Anyone who knows anything about what happened to the British education system in the big urban centres – which is where all the black kids are – over the last 30 years knows this.

If you knew what those schools were like you’d know how *utterly* nonsensical this claim is.

It’s not even specifically related to race. Part of the same idealogical package as the blank slate was a belief that discipline was a bad thing. What happens in rough neighborhoods when you don’t have discipline in the schools? Answer, they turn into warzones where nobody learns anything. In the areas where most of the black kids are there’s a 30-40% functional illiteracy rate. What you’re saying is not just wrong – if you know the areas and schools involved it is *utterly* nonsensical.

One can still see the rust of the Iron Curtain in your map of European cardiovascular death rates, especially in Germany. Looking purely geographically, Greece does not seem to be much of an outlier.

At least for the cholesterol aspect, there may be significant differences depending on the kind of cholesterol. If they are looking at total cholesterol, they lose sight of the fact that HDL is protective whereas LDL is (usually) risky for heart disease. And even within LDL the size and density of particles lead to different influences on heart disease.
In short – two people with the same cholesterol level can have radically different heart disease outcomes if one gets his fats from olive oil / salmon and the other from margarine / beef.

“I define “good cardiovascular health” as “not dying from cardiovascular disease.” – See, that’s why you’re never going to make it in research. Or be an economist, of whom it is said “When he sees something working in practice he gets exceited and goes home to figure out if it also works in theory.”

“Heredity clearly isn’t the sole explanation, but it’s obviously a significant part of it. If only research into human differences didn’t become taboo, we may have had these answers long ago.”

Excellent post (again) Jayman! The way forward is to resolve the race-IQ controversy. Really. And I think it’s indeed resolvable. See here:
http://occidentalascent.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/narrowing-the-genetic-environmental-uncertainty-if-you-wish/ To that end, I was thinking of doing a fuller investigation of the scores of Black African and West Indian immigrants –looking at PISA 2000, 2003, 2006, & 2009 scores by race by generation. Maybe it will turn out that Black 2nd gen immigrants are closing the gap. Did you ever read my post on the UK gaps?
http://occidentalascent.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/is-global-race-realism-still-tenable/
No one has been able to explain that. Makes you wonder. Unfortunately, I’m not super familiar with the UK testing system. So I can’t yet declare victory for racial environmentalism. That’s why I wanted to take a better look at the US. Wondering if you’d be interested in helping. You seem to be more familiar with the immigrant “people of color” community — you might have some ideas. Anyways, if you’re interested, shoot me an email. Later.

[…] A Fat Problem With Heart Health Wisdom – awesome post from jayman. look at the chart. just look at it! […]

Like I said in fathead post : “Nice article JayMan but I still think LOW INCOME (%) is a better risk factor to predicted cardiovascular death. In Quebec medication Insurance are Mandatory since 1997 and that not the case in any other province. We pay less for medication more in taxes.

If you got access to medication you are less likely to die from chronic disease. I think it is a simple as that.”

It’s also a fact that the Eastern Europeans drink more and eat less fish than people with less heart disease, (like Australians for instance who seem to have better health than they should given their obesity).

Thanks, this was a fascinating post. Definitely thought provoking. Will be visiting this blog more frequently.