[HN Gopher] Nutrient found in beef and dairy improves immune res...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Nutrient found in beef and dairy improves immune response to cancer
       in mice
        
       Author : elorant
       Score  : 267 points
       Date   : 2023-11-27 15:41 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu)
        
       | progne wrote:
       | Immune function analysis displayed significantly lower
       | phagocytosis of monocytes and granulocytes in an older vegetarian
       | population (vs. older nonvegetarians (P < 0.05, P < 0.001).
       | Similar effect of diet was observed as decreased phagocytic
       | activity of granulocytes in younger vegetarians. Regardless of
       | age, respiratory burst of phagocytic cells was also significantly
       | decreased in women vegetarians versus nonvegetarians (P < 0.05, P
       | < 0.001). Older vegetarians revealed significantly suppressed
       | proliferative response of T-lymphocytes to mitogens (P < 0.001).
       | In conclusion, our data indicate that a vegetarian diet might
       | have a possible impact on human immune response.
       | 
       | https://journals.lww.com/epidem/fulltext/2007/09001/The_Effe...
        
         | ryuhhnn wrote:
         | There might be an impact, but it's not clear what the impact
         | is. I'm no biologist, but I'd wager your volume of immune cells
         | changes quite a bit over your lifetime. I'd be more interested
         | in seeing the long-term health outcomes of vegetarians vs. non-
         | vegetarians.
        
         | candiddevmike wrote:
         | The opposite was also discovered (dairy increases cancer risk):
         | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34788365/
        
           | piyushpr134 wrote:
           | I find these studies to be deeply flawed. It is a
           | multivariate situation and we cannot control/observe more
           | than one variable mostly and still end up mistaking these
           | correlations to be causation.
           | 
           | It could well be that it is not diary or meat but the amount
           | of glucose/fructose one eats which really affects this. We
           | must go back to molecular level proofs rather than these kind
           | of statistical studies where you cannot control everything
           | (apart from mouse models which most people reject for being a
           | mouse model)
        
             | cf100clunk wrote:
             | From TFA:                 "There are many studies trying to
             | decipher the link between diet and human health, and it's
             | very difficult to understand the underlying mechanisms
             | because of the wide variety of foods people eat. But if we
             | focus on just the nutrients and metabolites derived from
             | food, we begin to see how they influence physiology and
             | pathology," said Jing Chen, PhD, the Janet Davison Rowley
             | Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine at UChicago and
             | one of the senior authors of the new study.
        
             | hombre_fatal wrote:
             | > It is a multivariate situation [...] It could well be
             | that it is not diary or meat but the amount of
             | glucose/fructose one eats which really affects this.
             | 
             | Your missing puzzle piece is the fact that we do
             | multivariate adjustment models to adjust for cofounders.
             | 
             | You might as well ask "How do we know whether it's the
             | cigarettes or the fact that people who don't smoke also
             | tend to exercise and eat vegetables? I guess we can never
             | know!"
        
               | scythe wrote:
               | It is an epistemic error to say "we did something about
               | X, therefore X is not a problem". There are always
               | characteristics of a population that aren't modeled. This
               | is why randomization is considered so important.
        
         | mtalantikite wrote:
         | This comment is from a completely different paper and is
         | looking at various blood count levels of 174 women. The
         | submitted paper seems more interesting and is investigating TVA
         | in particular as a potential supplement to complement other
         | cancer treatments.
        
       | _ink_ wrote:
       | "There is early data showing that other fatty acids from plants
       | signal through a similar receptor, so we believe there is a high
       | possibility that nutrients from plants can do the same thing by
       | activating the CREB pathway as well," he said.
        
         | herunan wrote:
         | So eating food improves immune response to cancer. Next.
        
           | szundi wrote:
           | Why the downvote? Correct observation
        
             | AnimalMuppet wrote:
             | Because this identified a specific nutrient, and a specific
             | pathway for its action. The "eating food improves immune
             | response" is an absurd characterization.
        
               | beebeepka wrote:
               | I think it was just a short version of "eating both kinds
               | of food"
        
             | Buttons840 wrote:
             | Because the "next" meme is the antithesis of what HN
             | strives to be.
             | 
             | For example, fasting might help fight cancer, so there's
             | obviously more nuance than just "eating fights cancer,
             | _next!_ ".
        
               | jader201 wrote:
               | I still think the point of the "next" comment is that we
               | didn't really learn anything -- except that there's more
               | to learn. To your point, way too much nuance here, and it
               | sounds like the title -- and maybe article -- is
               | clickbait.
        
             | em500 wrote:
             | The comment appears at odds with several items in HN
             | guidelines, like
             | 
             | - Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't
             | cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
             | 
             | - Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not
             | less, as a topic gets more divisive.
             | 
             | - Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the
             | community.
             | 
             | - Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other
             | people's work. A good critical comment teaches us
             | something.
        
         | pkd wrote:
         | Also important to point out given the headline:
         | 
         | "Focus on the nutrients, not the food
         | 
         | The study suggests that TVA could be used as a dietary
         | supplement to help various T cell-based cancer treatments,
         | although Chen points out that it is important to determine the
         | optimized amount of the nutrient itself, not the food source.
         | There is a growing body of evidence about the detrimental
         | health effects of consuming too much red meat and dairy, so
         | this study shouldn't be taken as an excuse to eat more
         | cheeseburgers and pizza; rather, it indicates that nutrient
         | supplements such as TVA could be used to promote T cell
         | activity. Chen thinks there may be other nutrients that can do
         | the same."
        
           | cnity wrote:
           | It's an interesting and weirdly loaded angle to suggest that
           | the only red meat foods are unhealthy (by picking unhealthy
           | foods as examples). Consider this alternative phrasing:
           | 
           | > this study shouldn't be taken as an excuse to eat more
           | venison, cabbage, and mash.
           | 
           | Is it really the best thing to be finding the correct soup of
           | isolated nutrients to take in a multi-pill, as opposed to
           | admitting that perhaps it can be healthy to include some red
           | meat sources in your diet? Cutting out red meat is clearly
           | not some panacea.
        
       | helsinkiandrew wrote:
       | Interestingly also in Sea Buckthorn:
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccenic_acid
        
         | tuukkah wrote:
         | > _Its stereoisomer, cis-vaccenic acid, is found in Sea
         | Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) oil._
         | 
         | An isomer (different configuration of atoms) can have totally
         | different biochemical effects though:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoisomerism
        
       | jwmoz wrote:
       | What's sad is I don't believe any of these research papers
       | anymore. Both ways can be found good or bad. It's impossible to
       | deal with.
        
         | willsmith72 wrote:
         | to me that's encouraging. science has never been black and
         | white.
         | 
         | the mixed results can be a sign that we don't understand
         | something properly. there's nuance and depth adding noise to
         | the results
         | 
         | it will only get better with more peer-reviewed studies and
         | analysis
        
           | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
           | Mixed results can also be evidence that everything is
           | fraudulent and nobody is even pretending to try and replicate
           | things. And as a layperson, even honest noise isn't useful.
        
           | szundi wrote:
           | 100 more years and we know more. Under we I mean someone
           | else.
        
           | wyager wrote:
           | There's a difference between "not black and white" and
           | "replication crisis". Nutrition studies suffer from a
           | replication crisis.
        
             | amanaplanacanal wrote:
             | Quite a bit of nutrition research is simply useless. They
             | ask a bunch of people what they ate and then try to
             | correlate that with health outcomes. You will never learn
             | anything that way, though it might give you areas for
             | further research.
             | 
             | The next step up is a randomized controlled trial, but
             | instead of choosing health outcomes they choose
             | measurements of lab tests as their endpoints. Someone's
             | cholesterol went up or down by some small number. What did
             | we learn? Nothing.
             | 
             | Unfortunately good research is outrageously expensive, so
             | it doesn't get done.
        
         | rubslopes wrote:
         | Relevant chart: https://fivethirtyeight.com/wp-
         | content/uploads/2016/01/foodp...
         | 
         | From: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/you-cant-trust-what-
         | you...
        
           | airstrike wrote:
           | Nah. "Beef" is too broad a category. There are lean cuts and
           | high fat cuts, there are many methods of preparation and
           | countless ways to season. Someone eating maple glazed brisket
           | with a side of extra crispy bacon and buttered scrambled eggs
           | is very different from someone else eating a grilled sirloin
           | seasoned with salt and black pepper.
           | 
           | This crusade against red meat is honestly tiring.
           | 
           | I subscribe to "eat a little bit of everything in moderation.
           | Mostly what's available in nature and what someone in a farm
           | or at home could produce. Be mindful of the total number of
           | calories. Try not to burn or overcook food in general.
           | Exercise a little bit most days. Don't neglect sleep."
           | 
           | (Which to me reads like a lot of common sense advice that my
           | grandparents already knew and followed with no struggle)
        
             | soco wrote:
             | I believe the crusade against red meat comes mostly from
             | the environmental footprint which is pretty much the same
             | for sirloin and brisket, and significant even for
             | industrial grown cattle.
        
               | kjkjadksj wrote:
               | If that were truly the case the crusaders would be trying
               | to stymie the meat industry on environmental legislative
               | grounds. Instead all we get is some abstracted sense of
               | blame at the consumer level, no real action, no real
               | teeth, no real change to industry or society.
        
               | hombre_fatal wrote:
               | How do you suggest people change a massive, incumbent,
               | dominant animal ag industry married to the government
               | (e.g. billions of subsidies per year, ag-gag laws)
               | without changing personal attitudes about animal ag and
               | consumer level behavior? And why can't they do both at
               | once?
               | 
               | Animal-free products from nut milks to meat alternatives
               | are a growing industry, so clearly something is working
               | without having to somehow do the impossible task of
               | changing the government and doing it independent of
               | popular opinion.
        
               | jononomo wrote:
               | Beef is subsidized in the US? That is definitely news to
               | me.
        
           | wyager wrote:
           | The output of nutrition science (using the word "science"
           | loosely - the epistemic standard is not very high) must be
           | examined with the understanding that the field is
           | _extraordinarily_ biased by religious and political
           | considerations, e.g. https://www.researchgate.net/publication
           | /327179700_The_Globa...
           | 
           | In particular, there are a number of political and religious
           | factions opposed especially to red meat.
        
           | ncann wrote:
           | Someone made a site for "cure or cause cancer" before, too
           | bad it's not available anymore
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1495213
        
           | brigadier132 wrote:
           | This just looks like a chart of calorie density. How much of
           | this can be explained by increased bmi as a result of over
           | consumption of these foods?
        
         | traviswingo wrote:
         | That's simply because confirmation bias heavily influences
         | perspective. If I want something to be true, I wouldn't be hard
         | pressed to find research or conduct my own that could make a
         | solid argument for it.
        
         | 1270018080 wrote:
         | My least favorite genre is the 100 papers saying X is bad to
         | eat and 100 saying X is good to eat. Just have common sense and
         | eat everything in moderation. Food absolutists are
         | weird/annoying. Especially the trad-fascist "seed oils and soy
         | bad, red meat good" crowd. Just a bunch of dorks.
        
           | amanaplanacanal wrote:
           | This might sound like the naturalistic fallacy, but if people
           | have been eating things in quantity for hundreds of thousands
           | of years, the worst outcomes have probably been weeded out of
           | the gene pool.
           | 
           | If it's new in the last 10,000 years (the beginning of
           | agriculture) we have at least some hope that the worst
           | problems have been dealt with, although we do have lactose
           | and gluten intolerance as counter examples.
           | 
           | If it's new to the human diet in the last hundred years,
           | maybe it's fine, and maybe it isn't. It has to pretty
           | obviously kill you for people to notice.
           | 
           | Animals, fruit, and root vegetables have been in the human
           | diet since before humans left Africa. That's my rule of
           | thumb.
        
             | im3w1l wrote:
             | Agriculture may have existed for 10k years or something,
             | but it's not like everyone switched over to that lifestyle
             | immediately. There have also been peoples that lived as
             | nomadic herders and even hunter gatherers into even modern
             | to almost-modern times.
        
               | amanaplanacanal wrote:
               | Yes. My ancestry is mostly British isles, and it looks
               | like agriculture took hold there only about 6000 years
               | ago. Possibly arrived with the Indo-Europeans?
        
             | Vegenoid wrote:
             | Yes, but people are often interested in nutrition not to
             | avoid 'worst outcomes', but to reduce risk factors as they
             | age. Evolution isn't so good at selecting for diets that
             | push the median life expectancy from 75 to 85.
        
           | jdminhbg wrote:
           | > eat everything in moderation
           | 
           | The entire point of diet advice and nutritional science is
           | trying to find out what "in moderation" means for different
           | foods. The amount of donuts that is moderate and the amount
           | of broccoli that is moderate are not equal.
        
         | swatcoder wrote:
         | The mistake is trying to to scry personal life guidance out of
         | research papers. Research papers just describe experimental
         | results, and sometimes unsound ones.
         | 
         | They're meant to feed further research and bring prestige to
         | the authors, not to help intellectuals hyperoptimize their
         | longevity or whatever.
         | 
         | It's a widespread mistake, especially among intellectuals who
         | take pride in being able to read jargon, but what you're
         | calling "impossible to deal with" is actually just the outcome
         | of trying to use things in a way they're not meant to be used.
         | 
         | If you really want guidance (you actually don't need much),
         | either look to traditions if you're comfortable with that or
         | turn to institutional guidelines if you want something that
         | feels more evidence-based and modern. Neither of those is
         | unassailable either, but at least then you're using things as
         | intended. You'll have less grief and frustration that way.
         | 
         | Which is probably good for you.
        
           | smrtinsert wrote:
           | Upvoted to raise awareness. The average DYOR type is lacking
           | a lot of context with regard to research goals and process.
           | There aren't absolutes, there are snapshots or milestones of
           | understanding given specific criteria - at best.
        
           | bratwurst3000 wrote:
           | This comment sums up so many problems with the interpretation
           | of science so good. Thanks
        
           | sundarurfriend wrote:
           | > turn to institutional guidelines if you want something that
           | feels more evidence-based and modern.
           | 
           | "feels" is the right word here, unfortunately. Often, these
           | are heavily out of date, influenced by power struggles inside
           | the institutions and by external incentives, and get watered
           | down by the need for generality and for avoiding liability.
           | So the average person is left with very little to go by,
           | which is why people either flock to study after study, choose
           | "bro science" instead, or just stick to traditions even in
           | places where they're not helpful.
        
           | agumonkey wrote:
           | there's a strange phenomenon when you try to dig deeper than
           | current accepted textbooks and read pubmed, you end up in
           | less certainty. Science behave like a lens, validated data
           | (yet about to be obsolete potentially) is in focus, illogical
           | is fuzzy, but unproven is fuzzy too.
        
         | INTPenis wrote:
         | Yeah I stopped paying attention to cancer research. Someone
         | should aggregate all the cancer headlines just to show people
         | how many of them there are.
         | 
         | I lost my SO 6 years ago to a weird form of cancer that fed on
         | her estrogen, so doctors tried to put her into menopause to
         | stop its growth. That's hell on earth, like taking away the
         | soul of a woman.
         | 
         | So for years every single cancer headline made me react, but
         | after a while you get jaded because you never see them lead
         | anywhere.
        
           | apwell23 wrote:
           | > weird form of cancer that fed on her estrogen,
           | 
           | my father is currently dealing with male equivalent of this
           | (prostate cancer) . Yea taking away a harmone is a slow and
           | painful march to death. I don't wish this on anyone.
        
             | instagib wrote:
             | And doesn't work all the time either. So you're left with
             | worse choices.
        
         | bluGill wrote:
         | Often context matters. Something can be good for one cancer and
         | bad for another. Or be good for cancer but bad for heart
         | disease. Or bad for cancer but good for heart disease.
         | Something may cause cancer if you force feed far more than a
         | human could reasonably consume, but harmless at normal
         | quantities.
         | 
         | which is why so many of us just say "moderation and eat a
         | varied diet". Once in a while science settles on something that
         | is true for everyone, but real science is hard.
        
         | jrm4 wrote:
         | Not impossible, just a potential "lower quality of
         | information?"
         | 
         | I can't speak for anyone else, but I've grown to understand the
         | following:
         | 
         | My grandma, with whom I share a bunch of DNA, lived to be a
         | healthy 100 and drank milk to the very end; which is why I'm
         | probably going to do the same. The quality of that "datapoint"
         | for me is (almost objectively) much higher than ANY study could
         | ever produce?
        
         | mcpackieh wrote:
         | I've given up on 'scientific' nutritional advice and now go
         | with my intuition informed by my personal observations. What I
         | have observed is that people who eat lots of carbs seem to get
         | fat, people who eat lots of processed foods look terrible all
         | around, people who are vegan tend to look like cancer patients,
         | people who are vegetarian but also eat eggs and/or fish look
         | reasonably healthy, and people who eat lots of roasted meat,
         | vegetables and eggs seem to have the best outcomes.
        
           | jononomo wrote:
           | This has also been my observation. I am convinced at this
           | point that a diet that is 95% beef, fish, and eggs is the
           | optimal diet for humans.
        
         | fsflover wrote:
         | AFAIK research papers are for researchers. For ordinary people,
         | there is, e.g., Harvard School of Public Health.
        
         | armchairhacker wrote:
         | The main things you need to know:
         | 
         | - "Eat whole food, not too much, (maybe) mostly plants". Do
         | some form of exercise for some time at least 5/7 days.
         | 
         | - Listen to your body and do what makes _you_ feel best (e.g.
         | types of foods, meal timing and # of meals per day, types of
         | exercises and amounts). I really believe that people 's bodies
         | work differently enough that even excluding extreme cases, no
         | one diet is best for everyone
         | 
         | - Genetics, some people are just unlucky or lucky
         | 
         | Also for cancer, 99% of things have increase your risk by
         | _some_ amount; including every food, because simply
         | metabolizing causes chemical reactions which (when unlucky)
         | cause cancer. The important things to watch out for are those
         | which carry a very noticeable, substantial increase, like
         | benzene and radiation; studies show that red meat and nitrites
         | correlate with increased risk, but it 's ambiguous how
         | significant they are especially with the other correlated
         | factors (like bad eating in general).
        
       | karol wrote:
       | <picture of steak>
        
       | speedylight wrote:
       | My body must have exceptional anti cancer properties considering
       | the sheer quantity of cheese I consume daily.
        
         | cies wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         | > There is a growing body of evidence about the detrimental
         | health effects of consuming too much red meat and dairy, so
         | this study shouldn't be taken as an excuse to eat more
         | cheeseburgers and pizza; rather, it indicates that nutrient
         | supplements such as TVA could be used to promote T cell
         | activity.
        
           | tremon wrote:
           | >> "Considering the sheer quantity of cheese I consume daily,
           | I should have gotten cancer many times over now. Therefore,
           | my body must have exceptional anti-cancer properties."
        
       | CobaltFire wrote:
       | So I suffer from multiple autoimmune conditions and moving to a
       | pescatarian diet (vegan + fish) has had a large moderating effect
       | on my symptoms.
       | 
       | I'm trying it based on some research for Neu5gc (that I first saw
       | referenced here on HN) because... well it seemed harmless to try.
       | 
       | This makes me wonder if this fatty acid may also/instead be a/the
       | casual factor.
       | 
       | Human bodies have so many confounding factors tracing these
       | things is very difficult. Very happy to see more research.
        
         | mentos wrote:
         | For what it's worth I started developing auto immune symptoms
         | after my exposure to Covid (nerve pain in my face, legs, feet,
         | inner ear was burning and had a lack of balance, fatigue,
         | trembling) only thing that resolved it was exercise (moderate
         | to heavy weight lifting) and a strict carnivore diet over 3
         | months. I'd probably put more stock into the exercise but my
         | working theory was low testosterone and poor diet was
         | preventing me from recovering.
         | 
         | 3 years later and if I go a few months without exercise the
         | nerve pain starts to come back in my face heh
        
         | zackmorris wrote:
         | A I've gotten older, I've found that my overall health mostly
         | starts in the gut. I got hit with a form of chronic fatigue
         | syndrome from leaky gut in 2019 that was so bad that I burned
         | out and lost the ability to work for about 6 months. A
         | variation of the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet is what worked
         | for me:                 * Avoid wheat and most grains (rice and
         | corn are fine)       * Avoid milk and young cheese (cheddar is
         | fine but YMMV)       * Avoid FODMAPs like beans, other legumes
         | and nightshades       * Get back to macro nutrients like bacon
         | & eggs for breakfast, meat & rice, etc       * Get back to
         | micro nutrients like spinach for iron and a thyroid supplement
         | for iodine       * Seek holistic approaches like ashwagandha to
         | restore hormone balance       * Build gut health with
         | probiotics and get treated for parasites if necessary       *
         | Look into supplements like glutamine and colostrum which
         | rebuild the gut       * Decrease caffeine and stress which
         | lower the activation threshold for nerves in the gut to purge
         | its contents       * Drink a gallon of water per day, from one
         | large container if necessary, to accommodate ADHD/autism
         | symptoms       * Exercise by alternating weightlifting and
         | walking each day, about 60 minutes ideally
         | 
         | Each food damages the villi in the small intestine at a
         | different rate, but the gut only regenerates twice per week.
         | Gluten causes some of the worst damage, which remains hidden
         | until middle age when the ability to regenerate starts to
         | decrease.
         | 
         | Now I believe that GMOs and processed foods are so damaging not
         | due to stuff like preservatives, but because low cost means a
         | higher percentage of fillers like gluten.
         | 
         | It took 3-5 years but I'm able to eat FODMAPs again, tolerate
         | milk every day and even eat wheat a couple of times per week. I
         | consider myself to be in remission but must be mindful of what
         | I eat.
         | 
         | I'm also hopeful that long COVID studies will reveal some of
         | the disease mechanisms at work in these types of undiagnosable
         | conditions. Gaslighting (not believing patients as they
         | describe symptoms) is still a huge problem in western medicine.
        
           | temeritatis wrote:
           | Looks like a solid approach. I've mostly gravitated in the
           | same direction after my last "mystery disease". I would add
           | yoga/meditation and mindfulness to that list as well as the
           | importance of sleep. Sleep seem to impact me more than
           | anything else. I used to be up all night working and coding.
           | I like the night. But it seems more and more obvious to me
           | how bad this is for my wellbeing. That, and also to get
           | enough natural sunlight during the day, but this is also
           | intimately linked with sleep of course.
        
             | datameta wrote:
             | Mindfulness meditation is hugely important. The amount of
             | gain from 10 minutes a day is clearly noticeable after a
             | week or two. I personally often feel better right after do
             | it (even though that isn't expressly the goal).
        
           | datameta wrote:
           | Some thoughts. About the bacon, try to avoid frying it too
           | hard. In general heavily fried food contain acyclic aromatic
           | hydrocarbons which are inflammatory and carcinogenic through
           | increased oxidative stress. With that said, I very lightly
           | fry my eggs and don't feel negative effects. With supplements
           | like Ashwaghanda and St. Johns Wort make sure to check that
           | they don't have an interaction with medication - these two in
           | particular tend to interact widely. Indeed proper water
           | intake is hugely important. And as for walking, even 7000
           | steps per day can be considered light-medium exercise.
        
       | hombre_fatal wrote:
       | They isolated trans-vaccenic acid and gave it to mice with
       | tumors.
       | 
       | If this informs your dietary preferences but our best
       | metaanalyses on human health outcomes do not, you need to check
       | your epistemic standards.
        
       | krunck wrote:
       | (Nutrient in beef) [?] beef
        
       | idlewords wrote:
       | *In mice
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Grr, another one. We've inmiced the title above. Thanks!
        
       | TheRealPomax wrote:
       | Like almost all of these publications, for HN purposes this title
       | really needs "in mice" explicitly added to the end, because there
       | is no reason for a Nature publication to put it in, but a lot of
       | folks will never read the paper.
        
       | rambojohnson wrote:
       | Red meat has been demonstrated to have carcinogenic properties
       | for quite some time. It's uncertain whether the discovery of this
       | obscure "nutrient" justifies the associated risks...
        
         | chainwax wrote:
         | This has been called into question recently.
         | 
         | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36216940/
         | 
         | https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/library/health-...
        
         | brigadier132 wrote:
         | Those studies that link red meat to cancer are all
         | epidemiological and causal relationships can't be drawn from
         | them. For example, one possible confounder could be that
         | population of people that eat red meat also eat higher amounts
         | of fast food or they might have higher bmi than those that
         | don't.
         | 
         | Also, always note how the studies never say "red meat causes
         | cancer", they say "red meat is linked to cancer". Linked being
         | the key word.
        
           | Moldoteck wrote:
           | Don't those studies accout for such types of influence?
        
             | brigadier132 wrote:
             | They try isolate confounders using statistical methods but
             | these are not intervention studies and they rely on self
             | reported data. There are obvious limitations with such
             | approaches. You could imagine that people who are careful
             | enough with their diet to completely avoid red meat also
             | probably do physical activity of some sort. How many people
             | that avoid red meat in their diet also eat at mcdonalds?
             | 
             | They aren't locking people up in a resort and strictly
             | monitoring and controlling what they ingest.
        
               | hombre_fatal wrote:
               | Would you also bite that bullet with regard to the
               | association between cigarettes and lung cancer? We don't
               | have RCTs.
               | 
               | How do we know that it's not just the fact that people
               | who smoke also don't exercise? Well, it's simple: we
               | trivially adjust for exercise. Just like we have
               | prospective cohort research on unprocessed vs processed
               | red meat: we can design studies that measure it.
               | 
               | (This is aimed at your sibling comment) If you're saying
               | there's a confounder we don't know about in play: then
               | what is it and what evidence would you bring to the table
               | to justify its inclusion in our inference model? Note:
               | that evidence would have to be at least as good as the
               | evidence you're rejecting for _not_ having that magical
               | secret confounder.
               | 
               | That said, even before getting to cancer outcomes, I
               | would replace red meat with another protein source just
               | to avoid saturated fat. And if I was only moved by cancer
               | outcomes and refused to change my high red meat diet, I
               | would ensure I'm eating lots of veg/fruit to insulate
               | myself against the risks which is what you see in the
               | Tomorrow Alberta Project prospective cohort analysis
               | among the highest red meat eaters who also ate the most
               | fruit/veg.
        
             | amanaplanacanal wrote:
             | They try to. Unfortunately you can't account for all of
             | them, because we don't know all of them.
             | 
             | Once it's published that X is healthy or Y is unhealthy
             | then people change their lifestyle in accordance. You can't
             | tell if some other thing that people do because they heard
             | it is healthy is the real cause.
        
             | mdhen wrote:
             | They try, but not successfully. It is called the healthy
             | user effect. If something is already considered unhealthy
             | by conventional wisdom then people trying to be healthy
             | dont do that thing. And it's extremely difficult to account
             | for because the differences between those people and
             | everyone else are very large and difficult to lock down,
             | since they will tend to do lots and lots of things that you
             | are supposed to do for good health, but most people dont.
        
           | rockinghigh wrote:
           | > Those studies that link red meat to cancer are all
           | epidemiological and causal relationships can't be drawn from
           | them.
           | 
           | There is an extensive body of studies that show a direct link
           | between amines produced from exposing meat to high
           | temperature in animals. You can disagree on the dosage used
           | in the studies but I wouldn't ignore them completely. Here
           | are a few:
           | 
           | Sugimura T, Wakabayashi K, Nakagama H, Nagao M. Heterocyclic
           | amines: Mutagens/carcinogens produced during cooking of meat
           | and fish. Cancer Science 2004; 95(4):290-299.
           | 
           | Ito N, Hasegawa R, Sano M, et al. A new colon and mammary
           | carcinogen in cooked food,
           | 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP).
           | Carcinogenesis 1991; 12(8):1503-1506.
           | 
           | Kato T, Ohgaki H, Hasegawa H, et al. Carcinogenicity in rats
           | of a mutagenic compound,
           | 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline. Carcinogenesis
           | 1988; 9(1):71-73.
           | 
           | Kato T, Migita H, Ohgaki H, et al. Induction of tumors in the
           | Zymbal gland, oral cavity, colon, skin and mammary gland of
           | F344 rats by a mutagenic compound,
           | 2-amino-3,4-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline. Carcinogenesis
           | 1989; 10(3):601-603.
           | 
           | Ohgaki H, Kusama K, Matsukura N, et al. Carcinogenicity in
           | mice of a mutagenic compound,
           | 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline, from broiled
           | sardine, cooked beef and beef extract. Carcinogenesis 1984;
           | 5(7):921-924.
           | 
           | Ohgaki H, Hasegawa H, Suenaga M, et al. Induction of
           | hepatocellular carcinoma and highly metastatic squamous cell
           | carcinomas in the forestomach of mice by feeding
           | 2-amino-3,4-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline. Carcinogenesis
           | 1986; 7(11):1889-1893.
           | 
           | Shirai T, Sano M, Tamano S, et al. The prostate: A target for
           | carcinogenicity of
           | 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP)
           | derived from cooked foods. Cancer Research 1997;
           | 57(2):195-198.
        
       | fithisux wrote:
       | If it works, we will see it eventually used.
        
       | odyssey7 wrote:
       | A key excerpt, in my opinion.
       | 
       | "There is a growing body of evidence about the detrimental health
       | effects of consuming too much red meat and dairy, so this study
       | shouldn't be taken as an excuse to eat more cheeseburgers and
       | pizza; rather, it indicates that nutrient supplements such as TVA
       | could be used to promote T cell activity."
       | 
       | I'm also curious about this being a trans fat. I've heard public
       | health campaigning that trans fats are unhealthy, but this
       | research highlights one as a potential cancer therapy. It is
       | apparently another case of un-nuanced popular ideas about health
       | and nutrition not being the whole truth.
        
         | bluGill wrote:
         | Are all trans fats equal? We are more and more learning that
         | broad categories are not useful as some subsets are
         | better/worse than others.
        
           | some_furry wrote:
           | It could also be a category error: Vegetable seed oils seem
           | to correlate strongly with bad health outcomes. Meanwhile,
           | other oils (e.g. olive oil) with similar levels of the same
           | types of fatty acids have better outcomes.
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM
           | 
           | Is it the type of fat, or the process through which it's
           | extracted, that's most important? I don't know if the answer
           | is as clear as we'd like it to be.
           | 
           | Going back to the article: Isn't it possible that the trans
           | fat in question is actually toxic like other trans fats, but
           | in a way that's narrowly beneficial in this circumstance?
        
             | hombre_fatal wrote:
             | > Vegetable seed oils seem to correlate strongly with bad
             | health outcomes.
             | 
             | Based on what evidence? Here's a good roundup of our best
             | evidence, and it shows that seed oils improve health
             | outcomes: https://www.the-
             | nutrivore.com/post/a-comprehensive-rebuttal-...
             | 
             | Since you like Youtube videos, here's a good talk between
             | Gil Carvalho and Simon Hill that also goes through the
             | evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ri4S7MLu3A
             | 
             | Another summary of the evidence on seed oils by Layne
             | Norton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2fSaFnt0FM
             | 
             | I skimmed your video and it's the same old low-carb
             | narratives with very little evidence cited which should
             | always be a red flag. People who can't point to our best
             | metaanalyses or human health outcome research on something
             | to back their point will generally spin narratives because
             | it's all they have left to do.
        
               | cubefox wrote:
               | When vegetable/seed oils are turned into solid fats, like
               | shortening or margarine, trans fats (in particular,
               | partially hydrogenated oils) occur. They have only
               | recently been restricted in the US, at least to some
               | extent. They cause heart disease.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat#Health_risks
               | 
               | > Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils were an
               | increasingly significant part of the human diet for about
               | 100 years, especially after 1950 as processed food rose
               | in popularity.[66] The deleterious effects of trans fat
               | consumption are scientifically accepted.
               | 
               | > The most important health risk identified for trans fat
               | consumption is an elevated risk of coronary artery
               | disease (CAD).[72] A 1994 study estimated that over
               | 30,000 cardiac deaths per year in the U.S. are
               | attributable to the consumption of trans fats.[30] By
               | 2006 upper estimates of 100,000 deaths were
               | suggested.[73] A comprehensive review of studies of trans
               | fats published in 2006 in the New England Journal of
               | Medicine reports a strong and reliable connection between
               | trans fat consumption and CAD, concluding that "On a per-
               | calorie basis, trans fats appear to increase the risk of
               | CAD more than any other macronutrient, conferring a
               | substantially increased risk at low levels of consumption
               | (1 to 3% of total energy intake)".[60]
        
               | azakai wrote:
               | That's true but it's a separate matter. Yes, vegetable
               | and seed oils _can_ be unhealthy if they are processed
               | into trans fats, but otherwise they can be healthy.
               | 
               | Whole Foods, for example, banned trans fats 20 years ago,
               | but they sell many products with vegetable and seed oils,
               | and those are generally healthy.
        
               | simplify wrote:
               | Is it just me, or is the nutrivore website unbearably
               | slow? It's taking several seconds to render on each chunk
               | of page scrolling, and I'm on a maxed out m2
        
               | fngjdflmdflg wrote:
               | Two YouTube videos and a blog has the same credibility as
               | one YouTube video.
               | 
               | > _certain types of vegetable oil and hydrogenated oil
               | shortened the survival of stroke-prone spontaneously
               | hypertensive rats by decreasing platelet number,
               | increasing hemorrhagic tendency and damaging kidney
               | functions, which could not be accounted for by their
               | fatty acid and phytosterol compositions._ [0]
               | 
               | The whole article is worth a read. Note this is about
               | vegetable oils in general but the discussion at hand is
               | about lipids from meat vs lipids from other sources.
               | 
               | [0]Medicines and Vegetable Oils as Hidden Causes of
               | Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes https://karger.com/ph
               | a/article/98/3-4/134/272344/Medicines-a...
        
           | Modified3019 wrote:
           | Broadly speaking, I'd say the evidence decently points to yes
           | most trans polyunsaturated fats are probably harmful. But I
           | definitely agree, that lumping various fatty acids, amino
           | acids and carbohydrates into big groups hides their extreme
           | individual complexity.
           | 
           | One possible exception to the "trans fat bad" thing for
           | example is that when I last looked into it several years ago,
           | Conjugated Linoleic Acid ("CLA") which can be either cis or
           | trans were generally regarded as probably beneficial.
           | 
           | Though frankly I've no idea how that would be. Regular
           | linoleic acid itself is considered harmful (at least in the
           | historically excessive amounts we are currently exposed to).
           | It suppresses mammalian metabolism (being required by
           | hibernators to induce the start of their winter torpor
           | cycling), is very prone to oxidizing and generating free
           | radicals and lipid peroxides which cause havoc in
           | lipoproteins and blast holes in cardiovascular tissue, and
           | even without all that it's breakdown products tend to
           | increase inflammation, though this can be paradoxically
           | hidden by linoleic acid's ability to suppress the immune
           | system. But somehow when you conjugate three of the things
           | together and get CLA, it behaves differently and can
           | seemingly scavenge for free radicals.
        
             | nkozyra wrote:
             | Unless I'm misremembering a lot of the benefits of CLA did
             | not prove out with subsequent studies and it always came
             | with general health caveats alongside the potential
             | benefits (primarily to visceral abdominal fat, IIRC).
        
         | mymacbook wrote:
         | Maybe the problem with cheeseburgers is the bun and sugar more
         | than the meat or cheese itself? I would imagine grass-fed (and
         | finished) beef is better than ultra processed meat - especially
         | if sugar ends up in the finished product!
        
         | spacephysics wrote:
         | The problem with many red meat studies that show a negative
         | effect, is typically the meat is eaten in the form of fast food
         | cheeseburgers or in the case of dairy, pizza.
         | 
         | Red meat alone does not cause heart disease. It's based off the
         | fraudulent study regarding saturated fat and heart disease,
         | which the sugar industry paid for.
         | 
         | More likely, is the breads used in SAD (which have very high
         | amounts of sugar vs other countries' bread) has a much heavier
         | hand in heart disease.
         | 
         | Further, the science about cholesterol and what markers mean
         | what amount of heart disease risk isn't even a clear science.
         | LSL vs HDL vs triglycerides. It seems we know triglycerides
         | elevated is not good, but it's not clear on LDL and HDL alone
         | (there's also the _size_ of the particle that matters in
         | determining cardiovascular risk)
         | 
         | Show me a study of a population who eats steaks, vegetables,
         | avoids processed foods, and is athletic and I'll show you a
         | healthy heart.
         | 
         | https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-
         | in....
         | 
         | https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...
         | 
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9794145/#:~:tex...
         | .
        
           | odyssey7 wrote:
           | It is interesting that this PR pre-empts the natural takeaway
           | many would have -- eating more dairy or red meat -- by
           | reductively representing the options as "cheeseburgers" and
           | "pizza."
           | 
           | Checking out the research paper[1], the competing interests
           | section declares that Chen "has patents pending on TVA and
           | TVA derivatives."
           | 
           | I don't think the underlying reasoning is incorrect, but the
           | way it's presented is interesting.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06749-3
        
             | jdkee wrote:
             | "the competing interests section declares that Chen "has
             | patents pending on TVA and TVA derivatives.""
             | 
             | That basically destroys his credibility on the topic.
        
               | hilux wrote:
               | I think that's going a bit far.
               | 
               | Technology commercialization by universities is the way
               | any academic research (potentially, eventually) reaches
               | the public, and it's quite normal for the original
               | researchers to be involved in the commercialization
               | venture, as advisers, or as CEO. They know the topic
               | best.
        
               | Root_Denied wrote:
               | I agree - in cases like this patents are a large part of
               | the motivation behind studying the thing in question, if
               | they didn't have patents they wouldn't do the research.
               | 
               | It's up to peer review and replication studies to confirm
               | any effects. Even if there weren't any credibility issues
               | with a piece of research this would be true.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | I think it confers credibility on the topic. It is what
               | you would expect if they actually believe it has
               | therapeutic potential.
               | 
               | I would be more skeptical if they made claims about
               | benefit but we're taking no Acton to commercialize or
               | protect it
        
           | dade_ wrote:
           | I did learn something interesting about red meat travelling
           | to South America. so the story is red meat and cancer, people
           | that consume a lot more red meat tend to have more cancer.
           | Brazil and Argentina are favourite examples. Except no one
           | seems to take an account how they prepare red meat.
           | 
           | A churrasco or asado is a full day event. It starts with
           | wood, and they get a fire going, and this last for hours and
           | is a big social event. In other words hanging around wood
           | smoke, now I can picture something that's not red meat that
           | could cause cancer in this scenario, but that never seems to
           | bother researchers. They got the result they wanted and
           | publish.
        
             | potatopatch wrote:
             | That's not really conclusive about anything as not all
             | studies are done in South America..
             | 
             | Looking into pork for example, it is recommended as an
             | alternative because it seems to have a lower incidence of
             | many cancer types in studies and it's a great meat to
             | smoke.
        
             | djtango wrote:
             | interesting.
             | 
             | Teochew people eat a lot of (from my anecdotal experience)
             | and we don't have the same culture of charcoal burning our
             | meat. I wonder whether a similar comparison could work for
             | South East vs other parts of the Chinese diaspora...
        
             | monero-xmr wrote:
             | I avoid grilled and smoked meat because it seems very
             | obvious to me that infusing meat with carcinogens would be
             | bad for you. I've read that colon cancer is elevated in
             | youth and I have a hunch that the widespread grilling and
             | smoking culture has played a part.
        
             | oooyay wrote:
             | I can buy some of that. Burn pits in active war zones are a
             | known source of cancer, half being in a constant vicinity
             | of something burning and the other half being the
             | properties of the aerosols produced by the thing being
             | burned. That's to say, if the wood is treated it'll be more
             | dangerous than seasoned wood.
             | 
             | When a family member was diagnosed with cancer I was warned
             | heavily about the difference between cooked meat and
             | _charred_ meat. Charring is linked to cancer where _cooked_
             | meat is a bit more up in the air.
        
           | p_j_w wrote:
           | You make it sound as though the Lipid Hypothesis has been
           | thoroughly debunked, how many medical bodies agree with this
           | conclusion, though? At the very least, the European
           | Atherosclerosis Society, American College of Cardiology, and
           | Canadian Cardiovascular Society disagree with you.
        
             | graphe wrote:
             | Why do they matter? Do you only care about everything they
             | agree on? If not, why are you resistant to the idea they
             | could be wrong?
        
               | p_j_w wrote:
               | >Why do they matter?
               | 
               | Because they are the experts in their field. They are the
               | most qualified to not only read through all of the
               | literature, but actually properly understand it, debate
               | it, and come to a reasonably correct conclusion.
               | 
               | >why are you resistant to the idea they could be wrong?
               | 
               | I'm not resistant to the idea they could be wrong. It's
               | science, the whole thing is built on showing proving
               | previous hypotheses were either wrong or somehow
               | incomplete. However, when it comes to health, I feel I'd
               | be better served by listening to the consensus of various
               | medical bodies than commenters on the Internet, media
               | outlets, or my own ability to digest the scientific
               | literature. In mathematical terms, I think the expected
               | value of my health outcomes where I listen only to the
               | advice of medical bodies is better than the expected
               | value of my health outcomes where I "do my own research,"
               | in spite of the fact that medical bodies may be wrong
               | here or there. I'd get it wrong more often.
        
               | dalore wrote:
               | They also have more to lose if they are wrong. They would
               | have to admit they pushed something wrong for so long. So
               | they need to double down.
        
               | p_j_w wrote:
               | I could imagine this sort of thing having an impact on a
               | scattered group here and there, but these are not static
               | groups. Why would a member who joined 10 years ago would
               | give a shit about doubling down for the sake of the
               | reputation of the same group from 40 years ago?
        
               | graphe wrote:
               | Look at the food pyramid. You're advocating for the same
               | kind of diet that focuses on. It's known to be outdated,
               | wrong and unhealthy.
        
               | p_j_w wrote:
               | That's an example of a body of scientists changing its
               | recommendations when there's data available to support
               | it, which is what GP was trying to argue wouldn't happen
               | because it'd make them look bad.
               | 
               | I'm not advocating for any kind of diet, though. I'm
               | advocating for trusting the consensus opinion of multiple
               | independent groups of scientists to determine what the
               | data does and does not say about what's healthy.
        
               | graphe wrote:
               | There is no consensus. There are different consensuses.
               | That group has a consensus based on false evidence.
               | Nordic countries have another consensus based on real
               | evidence. https://nordstjernan.com/news/food/4668/
        
               | orangepurple wrote:
               | It wouldn't be the first time a reputable research group
               | threw off an entire field for decades and millions of
               | dollars wasted: https://www.science.org/content/blog-
               | post/faked-beta-amyloid...
        
               | spacephysics wrote:
               | That's the key problem though, in the face of alternative
               | hypothesis they fail to even acknowledge they may be
               | wrong. Coupled with the intense lobbying
        
               | AlexandrB wrote:
               | Lobbying by whom? The beef industry certainly does a lot
               | of lobbying itself[1].
               | 
               | [1] https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/wheres-the-
               | beef-mea...
        
               | Vegenoid wrote:
               | Lobbying from the veggie industry persuading doctors to
               | tell people to eat less meat and cheese?
        
               | p_j_w wrote:
               | >That's the key problem though, in the face of
               | alternative hypothesis they fail to even acknowledge they
               | may be wrong.
               | 
               | That is not they key problem as you originally laid out.
               | Your original position is that they key problem is they
               | ARE wrong. Further, I don't know that I've ever read any
               | sort of paper or written guidelines that explicitly says
               | "we might be wrong here." Should those all be ignored for
               | that reason? The papers you yourself cited in a comment
               | above don't explicitly say they may be wrong, yet you
               | have no problem taking them as 100% established fact.
               | This seems like a bit of a double standard and sloppy
               | logic.
               | 
               | >Coupled with the intense lobbying
               | 
               | Do you have evidence for corruption in these
               | institutions?
        
               | graphe wrote:
               | According to whom are they considered experts? After how
               | the government deals with COVID I don't trust "the
               | medical consensus" which is code for "things I want you,
               | the mainstream to agree with". Why would they be
               | "experts"? What expertise do they have? It's not based on
               | the best credentials, it's a job.
               | 
               | They're nameless government entities. Depending if you
               | feel knowledge always grows you may change your ideas.
               | Waves of ignorance litter the medical field today, as
               | hysteria was accepted as the only disease women could
               | have: the wandering womb theory. Consensus of ignorance
               | is still ignorance.
               | 
               | There's no real evidence that high red meat is bad.
               | There's no evidence that eating more veggies is bad.
        
               | Phiwise_ wrote:
               | Longevity scientists are mostly just experts in the field
               | of getting duped by pension fraudsters who say what they
               | want to hear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_zone#Sci
               | entific_reception
               | 
               | Parts of the field are in worryingly deep denial about
               | the number and magnitude of confounding variables a
               | moderate level of skeptical empiricism suggests could be
               | present in their foundational research. As, again, in the
               | specific case that user is worried you're glossing over:
               | The lipid hypothesis was probably developed from studies
               | with diets also high in processed foods, simple
               | carbohydrates, added sugar, salt, and vegetable oils, and
               | low in organ meats and heavy-metal-free fish. Don't we
               | all agree these things as a staple in a diet will
               | probably negative health outcomes on their own? How can
               | the field be confident enough to publicly assert a model
               | on that? Have they put the rice-fruit-and-legume diet
               | through as rigorous a comparison to the chicken-veg-and-
               | liver diet as they did to the McDonald's special diet?
               | It'd be nice to develop a culture of a straight answer of
               | "Yes, and here's the confirming metaanalysis [1]" on this
               | question in place of this "mind-your-seniors"
               | browbeating. Isn't _that_ what science is supposed to be
               | about?
        
             | spirit557 wrote:
             | One could cite a lot of things against the lipid hypothesis
             | and likewise the other way. Maybe just think about this
             | from an armchair standpoint... Before 1900 heart disease
             | was extremely rare. And what were people eating before
             | 1900? A whole lot of beef, bacon, butter, and eggs.
             | Saturated fat consumption per capita was basically
             | unchanged from 1900 to 1950. But heart disease skyrocketed.
             | Look at this data: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmhBUOpagAA-
             | 9Mj?format=png&name=...
             | 
             | Consumption of free sugars, pulverized grains, manufactured
             | oils and cigarette smoking took off like crazy after 1900.
             | Type 2 Diabetes was totaly unchecked and out of control. By
             | 1960 heart disease is the #1 killer and what do they
             | blame... Saturated fat, beef... eggs? Come on... You don't
             | need a million studies to scratch your head a little at the
             | lipid hypothesis.
        
           | sumpit wrote:
           | When I saw articles/videos on the centenarians in Italy or
           | Costa Rica, I noticed that they don't shy away from dairy
           | products or grains. They usually prepare their own food
           | themselves, and don't eat too much.
        
           | resoluteteeth wrote:
           | > It's based off the fraudulent study regarding saturated fat
           | and heart disease, which the sugar industry paid for.
           | 
           | A lot of the recent research claiming that there's no link
           | has also been paid for by industry groups. You can't just
           | dismiss one and accept the other.
        
           | oooyay wrote:
           | Do I understand correctly that you're saying _processed
           | meats_ are a problem but not raw meat you prepare yourself?
        
             | ricardobeat wrote:
             | This is long known to be true, especially for cured meats.
             | Industrial processing _requires_ additives and
             | preservatives that you'll never use at home or a
             | restaurant.
        
           | bad_user wrote:
           | > _Show me a study of a population who eats steaks,
           | vegetables, avoids processed foods, and is athletic and I'll
           | show you a healthy heart._
           | 
           | You're probably right, but only because the actual problem
           | has always been the excess calories.
           | 
           | Excess calories leads to energy poisoning, the cause for
           | diabetes, with high blood glucose and high triglycerides
           | being just energy excess that can't be quickly burned or
           | stored.
           | 
           | Foods are not equal though. That saturated fat more easily
           | leads to atherosclerosis, compared to monounsaturated fat, is
           | a fact. So, if you eat a lot in excess, being selective
           | matters.
           | 
           | Also, lay off the conspiracy theories, it's bad for your
           | health.
        
           | yieldcrv wrote:
           | I'm always amused on how thats supposed to be the smoking
           | gun, as if some other party that didn't care would ever
           | allocate time and money into the research
           | 
           | no conflict = no interest
           | 
           | if the study is fraudulent due to methods then just stick
           | with that, science is supposed to be reproducible so that
           | nobody has to care about who did the hypothesis and
           | conclusion at all
        
           | virtuallynathan wrote:
           | There's currently a study underway that took 100 people who
           | have been on a low carb high fat diet for, on average, over 4
           | years. These people had a large increase in LDL when
           | switching to this diet. All participants had CT Angiograms,
           | CAC scans, and other tests at T-0 and after 1 year. Some in
           | the study had LDL levels seen in Homozygous Familial
           | Hypercholesterolemia (>350mg/dL).
           | 
           | A matched control study with this population and the general
           | population is also underway, with the initial results being
           | presented on Dec 8th at the WCIRDCD Conference.
           | 
           | If LDL is independently causal of atheroscelosis/CHD, it
           | should be seen in this population.
        
         | caesil wrote:
         | "I've heard public health campaigning that trans fats are
         | unhealthy, but this research highlights one as a potential
         | cancer therapy."
         | 
         | Something can help fight cancer and also be terrible for heart
         | health. The body is a collection of complex systems.
        
           | belly_joe wrote:
           | Yeah my understanding is that the balance of evidence on
           | moderate alcohol consumption works this way as well (though
           | with cancer and heart health reversed).
        
             | aplusbi wrote:
             | It was my understanding that many of the studies on
             | moderate alcohol consumption included people in the study
             | who could not drink for medical reasons (or were former
             | alcoholics) which skewed the results for the zero-alcohol
             | groups.
             | 
             | Studies on red wine included people whose only source of
             | fruit was red wine, which similarly skewed the results.
        
           | hanniabu wrote:
           | Studies say ray guns are great at fighting cancer, but
           | terrile for heart health
        
         | Dalewyn wrote:
         | The moral of all these tales is that the best diet is composed
         | of a reasonable balance of varied foods that you like, not
         | something that takes the meter to +/-11.
         | 
         | Too much of anything is bad, as is too little.
        
         | tazjin wrote:
         | Yes, eat less cheeseburgers and pizza, and more steak.
        
       | codingdave wrote:
       | With all the information available and research about nutrition
       | really impacts our lives... I find myself wondering if there
       | really is a benefit for a layman like myself to keeping up, or if
       | the overall best advice still sits at: "Eat food. Not too much.
       | Mostly plants."
        
       | anonu wrote:
       | Tomorrow we'll see an article that says: "beef consumption tied
       | to higher rates of cancer". Sorry to be cynical.
       | 
       | I'll never forget - back when Google News was more about an
       | amalgamation of all articles from around the web - there were 2
       | articles in the "coffee" category: "Coffee consumption linked to
       | cancer" and then "Coffee consumption linked to lower cancer".
       | 
       | The answer is really moderation. Michael Pollan puts it well:
       | "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants".
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | Well sometimes the solution to cancer _is_ more cancer. Larger
         | animals like elephants and whales don 't die from cancer
         | because their cancer gets cancer before it manages to spread.
         | These hypertumors then compete with and deprive the original
         | cancer of blood flow, so they all end up starving.
         | 
         | When you think about it we mostly cure cancer with ionizing
         | radiation, which is ironically notorious for causing it in the
         | first place.
        
       | moose44 wrote:
       | This comment section is a perfect example of how little we know
       | about health.
        
         | grecy wrote:
         | "Eat _food_ , mostly plants, not too much."
        
           | jononomo wrote:
           | I have the opposite view. Eat food, entirely beef, as much as
           | you'd like.
        
             | grecy wrote:
             | > _entirely beef, as much as you 'd like._
             | 
             | That is a very good way to eat thousands of calories per
             | day in excess of base metabolic need, which for nearly
             | everyone will result in significant weight gain.
        
               | helicalmix wrote:
               | which is good, if you want to gain weight
        
           | sp3000 wrote:
           | From Dr. Robert Lustig in his book, Metabolical (highly
           | recommended):
           | 
           | "Michael Pollan (full disclosure, he's a friend), in his now-
           | famous New York Times Magazine article, espoused seven simple
           | words: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Three separate
           | clauses, but I think that each clause is misleading. Eat food
           | doesn't take into account that some people may do better on a
           | low-fat diet, while others may do better on a high-fat diet.
           | Not too much doesn't say how you are supposed to moderate
           | that, as it doesn't take into account food addiction or what
           | generates satiety. And mostly plants doesn't take into
           | account that Coke, French fries, and Doritos are all plant-
           | based. If you buy your organic, all-natural, GMO-free
           | tortilla chips at Whole Foods, you're still stuffing your
           | liver and starving your gut--you're just paying more for the
           | privilege."
        
             | helicalmix wrote:
             | This feels like an overly complex response to a statement
             | that's intentionally simple though.
             | 
             | The whole point of Pollan's statement is to have simple
             | guidelines that ignore optimizations in favor of
             | directionally good flexibility, which makes me feel like
             | Lustig either misses Pollan's point, or just believes in a
             | completely different philosophy.
        
             | grecy wrote:
             | > _doesn't take into account that Coke, French fries, and
             | Doritos are all plant-based_
             | 
             | By the very definition Pollan gives, none of those are
             | _food_ , they are lab concoctions that have been invented
             | in the last few generations. Like the advice given about
             | McDonalds by all the doctors and nutritionists in Super
             | Size Me, a healthy person should never eat them.
             | 
             | When Pollan says "eat _food_ ", he means "real" things that
             | exist naturally. [Note 1]
             | 
             | He also introduces the "grandma test" which is to say you
             | shouldn't eat anything your grandma wouldn't recognize as
             | food. A glass of black fizzy liquid sugar? no. Drink water.
             | 
             | [Note 1] I often think about this like the periodic table.
             | Many of the elements that have been on the table forever
             | (low atomic numbers) can be found just lying around on the
             | ground (Gold, Copper, etc.). They are "real".
             | 
             | Almost all the ones added in the last few decades
             | (nihonium, moscovium, tennessine) (high atomic numbers)
             | never exist naturally and must be concocted in a lab under
             | extremely specific circumstances. Often they only exist for
             | a fraction of a second. They are "fake".
             | 
             | Can you find an Apple, spinach, meat or fish out in nature?
             | Yes - that's "real" food.
             | 
             | Can you find Doritos or coke out in nature? No - that's not
             | food.
        
         | swatcoder wrote:
         | Alternately, it's example of how absurdly some obsess over it.
         | 
         | Excepting bad luck and pretty-obvious excess, almost everybody
         | will have about 6-7 decades of adulthood and maybe 1-2 decades
         | of slowing down and feeling less capable in the last of those.
         | If you can come to terms with that, and many do, there's not a
         | lot to worry about.
         | 
         | All the obsessing people get up to here is a kind of "premature
         | optimization" that often sends people flailing around between
         | research trends without any of the rigor or continuity that
         | might have yeilded benefit anyway. It's a lot of time, effort,
         | and mental energy stolen from the most vibrant and impactful
         | stage of life in questionable hope of squeezing a teensy bit
         | more out of the least.
        
       | metabagel wrote:
       | I suspect that the way the body processes food is modified
       | significantly by exercise. So, it's not the food you are eating,
       | but rather it's the food you are eating combined with how active
       | or sedentary your lifestyle is. I think that exercise has a
       | marked effect on the gut's microbiome.
        
       | jononomo wrote:
       | I only eat beef and eggs.
        
         | mcpackieh wrote:
         | The Vince Gironda diet.
        
           | jononomo wrote:
           | exactly
        
       | EGreg wrote:
       | Don't vegetarians live far longer and meat cooking brings
       | carcinogens? Also meat of older animals ages you more quickly
        
         | sundarurfriend wrote:
         | I'd love to hear what sources these claims are from. I'm
         | vegetarian, and every time I've come across these "vegetarians
         | live longer" claims it's from dubious sources that cite random
         | tiny studies in isolation.
         | 
         | I could believe modern factory farming, preservation, and mass-
         | preparation techniques make meat much less healthy (than it
         | used to be in our ancestral days), but a general "meat cooking
         | brings carcinogens [to a level that matters, beyond plant
         | cooking does]" sounds pretty unlikely too.
        
           | shinryuu wrote:
           | The most famous study is the seventh adventist study. The
           | study in question is not tiny. About 70k people participated.
           | 
           | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4191896/
           | 
           | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652.
           | ..
        
             | HNDen21 wrote:
             | They also don't smoke or drink.. I am sure that chops off a
             | few years
        
             | hanniabu wrote:
             | Need to control for healthy habits also associated with
             | healthier diets, such as exercising, not smoking, etc. It
             | should also eliminate any participants with clearly
             | unhealthy habits like poor diets consisting of fast food
             | and living extremely sedentary lifestyles (different from
             | just not exercising).
        
           | hilux wrote:
           | There is no large long-term double-blind controlled study
           | comparing a vegetarian/vegan diet to some omnivore diet - and
           | there never will be.
           | 
           | The only diet studies are observational, and they are
           | unreliable in all kinds of ways. The famous _Blue Zones_ book
           | has about the validity of _Rich Dad Poor Dad_ or _The
           | Millionaire Next Door_. But the book continues to sell, and
           | at a macro level, its advice is not terrible, but it 's also
           | not "the only way."
           | 
           | Surprisingly (to me), there is some evidence that some people
           | are genetically better disposed to eating a vegetarian diet
           | than others.
        
       | roschdal wrote:
       | Milk cures cancer.
        
       | teslabox wrote:
       | The current top comment [0] on this submission said he was
       | "curious about this being a trans fat". This would be a result of
       | biohydrogenation, where the bacteria in the ruminants stomachs
       | will add hydrogen to the unsaturated oils.
       | 
       | First link for biohydrogenation:
       | https://www.megalac.com/resources-advice/fats-advice/71-bioh...
       | 
       | Biohydrogenation is a totally different process from the
       | hydrogenation used to make margarine from seed oils.
       | 
       |  _Ruminal microbe of biohydrogenation of trans-vaccenic acid to
       | stearic acid in vitro_ -
       | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3305423/
       | 
       | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38434521
        
       | jnellis wrote:
       | Reports like this always remind me of that scene in Sleeper.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485Em2JF34M
        
       | atlgator wrote:
       | It's shocking how little we know about what is "good" and what is
       | "bad" for the body. There are too many confounding factors around
       | meat, such as using processed meats and meats cooked with seed
       | oils.
       | 
       | For me, eating as clean as possible is the best approach. Find
       | meat that isn't loaded up with hormones, antibiotics, or mold
       | toxins. Find non-GMO vegetables that aren't loaded with
       | pesticides. Limit carbs and dairy as much as possible. No
       | stimulants, barbiturates, or other drugs.
        
         | shuntress wrote:
         | _" It's shocking how little we know about how food affects the
         | body. That's why I follow this trendy diet based on assumptions
         | about how food affects the body."_
        
           | atlgator wrote:
           | In the last 70 years, the human diet has become polluted with
           | chemicals and shifted to refined carbs, concurrent with the
           | rise of heart disease and diabetes. And I'm the one following
           | the "trend" by eliminating those things? Not sure you know
           | what that word means.
        
           | sethammons wrote:
           | how is that a trendy diet? It looks like what we assume
           | people have mostly eaten for the last 100k years.
        
         | huytersd wrote:
         | The only way to actually know is with "dispensable" humans and
         | long term studies. That's not ethical and never going to happen
         | so I guess we'll never know.
        
       | capitainenemo wrote:
       | Huh. From reading the article it doesn't seem like a nutrient and
       | more a signaling thing (activates a receptor on the cell's
       | surface).
       | 
       | Could this be a hormesis effect? For example, the body reacts to
       | things like exercise or UV by amping up repair and immune system.
       | Perhaps the body is amping up its immune system in response to
       | consuming meat/milk due to carcinogen or disease risks?
        
       | iteratethis wrote:
       | Cut sugar, sauce and highly processed food.
       | 
       | I know they have a fatal attraction, quite literally. But if you
       | manage to get rid of all that junk, you can pretty much eat what
       | you want from the selection of real foods like whole wheat bread,
       | fruits and vegetables, eggs, meats. Mix and match a reasonable
       | balance between those, and you strike a good balance.
       | 
       | But to start with: sugar is your enemy.
        
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