Eat fat for endurance

Here is an intriguing one:

Significant effect of a pre-exercise high-fat meal after a 3-day high-carbohydrate diet on endurance performance

These results suggest that ingestion of a HFM (high fat meal) prior to exercise is more favorable for endurance performance than HCM (high carb meal). 

So maybe bacon and eggs would be better than that pasta party before the marathon.....

Poly unsaturated fats.....

Interesting looking study. (Full Text)

They take the obligatory swipe at saturated fat, but the thrust seems to be to avoid excess omega 6 poly unsaturated fats.  Of course all this is called Mediterranean....whatever that means in reality.

New insights into the health effects of dietary saturated and omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids

Cardiovascular diseases and cancers are leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Reducing dietary saturated fat and replacing it with polyunsaturated fat is still the main dietary strategy to prevent cardiovascular diseases, although major flaws have been reported in the analyses supporting this approach. Recent studies introducing the concept of myocardial preconditioning have opened new avenues to understand the complex interplay between the various lipids and the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The optimal dietary fat profile includes a low intake of both saturated and omega-6 fatty acids and a moderate intake of omega-3 fatty acids. This profile is quite similar to the Mediterranean diet. On the other hand, recent studies have found a positive association between omega-6 and breast cancer risk. In contrast, omega-3 fatty acids do have anticancer properties. It has been shown that certain (Mediterranean) polyphenols significantly increase the endogenous synthesis of omega-3 whereas high intake of omega-6 decreases it. Finally, epidemiological studies suggest that a high omega-3/omega-6 ratio may be the optimal strategy to decrease breast cancer risk. Thus, the present high intake of omega-6 in many countries is definitely not the optimal strategy to prevent CVD and cancers. A moderate intake of plant and marine omega-3 in the context of the traditional Mediterranean diet (low in saturated and omega-6, but high in plant monounsaturated fat) appears to be the best approach to reduce the risk of both cardiovascular diseases and cancers, in particular breast cancer.

Smoking and Obesity

interesting comment in the Guardian today from the artist David Hockney on obesity....

Is there a link between the decline of smoking and the rise of obesity and diabetes? It's been suggested that with a previous "health" scare of fat being bad for you, they took it out of a lot of food and thus the flavour, and then, to give it some flavour, added sugar. This was 30 years ago. It turned out some fat was not only essential, it was good for the heart after all, but they have now given a lot of people a sweet tooth. This is why it is so appalling that there is no debate at all about smoking. Some people might be much better off smoking instead of nibbling. There are still 10 million smokers, now treated like very naughty children. It seems there is no free lunch, and the media and political elite look like the cause of it all, exaggerating constantly to people they seem to despise.

Deep Fried....Butter

Eat your heart out Denmark!  In Edinburgh we even deep fry butter itself!

Deep fried butter goes on the menu in Edinburgh

An Edinburgh bar has put a calorific treat to rival the deep fried Mars Bar on its menu - deep fried butter balls.

There is more in the Daily Mail..

Sod the diet: Fiddler's Elbow head chef Simon Robertson (right) and colleague Paul Fitchie with the latest item on the menu - deep-fried butter balls in Irn Bru batter

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076260/Scottish-bar-The-Fiddlers-Elbow-serves-deep-fried-BUTTER.html#ixzz1h6mmUR4P

Sitting around does make you fatter

I've had stuff here before about the dangers of being sedentary.  For example  this infographic

Anyway, often all that is just association.  Here is a study which seems to offer some mechanism of why sitting around makes you fatter....

Static Mechanical Stretching Accelerates Lipid Production in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes by Activating the MEK Signaling Pathway

Sustained stretching brings new fat cells into existence.

Eureka have a commentary:

inactivity actually encourages the body to create new fat in fat cells, says Prof. Amit Gefen of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering. Along with his Ph.D. student Naama Shoham, Prof. Gefen has shown that preadipocyte cells — the precursors to fat cells — turn into fat cells faster and produce even more fat when subject to prolonged periods of "mechanical stretching loads" — the kind of weight we put on our body tissues when we sit or lie down.

All very interesting.

Of course I know it is just mice....

The Dutch get it right - Saturated Fat is not a problem

In the light of the recent stupid tax in Denmark (targeting Saturated Fat)  this study in the Netherlands Journal of Medicine - full pdf available here  -  is instructive.  It is the sugar not the fat......  (Denise Minger pointed this out on Twitter)

Here is the abstract

 Saturated fat, carbohydrates and cardiovascular disease.

The dietary intake of saturated fatty acids (SAFA) is associated with a modest increase in serum total cholesterol, but not with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Replacing dietary SAFA with carbohydrates (CHO), notably those with a high glycaemic index, is associated with an increase in CVD risk in observational cohorts, while replacing SAFA with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) is associated with reduced CVD risk.

However, replacing a combination of SAFA and trans-fatty acids with n-6 PUFA (notably linoleic acid) in controlled trials showed no indication of benefit and a signal toward increased coronary heart disease risk, suggesting that n-3 PUFA may be responsible for the protective association between total PUFA and CVD. High CHO intakes stimulate hepatic SAFA synthesis and conservation of dietary SAFA . Hepatic de novo lipogenesis from CHO is also stimulated during eucaloric dietary substitution of SAFA by CHO with high glycaemic index in normo-insulinaemic subjects and during hypocaloric high-CHO÷low-fat diets in subjects with the metabolic syndrome. The accumulation of SAFA stimulates chronic systemic low-grade inflammation through its mimicking of bacterial lipopolysaccharides and÷or the induction of other pro-inflammatory stimuli. The resulting systemic low-grade inflammation promotes insulin resistance, reallocation of energy-rich substrates and atherogenic dyslipidaemia that concertedly give rise to increased CVD risk. We conclude that avoidance of SAFA accumulation by reducing the intake of CHO with high glycaemic index is more effective in the prevention of CVD than reducing SAFA intake per se.

exercise to burn body fat.....

Aerobic exercise bests resistance training at burning belly fat


Not sure what I think of this.....

Fuelled by fat

Here is another quick one, heart function improves when fuelled by fat

Contrary to what we've been told, eliminating or severely limiting fats from the diet may not be beneficial to cardiac function in patients suffering from heart failure, a study at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine reports.

Results from biological model studies conducted by assistant professor of physiology and biophysics Margaret Chandler, PhD, and other researchers, demonstrate that a high-fat diet improved overall mechanical function, in other words, the heart's ability to pump,

Great Fat Debate

Does anyone have access to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association?  Looks like they have an interesting feature  on Fat this month:

The Great Fat Debate: A Closer Look at the Controversy—Questioning the Validity of Age-Old Dietary Guidance

Tell the fat kids to step away from the cake....

......or they will never burn fat!

Carbohydrate intake reduces fat oxidation during exercise in obese boys.

.........carbohydrate (CHO) intake attenuates whole body fat oxidation during exercise in healthy children and may suppress fat metabolism in obese youth. ............. CHO intake markedly suppresses fat oxidation during exercise in obese boys.


True for the rest of us too.

Fertility study and fat consumption

My girlfriend -  a PhD immunologist -  pointed this out to me.  She said:

I came across this abstract but have attached the paper but not read it. In the results infertile women consumed more polyunsaturated fat (OR 1.23), less saturated fat (OR 0.83) and had more hangovers (OR 1.02), a significant but marginal effect (2%).  But the conclusions say that alcohol use is something that needs to be addressed.  There was stuff on the BBC website yesterday that alcohol consumption has decreased since 2004...  But hey, you can't mention polyunsaturated fat being bad for you!

Pass the butter.

The Big Fat Truth about Low Fat

I have no idea what this will be like, but Colin alerted me to this programe that is on BBC3 on Tuesday night:

The Big Fat Truth about Low Fat Foods

For thousands across the UK, the new year usually means a new diet. But it's the supermarket rather than the health club that many are turning to. The low fat food industry is worth two billion pounds and there are more reduced calorie ready meals sold in January than at any other time of the year. But is a life on low fat foods any life at all?

For four weeks, model and former Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon ditches the fine dining she's used to and lives on nothing but pre-packaged, highly-processed foods that are labelled either low or lower in fat. She finds out what's in these foods and how they affect her moods, nutritional levels and, crucially, her weight. She also meets the low calorie converts who say that eating this way isn't just a diet, but a way of life.

Could be interesting.

Dairy again - milk fat and diabetes

The controversy around milk still continues in my mind.  I can see the standard paleo arguments against, but the chemistry is a bit more complex.  Studies keep popping up about the health benefits of milk fat (I long  ago gave up any idea that saturated fat was unhealthy).

Here is another:

 a fatty acid in milk fat is associated with a substantially lower risk of type 2 insulin resistant diabetes.

The excellent Future Pundit blog has a good write up.

Trans Fats are bad.....but we knew that anyway

Just saw this abstract in the latest

Consumption of dietary fat and meat and risk of ovarian cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study

Conclusion: This prospective study suggests that trans unsaturated fatty acids, but no other types of fat or meat, are associated with increased ovarian cancer risk.

So avoid the artificual industrial fats......but natural meats and fats are fine?

Grass based health - diet presentation

This is superb!  It is from Peter Ballerstedt, PhD:

A discussion of the difference between the official dietary guidelines (and the "conventional wisdom" they've informed) and what the science has, in fact, shown regarding the importance of animal protein and animal fat in the human diet. The impact of the official dietary guidelines, and the scientific findings, upon animal agriculture is discussed.

Grasse Based Health - Food for Thought from Peter Ballerstedt on Vimeo.

"Food for Thought.” Peter Ballerstedt, PhD.

Emphasise animal fat....minimise carbohydrate.

Bodyfat makes you less responsive to exercise

Here is an interesting new one for you:  subcutaneous (i.e., under the skin) bodyfat makes you less responsive to resistance exercise.

Adiposity attenuates muscle quality and the adaptive response to resistance exercise in non-obese, healthy adults.

Background:Emerging data have revealed a negative association between adiposity and muscle quality (MQ). There is a lack of research to examine this interaction among young, healthy individuals, and to evaluate the contribution of adiposity to adaptation after resistance exercise (RE).

Objective:The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) on muscle function among non-obese individuals before and after RE.\

Design:Analyses included 634 non-obese (body mass index <30 kg m(-2)) subjects (253 males, 381 females; age=23.3±5.2 years). SAT and muscle mass (magnetic resonance imaging-derived SAT and biceps muscle volume), isometric and dynamic biceps strength, and MQ (strength/muscle volume), were analyzed at baseline and after 12 weeks of unilateral RE.

Results:At baseline, SAT was independently associated with lower MQ for males (β=-0.55; P<0.01) and females (β=-0.45; P<0.01), controlling for body mass and age. Adaptation to RE revealed a significant negative association between SAT and changes for strength capacity (β=-0.13; p=0.03) and MQ (β=-0.14; P<0.01) among males. No attenuation was identified among females. Post-intervention SAT remained a negative predictor of MQ for males and females (β=-0.47; P<0.01).

Conclusions:The findings reveal that SAT is a negative predictor of MQ among non-obese, healthy adults, and that after 12 weeks of progressive RE this association was not ameliorated. Data suggest that SAT exerts a weak, negative influence on the adaptive response to strength and MQ among males.

Consumption of dietary fat and meat and risk of cancer

Guess what? 

• trans unsaturated fatty acids -  big problem
• meat and other fat - NO problem

Consumption of dietary fat and meat and risk of ovarian cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study.

A high fat diet makes bones stronger.....

....in rats at least:

Influence of high-fat diet from differential dietary sources on bone mineral density, bone strength, and bone fatty acid composition in rats.


Does anyone have the full study?  It would be interesting to see the different diets

Saturated fat is fine

Future Pundit has an excellent post here:


Saturated Fat Heart Harm Questioned

For the past three decades, saturated fat has been considered a major culprit of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and as a result dietary advice persists in recommending reduced consumption of this macronutrient. However, new evidence shows that saturated fat intake has only a very limited impact on CVD risk -- causing many to rethink the "saturated fat is bad" paradigm.

Quick Bursts of activity.....

 Is your job making you fat?

 Activity: From the 70's to now

Juneau and his colleagues used several Statistics Canada databases on the health of Canadians that included 17,000 to 132,000 respondents. He concluded that the lack of physical activity during office hours could explain the fact that obesity has increased 10 percent between 1978 and 2004.

A surprise findings was the increased healthy attitudes toward transportation. "As a result of urban sprawl we expected to see more car-dependant people," says Juneau. "Yet, both men and women increasingly adopted healthy behaviours such as walking and biking, which is definitely good news."

Quick bursts of activity may be the solution

Juneau suggests that to combat the inactivity and rise in obesity it would be best to integrate sport, work and transportation. For example, it may be more effective to exercise in smaller doses throughout the day rather than concentrate the effort. Therefore, walking at break time and taking the stairs could have great benefits.

Sounds like intervals....or Art DeVany style power law training.


Here is the abstract:

Trends in leisure-, transport-, and work-related physical activity in Canada 1994–2005


Background
In Canada, data show adults had a lower energy intake in 2004 than in 1972. Data also show adults expended more energy through leisure-time physical activity in 2000 than in 1981. On the other hand, the prevalence of overweight and obesity (combined) rose from 49.2% to 59.1% between 1978 and 2004.
Purpose
This study aimed to chart trends in leisure-, transport-, and work-related physical activity in Canada between 1994 and 2005.
Methods
We used nationally representative data from the three National Population Health Surveys (1994, 1996, and 1998) and the three Canadian Community Health Surveys (2000, 2003, and 2005) (a repeated cross-sectional design). Sample sizes ranged from n = 17 626 (in 1994) to n = 132 221 (in 2005).
Results
Between 1994 and 2005, men became less inactive during leisure time (− 9.94% [9.89%–9.98%]), less inactive during transports (− 15.31% [15.26%–15.35%]), and more inactive at work (+ 5.18% [5.14%–5.22%]). Similar results were found for women.
Conclusions
Declining levels of physical activity at work may help explain the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity in Canada.