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How have recent scientific breakthroughs shifted our understanding of nutrition? Not too much this week, but we’re diving into three new studies on potatoes, coconut oil, and plant-based diets.
The Decline of Coconut Oil's Popularity
The Big News: Coconut Oil Is Just as Harmful as Beef Fat and Butter
The Details: Coconut oil, like lard and butter, is packed with saturated fat, despite its reputation for being a 'healthier' alternative. Sure, it can make your baked goods soft and your hair gleaming, and it might even have a slight fat-burning effect (but only a tiny one, and that's not certain). However, it's still just another calorie-dense fat, and if you thought it was a completely guilt-free health food, you're likely mistaken.
The American Heart Association has issued a recommendation today urging us to reduce our intake of saturated fats, including coconut oil. However, their research doesn't directly link coconut oil to heart disease, only stating that it raises LDL (bad) cholesterol as much as butter does.
While cholesterol levels aren’t the same as the risk of disease, we should still consider previous studies suggesting saturated fat might not be so harmful. Dietary fat remains a complex issue, and we still don’t have definitive proof whether butter or coconut oil is detrimental. It’s okay if you decide to cut back on coconut oil, but we lack the evidence to claim that doing so will significantly improve your health.
Key Point: Coconut oil is high in calories and saturated fat, so don’t assume it's safe to consume in large amounts. If you use it (or butter or lard) frequently, it might be wise to swap some of it out for olive oil as a precaution.
French Fries Aren’t a Death Sentence
The News: Consuming French Fries Twice a Week May Increase Risk of Early Death, Study Finds
The Background: This study focuses on individuals at risk of developing knee arthritis. To participate, they had to be overweight or have other factors making them more likely to develop the condition. Upon joining the study, they filled out a questionnaire detailing their consumption of various food groups over the past year.
The researchers didn’t specify in their study whether they initially set out to examine potato-related risks or if they analyzed every food item in the study (and perhaps others as well) and chose to highlight the one that showed a significant result. If that’s the case, the validity of the findings weakens: if you look long enough, something will almost always appear significant. Ultimately, the study doesn’t conclude that eating fries is harmful; it only points out that those who ate more fries had a higher risk of early death compared to those who didn’t. This PopSci article delves into these issues in more detail.
There are two major issues to consider here. First, the researchers didn’t account for two crucial factors: whether those who ate fries had an overall less healthy diet or lifestyle; and whether they were from lower-income backgrounds, which is strongly linked to poorer health outcomes. These are significant oversights.
Conclusion: This study does not support the claim that fries are fatal. But if you maintain a healthy diet, it’s unlikely you’ll be eating large amounts of fries regularly.
Vegetarian Diets Are Acceptable
The Headline: Science Reveals Vegetarian Diets Are Twice as Effective for Weight Loss
The Story: A recent weight loss study showed that a vegetarian diet performed better than an omnivorous one... sort of.
The Study involved 74 overweight individuals with type 2 diabetes. Half followed a vegan diet with one serving of yogurt, while the other half followed a typical diabetes management diet. The participants on the near-vegan plan lost more weight and were more likely to stick to their regimen.
There’s already cause for skepticism: the study is small, and its specific nature means that if you’re not diabetic or if your version of a vegetarian diet includes eggs and cheese, these results probably don’t apply to you. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the study's limitations.
Another major consideration: those on the vegetarian diet were more likely to lose muscle mass, even though they were exercising.
The Key Takeaway: A very specific vegetarian diet showed success for certain individuals, but the study is too small and narrow to apply to all vegetarian diets universally. There are many different diets that can be effective, and to find the right one for you, you'll need to experiment and see what works.
