dapto wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:45 am
I think I understand where your coming from.
You do not, and at this point it seems intentional.
dapto wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:45 amPerhaps a court room is a good metaphor for your understanding of causality. If Bob dropped a ball and it fell to a large body because of gravity and the falling was a crime. The judge could apportion blame, some to gravity and some to Bob. And so pass sentence on each.
Not even remotely correct. Gravity existed the entire time, and did not start existing when the ball was dropped.
A drunk driver hits a pedestrian -- will the judge apportion blame, some to the car manufacturer, some to the company that made the road, some to the pedestrian, some to the alcohol company, some to physics itself for making it possible for cars to function, some to biology for making it possible for things to live and die, and some to the driver?
Necessary conditions are not the same as proximate causes.
dapto wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:45 am
You could argue then with respect to the Inuit paradox that
when Inuit populations developed heart disease in the 1950s after beginning to eat a western diet high in refined carbohydrates and saturated fat that the cause was any of a number of factors from genetic drift to incorrect records or other factors like alcohol consumption or cigarettes.
You're begging the question again. I already explained that this did not happen. Incidence of heart disease DECREASED when diets began to be westernized.
What can we blame this decrease in heart disease on? Certainly not on cigarettes. They were already eating a diet high in saturated fat before and it was actually lowered. Likely either more carbs protected them or less saturated fat lowered risk. It's probably not the sugars, so it's probably a mix of added fiber and lowered saturated fat.
dapto wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:45 amHigh blood sugar produces inflammation and cholesterol then forms protective plaque.
Lie upon lie. Plaques are not protective, that's conspiratorial nonsense. You have the causation backwards and it has very little to nothing to do with sugar:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-he ... ue-buildup
Plaque forms when cholesterol lodges in the wall of the artery. To fight back, the body sends white blood cells to trap the cholesterol, which then turn into foamy cells that ooze more fat and cause more inflammation. That triggers muscle cells in the artery wall to multiply and form a cap over the area. But the soft plaque beneath the cap is dangerous. "For example, if your blood pressure spikes, it puts pressure on the thin wall of the plaque, which can break open, form a clot, and cause a heart attack," says Dr. Cannon. About three of every four heart attacks occur when plaques rupture.
Plaques form when cholesterol is deposited on artery walls, not as protection but as a side effect of high cholesterol (particularly LDL). It's not very clear why LDL would deposit cholesterol like this, but solubility is likely to be part of the issue (in terms of basic chemistry). There's a transport protein that seems to be involved too but its function isn't really clear.
It was once thought that the artery walls had to be damaged first for cholesterol to be deposited but that does not appear to be true.
Once that cholesterol is deposited the body responds. The consequence of that is inflammation as these plaques are treated more like a foreign body that needs to be attacked.
This is false: Sugar -> inflammation -> protective plaque
This is how it works: Plaque deposition -> inflammation
Oxidation may also play a role, and it's possible that processed sugar can contribute (non-exclusively) to oxidation by depleting antioxidants.
Potentially how it works: Plaque deposition -> oxidation -> inflammation
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newslett ... d_arteries
The first step in atherosclerosis occurs when LDL cholesterol lodges in the wall of an artery (see figure). If enough HDL is available, it will latch onto the cholesterol in the artery wall, lug it back into the bloodstream, and carry it to the liver. Since cholesterol is taken out of arterial cells, the process is sometimes known as cholesterol efflux. Since cholesterol is returned to the liver (where it was assembled in the first place), reverse transport is another name for the process. By either name, it's good for vascular health, since the liver collects cholesterol from the HDL particles, packages it into bile salts and bile acids, and dumps it into the intestines for excretion in the feces.
HDL in action
Antioxidant activity. The next step in atherosclerosis occurs when the LDL cholesterol in the artery wall is bombarded by oxygen free radicals that turn it into oxidized LDL cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol is the stuff that's actually responsible for arterial damage — and research shows that HDL has antioxidant activity that can help protect LDL cholesterol from free radicals.
Anti-inflammatory action. An atherosclerotic plaque is not simply a mechanical build-up of cholesterol but a site of intense inflammation triggered by oxidized cholesterol and perpetuated by white blood cells called T lymphocytes and macrophages. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) reflect the inflammation. HDL helps to quiet the inflammation, and it may also neutralize CRP's tendency to perpetuate the inflammatory cycle.
Plaque stabilization. As the cholesterol-laden inflammatory plaque enlarges, it may fill an artery enough to cause angina. If the plaque develops a fibrous cap that holds it together, things don't get any worse. But if an unstable plaque ruptures, it can trigger a heart attack or stroke. Although the evidence that HDL can help stabilize plaques is less compelling than the data supporting its other benefits, research suggests HDL may help prevent plaque rupture.
dapto wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:45 am
If we rely on Occam's razor[...]
If we rely on Occam's razor it's most likely that consensus on saturated fat and cholesterol is correct and fringe conspiratorial claims contrary to that consensus (e.g. what you're peddling) are wrong.
dapto wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:45 amIf this is true of the general population then we would assume that people on diets low in carbohydrates would have a low coronary calcium score or no hard plaque. This is indeed what we find.
Lies and half-truths.
Reduction in risk is only in moderately low carb diets high in plant based proteins and fats, not in diets rich in animal products.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritions ... ate-diets/
Research shows that a moderately low-carbohydrate diet can help the heart, as long as protein and fat selections come from healthy sources.
A 20-year prospective study of 82,802 women looked at the relationship between lower carbohydrate diets and heart disease; a subsequent study looked at lower carbohydrate diets and risk of diabetes. Women who ate low-carbohydrate diets that were high in vegetable sources of fat or protein had a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease (4) and about a 20 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes, (34) compared to women who ate high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets. But women who ate low-carbohydrate diets that were high in animal fats or proteins did not see any such benefits. (4,34)
More evidence of the heart benefits from a lower-carbohydrate approach comes from a randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health (OmniHeart). (35) A healthy diet that replaced some carbohydrate with protein or fat did a better job of lowering blood pressure and “bad” LDL cholesterol than a healthy, higher-carbohydrate diet.
Similarly, the small “EcoAtkins” weight loss trial compared a low-fat, high-carbohydrate vegetarian diet to a low-carbohydrate vegan diet that was high in vegetable protein and fat. While weight loss was similar on the two diets, study subjects who followed the low-carbohydrate “EcoAtkins” diet saw improvements in blood lipids and blood pressure. (36)
What we see is that whatever macronutrient ratio we examine, within that category either an entirely or predominately plant based diet always wins. There are very obvious reasons for that in the form of fiber and antioxidants, but also reduction in things like dietary cholesterol and saturated fats that increase endogenous production, and often a reduction in carcinogens as well from cooked meat.