Open-Mindedness

I made a comment earlier today on Fred Hahn's blog over at Slowburn.  The original post itself was pretty decent and had some good points about cutting down on grains, dairy, etc.

My comment had to do with cholesterol levels.  Hunter-gatherers had total cholesterol levels of around 130.  In modern society, most people are above that number and not coincidentally have a variety of health problems.  Hahn informed me that there are no studies linking high cholesterol to health problems. 

Of course, there are countless studies linking high cholesterol and health problems.  If you go to PubMed, you can put in "lipids" and the disease of your choice and you will most likely find a relationship.  This is not to say that high cholesterol necessarily causes all these conditions, but it sometimes does and lowering cholesterol levels often helps.  After all, why are millions of people taking statins?  For fun?  There are obviously benefits (though there can be negative side effects associated with statins).

The bigger question for me is why some people aren't open-minded about these things.  I received a mysterious email a while ago that told me how saturated fat doesn't lead to heart disease and told me to look up references on it.  The email was written as if Moses himself came down from the mountain with this information.

For many issues, there is lots of debate and lots of ongoing research.  This is the way of the scientific method, as over time the answers get better and better.  For the cholesterol issue, there are scientists (like Loren Cordain) who believe high cholesterol contributes to heart disease and there are scientists that don't (like this group).  But too often people go for easy, black-and-white answers.  For example, it usually isn't even mentioned that people can have different responses to the same amount of dietary cholesterol due to genetic polymorphisms. 

I think it's natural for people to learn and improve their views over time.  Drew Baye commented on this blog that as he learned more his views on exercise changed sharply.  Conversely, there are those who have thought enough: they have convinced themselves, and now they are ready to convince you.  And if you're not sure they're right, just ask them - they'll tell you.

Comments

[Cindy]

Hunter-gatherers had total cholesterol levels of around 130.

Curious, where did you get this info?

[Matt Metzgar]

Over at Loren Cordain's site (www.thepaleodiet.com), under "Published Research", paper #8:

O'Keefe JH, Cordain L, Harris, WH, Moe RM, Vogel R. Optimal low-density lipoprotein is 50 to 70 mg/dl. Lower is better and physiologically normal. J Am Coll Cardiol 2004;43: 2142-6