Stress appears to negate effects of healthy-type fat consumption

[elte]

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-09-to...-good.html

  Unstressed women who ate a biscuits-and-gravy breakfast made mostly with saturated fat fared worse in blood tests looking for precursors to disease than those women who ate an identical breakfast made primarily with monounsaturated sunflower oil.  This study is the first to show that stress has the potential to cancel out benefits of choosing healthier fats, said Kiecolt-Glaser, who directs the Institute for Behavioral Medicine at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center.
The research appears in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

 

Going into the study, Kiecolt-Glaser and her collaborators knew that both diet and stress can alter inflammation in the body. That's important because chronic inflammation is linked to a litany of health problems including heart disease, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.  

[scheherazade]

Studies such as the above will continue to support the findings that butter and other saturated fats have been vilified in favor of food industry manufactured substitutes.
When eaten in moderation and supplemented with a reasonable amount of activity (which also serves to reduce stress), saturated fats are not the problem.

2. Butter Contains a Lot of Healthy Saturated Fats

[Image: girl-eating-kebab.jpg]

The “war” against saturated fat was based on bad science.
It was never really proven that it caused any harm.
In fact, recent studies suggest that there is no association at all between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease (5, 6).
Saturated fats raise HDL (the good) cholesterol and change the LDL from small, dense (very bad) to Large LDL… which is benign (7, 8).
Additionally, butter contains a decent amount of short and medium chain fats… which are are metabolized differently from other fats. They lead to improved satiety and increased fat burning (9, 10).

Bottom Line: New studies show that there is no association between saturated fat and heart disease. Butter contains short- and medium chain fats.

https://authoritynutrition.com/7-reasons...d-for-you/

[elte]

I get an impression that saturated fats might be the real healthy ones and stress makes the unsaturated ones behave better even though it seems a bit counterintuitive.

I have heard in prior times that saturated fats can be good or even better than unsaturated ones if the source had a healthy environment to grow in.

[scheherazade]

I find it hard to contemplate that a study would use biscuits and gravy as a test breakfast. A less healthy option would be hard to find in my humble opinion.

Rather inconceivable in my mind that one could even hypothesize that changing out the type of fat could improve such fodder, stress or no stress.

More recently, it has been identified that the sugar industry suppressed data and assisted in the demonizing of fat as the cause of obesity and heart disease.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/e...share&_r=0

[elte]

I was thinking of how stressors placed on individual cells can have a rejuvenating effect on an organism. That is actually different though from the largely mental stress that the study considers.

[scheherazade]

I was thinking of how stressors placed on individual cells can have a rejuvenating effect on an organism.  That is actually different though from the largely mental stress that the study considers.

Precisely.

Some stress actually is good for us in that it keeps us on our toes and enhances our biological fitness.

Other stress, such as constant worry about conditions that are beyond our ability to control, becomes counter-productive as it drains our resources and leaves us open to illness and injury which can become a slippery slope.

From much field experimenting on myself I have observed that when I eat healthy foods and get adequate sleep, I do not crave sweet and salty junk foods. When I am fatigued or mentally stressed, I am tempted to choose convenience foods instead of preparing a healthy option from predominantly fresh ingredients.

In today's fast-paced 24/7/365 society, we are in constant competition mode, even when headed out for a weekend of camping as we are trying to beat the traffic and secure a preferred location as just one example. From getting to work, to buying our groceries, finding a parking spot, making an appointment, it is a constant pull and grind from arising until bedtime for most, especially in larger centers.