Just read through the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which was chocked full of good articles. I’ll be kept in blogging fodder for several days just from the contents of this one issue.

The paper I want to discuss today is one that I find hilarious. It’s a report of the Hamburg Burger Trial and I find it hilarious because the results were so different than what the researchers expected. In fact, they mention how surprised they were to get these results. The only reason they should have been surprised is that they are either ignorant or stupid – or both.

If I gave most readers of this blog the same data the authors of the study had, the blog readers would not have been surprised. They would have expected exactly the outcome that resulted. Which makes the readers of this blog a whole lot smarter than the long list of scientists who authored this paper.

Here’s the setup.

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Researchers at my alma mater the University of Arkansas reportedly have developed a healthful trans fat. I figured that it wouldn’t take long. Money quote:

By juggling the molecular structure of soy oil, the team of scientists have developed a substance that is rich in conjugated linoleic acid.Andrew Proctor, professor of food science, and graduate student Vishal Jain claim that studies have shown that CLA can give the immune system a boost.

The two scientists have now used the converted oil to produce potato chips that contain high concentrations of CLA.

“It is still important to have a low fat diet and we do not propose increasing the fat intake, but a few chips will provide needed CLA,” said Proctor. [Italics in the original]

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Just got the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), which prints a letter debate on the harmful effects (or lack thereof) of saturated fats. I’m going to print the debate in its entirety below so that you can listen in. I want to you see first hand the narrow mindedness of a true believer of the lipid hypothesis.

The inspiration for this debate came from an editorial written by Martijn Katan about a paper published last May by Ronald Krauss and his group. (I wrote a fairly extensive post on this same paper as soon as it came out.) Katan is a fervent advocate of the lipid hypothesis who writes editorials espousing it whenever he gets the chance. Since these editorials seem always to advance the same issues despite any evidence to the contrary I’ve begun referring to them as the Katanic Verses.

A taste of this (typical) Katanic Verse: Read more »

If you went through the copy-paste-enlarge gyrations to be able to read the yellowed clipping taped on to the back of my Framingham study booklet you know that Dr. Kannel, the head of the Framingham study at the time, didn’t mince words about the association of serum cholesterol with heart disease. His strong statements came, strangely enough, as a ‘clarification’ to the report published under his name showing no such association.

See Dr. Kannel’s remarks in an enlarged section of the yellow clipping below.

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