8 ms·

Fat isn’t bad for you, at all. Sugar very much so.

by voz_ 3y ago

constantly 3y ago
Fat isn’t bad for you aside from heart disease and being a major risk factor in a myriad of other health conditions you mean?
- mdon 3y ago
  Are you a time traveler from the 90s?
  - UncleSlacky 3y ago
    More like the 70s, like Woody Allen in "The Sleeper": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485Em2JF34M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485Em2JF34M
  - 876978095789789 3y ago
    > Are you a time traveler from the 90s? What was the obesity rate in 1993 vs. 2023?
- cortesoft 3y ago
  Being fat is a risk for those things, eating fat isn't. Fat is calorie dense, but isn't bad for you on a per-calorie basis.
- baq 3y ago
  Eating fat isn’t, mostly. Being fat is. Sugar makes you fay way more than fat.
- chickenfeed 3y ago
  I thought that fat had been un-demonised and overtaken by sugars and ultra-processed foods. Looking in my stock cupboard, the raw fats I do get are probably the best bang for the buck nutritionally.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Saturated fats are still further in the bad column.
    - amanaplanacanal 3y ago
      Nah. Latest research has given them a reprieve. It was a bad rap.
      - tpush 3y ago
        No, this is not true at all.
        hombre_fatal 3y ago
        People fall for it because it’s so seductive. They were fine with trans fats being bad, but when saturated fats are also demonstrated to impact health outcomes by the exact same methodology, they resist it because it condemns their favorite foods.
        shkkmo 3y ago
        The current state of research does not provide strong evidence for a link between saturated fats and cardiovascular disease: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20071648/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20071648/ It seems the health benefits are contingent on what you replace saturated fat calories with (i.e. replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats does seem to reduce heart disease, but replacing them with processed carbs does the opposite.)
- xcv123 3y ago
  You are 20 years behind unless you are talking about about polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Canola, Soy, Cottonseed, and all other industrial seed oils are toxic trash and should be eliminated from your diet as far as possible. Saturated fat is essential for health. Cholesterol is nutritious. Animal fats are nutritious. Excess sugar and polyunsaturated oils will cause heart disease but not animal fat which is what we have been eating for millions of years. All of that bullshit advice against saturated fat and dietary cholesterol has been completely debunked many years ago. It was fraudulent science.
  - tpush 3y ago
    Quite literally non of what you say is true. The state of HN on nutrition discourse is completely screwed.
    - shkkmo 3y ago
      There is some confusion amd inaccuracy there about the different kinds of fats, but the general theme seems pretty backed up by science Dietary cholesterol not an issue: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024687/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024687/ Decent Summary of our current understanding of the health effects of different kinds of fats: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-about-fats-bad-and-good https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-abo...
  - hombre_fatal 3y ago
    This is social media health influencer level misinformation on saturated vs unsaturated fats. This is so well studied that you can just bring big meta analyses to the table. If canola and other scary industrial seed oils are so bad, how come it improves health outcomes especially when swapped to from butter? How come canola has even more impressive nutritional profile than olive oil? How come unsaturated fats improve health outcomes when swapped to from saturated fats? Here’s a good roundup of the research: https://www.the-nutrivore.com/post/a-comprehensive-rebuttal-to-seed-oil-sophistry https://www.the-nutrivore.com/post/a-comprehensive-rebuttal-...
- tpush 3y ago
  You're being downvoted and the replies to are condescending, but you are actually completely correct and the replies exhibit misinformed groupthink. Goes to show how powerful narratives being pushed YouTube personalities et al can be.
  - hombre_fatal 3y ago
    HNers are prob the perfect demographic for the new crop of “meat is manly”, “butter is healthy”, “scientific consensus is wrong” social media influencers. You can see all the talking points in every nutrition related subreddit.
dragonwriter 3y ago
Some kinds of fats are bad for you, and the calorie density of fat may make some people more prone to overeat when eating high fat foods. But, yes, sugar is more consistently a problem than fat.
- wincy 3y ago
  I ate a diet where 80% of my calories were from fat and I struggled to eat more than 1300 calories in a day. I think unless you’re eating cheesecake every day (hyperpalatable foods where carbs + fat calories are near a 1:1 ratio) you’re not going to gain weight eating fat.
- tzs 3y ago
  Fats can also have high satiety which might make some people eat less. I think that is part of what happened to me. My blood sugar levels were going up, despite no changes in diet or medication. I wanted to see how much dietary carb levels were affecting that, and decided to try lowering carbs. Nothing radical--just lowering from the 50-60% calories from carbs that is typical to around 40% [1]. I did not attempt to cut calories during this. In fact I did things that would increase calories of some items. E.g., if I was getting a sandwich (50% calories from carbs) I'd order it with mayo or extra cheese or extra meat to get the percent from carbs <= 40%. Blood sugar did come down, but to my surprise so did weight. It turned out I was eating something like 30% fewer calories, because I wasn't hungry enough for more. [1] I picked 40% because it is easy to calculate. If something is N calories, it is 40% from carbs if it has N/10 g of carbs. That makes it easy to keep a running total throughout the day of how many grams over or under you are from 40%.

Fat isn’t bad for you, at all. Sugar very much so.

by voz_ 3y ago

Fat isn’t bad for you, at all. Sugar very much so.

Fat isn’t bad for you aside from heart disease and being a major risk factor in a myriad of other health conditions you mean?

mdon 3y ago
Are you a time traveler from the 90s?
- UncleSlacky 3y ago
  More like the 70s, like Woody Allen in "The Sleeper": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485Em2JF34M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485Em2JF34M
- 876978095789789 3y ago
  > Are you a time traveler from the 90s? What was the obesity rate in 1993 vs. 2023?
cortesoft 3y ago
Being fat is a risk for those things, eating fat isn't. Fat is calorie dense, but isn't bad for you on a per-calorie basis.
baq 3y ago
Eating fat isn’t, mostly. Being fat is. Sugar makes you fay way more than fat.
chickenfeed 3y ago
I thought that fat had been un-demonised and overtaken by sugars and ultra-processed foods. Looking in my stock cupboard, the raw fats I do get are probably the best bang for the buck nutritionally.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Saturated fats are still further in the bad column.
  - amanaplanacanal 3y ago
    Nah. Latest research has given them a reprieve. It was a bad rap.
    - tpush 3y ago
      No, this is not true at all.
      - hombre_fatal 3y ago
        People fall for it because it’s so seductive. They were fine with trans fats being bad, but when saturated fats are also demonstrated to impact health outcomes by the exact same methodology, they resist it because it condemns their favorite foods.
        shkkmo 3y ago
        The current state of research does not provide strong evidence for a link between saturated fats and cardiovascular disease: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20071648/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20071648/ It seems the health benefits are contingent on what you replace saturated fat calories with (i.e. replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats does seem to reduce heart disease, but replacing them with processed carbs does the opposite.)
xcv123 3y ago
You are 20 years behind unless you are talking about about polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Canola, Soy, Cottonseed, and all other industrial seed oils are toxic trash and should be eliminated from your diet as far as possible. Saturated fat is essential for health. Cholesterol is nutritious. Animal fats are nutritious. Excess sugar and polyunsaturated oils will cause heart disease but not animal fat which is what we have been eating for millions of years. All of that bullshit advice against saturated fat and dietary cholesterol has been completely debunked many years ago. It was fraudulent science.
- tpush 3y ago
  Quite literally non of what you say is true. The state of HN on nutrition discourse is completely screwed.
  - shkkmo 3y ago
    There is some confusion amd inaccuracy there about the different kinds of fats, but the general theme seems pretty backed up by science Dietary cholesterol not an issue: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024687/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024687/ Decent Summary of our current understanding of the health effects of different kinds of fats: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-about-fats-bad-and-good https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-abo...
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  This is social media health influencer level misinformation on saturated vs unsaturated fats. This is so well studied that you can just bring big meta analyses to the table. If canola and other scary industrial seed oils are so bad, how come it improves health outcomes especially when swapped to from butter? How come canola has even more impressive nutritional profile than olive oil? How come unsaturated fats improve health outcomes when swapped to from saturated fats? Here’s a good roundup of the research: https://www.the-nutrivore.com/post/a-comprehensive-rebuttal-to-seed-oil-sophistry https://www.the-nutrivore.com/post/a-comprehensive-rebuttal-...
tpush 3y ago
You're being downvoted and the replies to are condescending, but you are actually completely correct and the replies exhibit misinformed groupthink. Goes to show how powerful narratives being pushed YouTube personalities et al can be.
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  HNers are prob the perfect demographic for the new crop of “meat is manly”, “butter is healthy”, “scientific consensus is wrong” social media influencers. You can see all the talking points in every nutrition related subreddit.

dragonwriter 3y ago

Some kinds of fats are bad for you, and the calorie density of fat may make some people more prone to overeat when eating high fat foods. But, yes, sugar is more consistently a problem than fat.

wincy 3y ago
I ate a diet where 80% of my calories were from fat and I struggled to eat more than 1300 calories in a day. I think unless you’re eating cheesecake every day (hyperpalatable foods where carbs + fat calories are near a 1:1 ratio) you’re not going to gain weight eating fat.
tzs 3y ago
Fats can also have high satiety which might make some people eat less. I think that is part of what happened to me. My blood sugar levels were going up, despite no changes in diet or medication. I wanted to see how much dietary carb levels were affecting that, and decided to try lowering carbs. Nothing radical--just lowering from the 50-60% calories from carbs that is typical to around 40% [1]. I did not attempt to cut calories during this. In fact I did things that would increase calories of some items. E.g., if I was getting a sandwich (50% calories from carbs) I'd order it with mayo or extra cheese or extra meat to get the percent from carbs <= 40%. Blood sugar did come down, but to my surprise so did weight. It turned out I was eating something like 30% fewer calories, because I wasn't hungry enough for more. [1] I picked 40% because it is easy to calculate. If something is N calories, it is 40% from carbs if it has N/10 g of carbs. That makes it easy to keep a running total throughout the day of how many grams over or under you are from 40%.