Saturated fats unvillified, and Statins villified! - Thyroid UK

Thyroid UK

137,156 members160,846 posts

Saturated fats unvillified, and Statins villified!

langdocienne profile image
24 Replies

A very interesting article by Dr. Mercola as per usual. I'll certainly keep on taking my tbs of kerrygold butter, in my coffee, totally delicious, and lots of organic virgin coconut oil, the best oil to fry with, and moisturize with, good on your purse, no need for expensive creams, that promise the earth, and don't deliver!

articles.mercola.com/sites/...

Written by
langdocienne profile image
langdocienne
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
24 Replies
Fruitandnutcase profile image
Fruitandnutcase

Sadly ( well not really!) I never really managed to give up butter - especially the French unsalted kind. Now it's come back into fashion :)

langdocienne profile image
langdocienne in reply to Fruitandnutcase

Not sadly lol, but only Kerrygold, as it is from non-cafo fed cows

SmallBlueThing profile image
SmallBlueThing in reply to langdocienne

I'm sure other butters from grass-fed cows are available ;-)

langdocienne profile image
langdocienne in reply to SmallBlueThing

Not here in the Uk, unless you know of any

SmallBlueThing profile image
SmallBlueThing in reply to langdocienne

Worth a read: primalbritain.co.uk/uk-gras...

Silver_Fairy profile image
Silver_Fairy in reply to langdocienne

Sorry, but what is cafo? Im sure I will have a light bulb moment at some time, but when that will be .........

langdocienne profile image
langdocienne in reply to Silver_Fairy

confined animal feeding operation, so the cows are grazing, not fed all sorts of crap

Silver_Fairy profile image
Silver_Fairy in reply to langdocienne

Thank you :)

humanbean profile image
humanbean

Ooh thank you! I watched the first Statin Nation film and it was very interesting. I'm looking forward to watching the sequel! I wonder if Dr Kendrick appears again?

LindaC profile image
LindaC

Yes, a lot of Dr Mercola's articles are excellent, thanks.

Statins... why would anyone listen to 'their' hype? Scary!

Sadly when my gut 'went down', I had to stop using Medium Chain Fatty Acids [coconut oil] due to huge bloating effects, yet the opposite is said to happen. I used to even make my own [fabulous, keep in the freezer] chocolate with it.

Moisturisers/serums: much is down to choice but largely genetics. Some great balms out there now and many non-paraben etc products available: different strokes :-)

SmallBlueThing profile image
SmallBlueThing

"The French eat a lot more fat than many other nations..." but by my calculations it's only equivalent to about 20g more cheese than the average Brit, per day.

Rebec profile image
Rebec in reply to SmallBlueThing

Maybe it's what type of cheese is eaten that makes the difference. The Brits eat a lot of hard cheeses like cheddar, while the French eat the soft variety, like camembert. To think that they also eat a lot of white bread and the women are slim like their baguettes or ficelles they're eating!

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to Rebec

Oh the myths!!! lol There are plenty of fat women in France - especially in the little town where I live. Maybe the fashionable women in Paris are 'slim like their baguettes' but not everywhere. It's like saying all French women are well-dressed and good cooks. Just not true. There are good and bad everywhere, just like in the UK.

Yes, traditionally they do eat a lot of camembert and brie. And use a lot of cream in their sauces. But there is still a high percentage of people that believe that fat is bad for you, and avoid it like the plague. And a lot of French doctors push statins on their patients, and talk about the dangers of cholesterol.

France isn't, basically, that much different to the UK.

Rebec profile image
Rebec in reply to greygoose

I was a student in Paris and had friends in various areas in France and I never ever saw fat women. Maybe since then, they started putting on weight! The food served in students' restaurants included salads and a lot of vegetables. You're right that they're considered to know how to dress elegantly. I owned once a French magazine with different ways of tieing a scarf! I went once with a foreign fattish friend into a clothes shop in Paris and the ladies working there made unpleasant remarks about my friend's weight. I can't say anything about the way they cook.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to Rebec

Well, I've lived here for over 40 years in various parts of France...

Rebec profile image
Rebec in reply to greygoose

In view of what happened in Paris, I prefer to leave this 'analysis' for now.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to Rebec

Well, I Don't see the connection, but as you wish. Anyway, there isn't any 'analysis', I live in France. What more is there to say.

Rebec profile image
Rebec in reply to greygoose

You don't know what what kind of connections other people have to French people.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to Rebec

No, of course I Don't. I'm just saying that I know there are fat people, there are thin people, there are in-between people, just like anywhere else, and to pretend that all French women are thin like baguettes is just untrue. Not saying anything against the French, or anybody else, just saying let's stay realistic. :)

Rebec profile image
Rebec in reply to greygoose

Greygoose, let's say we agree to disagree!

langdocienne profile image
langdocienne in reply to greygoose

Yes I lived in the Beziers region with my kids for a few years, and in the south, you get more slim women, they always eat lots of olive oil tossed salads, loads of olives, and love their butter and cheese, I eat just the same. It seems to be more in countryside, you get the fatties lol.

foreversummer profile image
foreversummer

Interesting what he says about ferritin levels. Levels above 80 can cause heart disease.

humanbean profile image
humanbean in reply to foreversummer

"Your iron level: Iron can be a very potent driver of oxidative stress, so if you have excess iron levels you can damage your blood vessels and increase your risk of heart disease. Ideally, you should monitor your ferritin levels and make sure they are not much above 80 ng/ml. The simplest way to lower them if they are elevated is to donate your blood. If that is not possible you can have a therapeutic phlebotomy and that will effectively eliminate the excess iron from your body."

I've had this discussion before with various people, so I'll just say that this is my feeling on the subject, and I know many people don't share it. Until the medical profession and the testing labs actually come up with standardised reference ranges for ferritin and standardised testing methods, anyone who mentions a specific number for ferritin levels without mentioning the related reference range is making a pointless statement. Are we talking about a ferritin level of 80ng/ml with a reference range of 13 - 150? Or 13 - 400? Or... ? The reference range makes a huge difference. In the first range I mention, 80 is approximately mid-range. In the second range I mention, 80 is 17% of the way through the reference range. These cannot be compared and classed as equivalent, even though in both cases the result is 80.

humanbean profile image
humanbean

I watched Statin Nation II: What Really Causes Heart Disease? last night. It was interesting, but didn't have quite such an impact on me as the first one did. I just wish the first one was still publicly available, I only managed to watch it once. I would like to show it to my husband, who still believes firmly in low-fat, ditch the saturated fats, fat causes high cholesterol which kills people etc.

You may also like...

A long and interesting article about statins and saturated fats and cholesterol

changing my stance on saturated fats, e.g. kerrygold butter. In fact, I want my cholesterol as...

Polyunsaturated fats v saturated fats

At last the US is changing their stance on foods, apart from saturated fats.

.aspx?e_cid=20160210Z2_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20160

high iron and saturation

Advice on high Transferrin saturation