I just read the most recent post over on “Mark’s Daily Apple,” called “The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat,” and wanted to share my response here, on my blog, because I think it’s pertinent to the continuing diet debate in our country.

Here’s my comment:

I wonder about dietary information beyond “eat what’s natural (i.e., non-processed food, or efls’s, and being as “natural” as possible (untampered with, organic, etc.)), in season, from your local area.”

These studies all seem to point to one thing – people live for about 75-100 years.

The folks from the areas with higher mortality rates live in places where medical care and hygiene are comparatively low; and in some cases, where warfare or death due to violence is comparatively high.

The human body, like any organism, has a high degree of adaptability (which is why we’re still around), and it seems to me that the body will find a way to subsist on anything “natural” as long as it isn’t poisonous (either as a quality or as a quantity (excess)).

Fats, carbohydrates, proteins…whatever, in any crazy combination, as long as you aren’t getting too many or too few of one over the other two, which doesn’t really happen if you’re eating the way mentioned in the first paragraph.

After all of the reading I’ve done, having lived to this point and met people from all kinds of places and walks of life, etc., I really wonder about this topic a lot.  As a lot of people mention, there is very little evidence that saturated fat intake (or cholesterol level) are directly correlated to heart disease or mortality, particularly when taken by themselves (without adding other risk-factors like smoking and other stressors).

Most people, especially in “first world” countries, where healthcare is efficient and swift, live to be about 75-100 years of age.  The outliers eat EFLS (edible, food-like substances, per Michael Pollan), have high levels of stress, genetic diseases, etc.

I don’t know…I may be completely off base about this.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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