Does saturated fat cause insulin resistance?

Hi,
The media are replete with claims that we need to reduce saturated fat if we are not to cause an increase in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Is the science behind this position sound or is too much fat very hard to take in due to becoming satiated?
Thanks
Derek

Derek wrote:Hi,
The media are replete with claims that we need to reduce saturated fat if we are not to cause an increase in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Is the science behind this position sound or is too much fat very hard to take in due to becoming satiated?
Thanks
Derek

Hi Derek

In my first career I trained as an Aerospace Engineer. Very often, in fact most of the time, the job was about problem solving. Sometimes the problem seemed so complex it appeared to be insurmountable. At that stage I went back to basics, started again at the beginning, the same applies to diet.

Human beings and other animals store excess calories as saturated fat, this is how we have evolved to survive. The human race would not exist if we could not store some excess saturated fat to survive the famine. A few years ago the boffins came up with a very low fat formula milk for babies. It was a complete disaster, babies failed to develop properly and it was quietly dumped.

One area the medics agree on is breast milk is best for babies and infants, contains saturated fat. I have asked medics when does saturated fat become a killer? at one year old, two years old, three years old? The fact is fats from natural foods have never been a killer. Never have I received a straight answer. Man mad fats are a very different proposition.

The way I see it, when man meddles with nature there is always a price to pay, nature will always win. Whether you believe in God, evolution or some other creator, the right foods for us to eat, have been provided for us from the start, around 3 million years ago. All animals have the good sense to eat the best food for them when available. Man is the only animal clever enough to create his own food, and then stupid enough to eat it.

Every well controlled diabetic I know (I know a lot) has reduced carbs markedly and upped saturated fat intake. Their blood tests and well-being confirms they made the right decision. So, saturated fat does not cause insulin resistance.

"Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food." Hippocrates. Over two thousand years ago those words were uttered by the Father of medicine, they stand good today. Never has the food we eat had greater influence over our lives. Traditional foods and healthy eating has been usurped by the multinational food giants. Do not become a victim of poor dietary information. Eat the food we evolved from, the less man is involved, the healthier the food.

Last word to Doctor Malcolm Kendrick.

“The reality is that over the years, and around the world we have killed literally millions of diabetics by advising them to eat a high-carb diet and avoid fats. Only now is it being recognised that previous advice was and remains useless, dangerous and scientifically illiterate"

Well technically yes, fat probably does increase insulin resistance - Peter at Hyperlipid did a series of posts on what he called "Physiological Insulin Resistance", which is adaptive and the body's way of partitioning glucose to the tissues that require it and fats/ketones to the tissues that prefer them, and takes on different values at different tissues over time. 

CHRONIC insulin resistance is the problem, and that is caused by eating too many carbs and demanding too much insulin. High insulin promotes fat storage and blocks fat metabolism. Only when this is switched off again is the stored fat metabolised, or the dietary fat metabolised properly. High carb diets, especially when containing high levels of Omega 6, keep the IR switched on and bugger everything else up.

Dieticians tell you that the body metabolises glucose first because it "prefers" it. NO! It metabolises glucose first to get it out of the way before it goes around glycating everything. It is so eager to get fructose out of the way that it bypasses several of the control circuits. Fat, especially saturated fat, is left until later to metabolise because it is less damaging. Hence people eating a high carb diet have higher levels of free fatty acids in the blood.

Keep the glucose and especially the fructose down and everything else goes back to working properly.

Hi, Thanks for your responses.
I guess they are hooked on carbs and the eat well plate!
I can't see them letting us have high fat without a health tax.
The next thing will be to persecute the health care professionals
that subscribe to lchf.
Fat and carbs don't mix.
regards

Insulin resistance is just a mechanism that the body uses to regulate nutrients utilization. It is beneficial to the body to maintain homeostasis (balance) it is only pathological (harmful) if high on the presence of high glucose. So reduce the glucose you eat and it become less of a problem. It is the fastest and easier that you can undo your problem of high insulin resistance.

Yes it's like a lot of things. Inflammation is a beneficial response to an infection or injury, not so beneficial if it becomes chronic and locked on permanently. 

Derek yes, I've had a horrifying thought that when the current incarnation of the Eatwell Plate does as expected and makes things worse, doctors will be blamed for failing to enforce it and it will be made illegal to suggest otherwise. As I believe is now the case in Australia and New Zealand.