Introduction
Somehow I missed this video and podcast
when they came out. I just happened upon them recently, serendipitously (Sanders,
2019, 2020). Brian lists Dr. Klurfeld's credentials as:
"David Klurfeld is the National Program Leader for Human Nutrition in the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition for 6 years and is currently Associate Editor of the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition."
So not exactly a lightweight in the field.
Responding to a question as to why correlations are "accepted as facts" Klurfeld said, "...here’s this belief by researchers that they have the correct answer to whatever problem it is..." This amounts to scientists assuming their assumptions are correct. Here is an example of that sort of behavior.
ReplyDelete"SFA are considered to be the most inflammatory compared to other fatty acid families...
As explained by Myles (2014), TLR4 senses bacteria, by binding the lipolysaccharide (LPS) of the bacteria, which contains SFA, mostly stearic and palmitic acids. This suggests that TLR4 can generate inappropriate signaling when exposed to certain SFA if in too great of frequency, amount, or homogeneity rather than in a more biological balance and dosage. As a result, this signaling anomaly may induce an inappropriate immune response in the case where SFA may be perceived as a bacterial invader." https://www.ocl-journal.org/articles/ocl/full_html/2020/01/ocl200009s/ocl200009s.html
The problem with this interpretation of the evidence is that plasma saturated fatty acid concentrations are unrelated to dietary saturated fatty acid intake. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25415333/
In the Conclusion section of the How fats we eat modulate our immunity? article the author said, "But it seems that the interaction of n-3 and n-6 PUFA and their lipid mediator derivatives in the context of immunity and inflammation is complex and still not properly understood."
Perhaps the interaction of n-3 and n-6 PUFA would be better understood if interactions could be observed in the context of lowered arachidonic acid concentrations rather than current average or increased concentrations. What scientists are struggling with is an incomplete data set. For example, "Chicken meat with reduced concentration of arachidonic acid (AA) and reduced ratio between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids has potential health benefits because a reduction in AA intake dampens prostanoid signaling, and the proportion between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is too high in our diet." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2875212/