The beef industry designed a study to show that a diet containing beef was able to lower cholesterol—if one cuts out enough poultry, pork, fish, and cheese to halve one’s total saturated fat intake.
BOLD Indeed: Beef Lowers Cholesterol?
4.7/5 - (35 votes)
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Imagine you worked in the now defunct Twinkie division of Hostess Foods, and wanted to take the tobacco industry tact of not just downplaying the risk of your product—but actually promoting it as healthy. How do you do that?
Your first problem is it has 2.5 grams of saturated fat. So, that’s going to raise cholesterol—the #1 risk factor of our #1 killer, heart disease. How are we going to get around that?
Well, what if you designed a study in which you took a bunch of people eating your archrival, Little Debbie® Cloud Cakes. Now, they only have one gram each. So, what if you took a group of people eating five Cloud Cakes a day—five grams of saturated fat—and then cut that saturated fat intake in half, by switching them to eating one Twinkie a day? What would happen to their cholesterol levels? Cutting saturated fat consumption in half, their cholesterol would go down. So, technically, they went from zero Twinkies a day, to one Twinkie a day. And, their cholesterol went down.
You publish it, and crank out a press release. New research shows that eating a Twinkie a day can be good for heart health by improving cholesterol levels. The media takes your press release, runs with it: Consumers can eat a Twinkie every day if they choose, and feel confident that science supports Twinkies’ healthy benefits—which now include cholesterol-lowering effects! Twinkies, you just proved with science, have cholesterol-lowering effects. Too outlandish a scenario?
Check it out. This study, bought and paid for by the beef industry, added beef to people’s diets. But, at the same time, removed so much poultry, pork, fish, and cheese from their diet that they halved their saturated fat intake—from 12% of their diet, down to 6% of their diet. So, of course, their cholesterol went down. If your diet goes from 12% saturated fat down to 6% saturated fat, it doesn’t matter if that 6% comes from beef, chicken, lard, or Twinkies. If you cut your total saturated fat in half, your cholesterol will follow—especially if you eat more fiber and vegetable protein, as they did here.
They conclude, “The results of the BOLD study [standing for Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet] provide convincing evidence that lean beef can be included in a heart-healthy diet that meets current dietary recommendations and reduces [cardiovascular disease] risk.” Crisco could be included. Krispy Kreme could be included, as long as you cut your total saturated fat intake. What they fail to mention is that risk would drop even lower if you also dropped the beef—as was pointed out by the chair of nutrition at Harvard, who’s previously pointed out that plant sources of protein are preferable.
The subjects in this study went from a high risk of dying from heart disease, to a high risk of dying from heart disease. Remember, we need to get our LDL (bad) cholesterol down to 50, 60 or 70 to become essentially heart attack-proof. For most people, that means eliminating saturated animal fat and cholesterol intake completely.
This study is really just showing how bad saturated fat is, from any animal source. Yes, based on saturated fat levels, lean beef is often better than chicken (and Twinkies). But, that’s like touting the health benefits of Coca Cola, because it has less sugar than Pepsi. It does—16 spoonfuls of sugar per bottle, instead of 15. Doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be better not consuming soda at all. Reminds me of this study: “Cheese intake…lowers…cholesterol…compared [to] butter.”
Yet, here’s the release. That’s how they ended up with the cholesterol-lowering effects of beef. If you cut out enough poultry, pork, fish, and cheese from your diet, you could get cholesterol-lowering effects from nearly anything.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- M. A. Roussell, A. M. Hill, T. L. Gaugler, S. G. West, J. P. V. Heuvel, P. Alaupovic, P. J. Gillies, P. M. Kris-Etherton. Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet study: Effects on lipids, lipoproteins, and apolipoproteins. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2012 95(1):9 - 16.
- J. Hjerpsted, E. Leedo, T. Tholstrup. Cheese intake in large amounts lowers LDL-cholesterol concentrations compared with butter intake of equal fat content. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2011 94(6):1479 - 1484.
- Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattleman's Beef Association. 2005. Twenty-nine Ways to Love Lean Beef.
- A. M. Bernstein, W. C. Willett. Conclusions of the Optimal Lean Diet Study go beyond the data. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2012 95(5):1294 - 1295.
Images thanks to readerwalker and jclor via flickr. Thanks to Stephane Lahaye and Ellen Reid for their Keynote help.
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
Imagine you worked in the now defunct Twinkie division of Hostess Foods, and wanted to take the tobacco industry tact of not just downplaying the risk of your product—but actually promoting it as healthy. How do you do that?
Your first problem is it has 2.5 grams of saturated fat. So, that’s going to raise cholesterol—the #1 risk factor of our #1 killer, heart disease. How are we going to get around that?
Well, what if you designed a study in which you took a bunch of people eating your archrival, Little Debbie® Cloud Cakes. Now, they only have one gram each. So, what if you took a group of people eating five Cloud Cakes a day—five grams of saturated fat—and then cut that saturated fat intake in half, by switching them to eating one Twinkie a day? What would happen to their cholesterol levels? Cutting saturated fat consumption in half, their cholesterol would go down. So, technically, they went from zero Twinkies a day, to one Twinkie a day. And, their cholesterol went down.
You publish it, and crank out a press release. New research shows that eating a Twinkie a day can be good for heart health by improving cholesterol levels. The media takes your press release, runs with it: Consumers can eat a Twinkie every day if they choose, and feel confident that science supports Twinkies’ healthy benefits—which now include cholesterol-lowering effects! Twinkies, you just proved with science, have cholesterol-lowering effects. Too outlandish a scenario?
Check it out. This study, bought and paid for by the beef industry, added beef to people’s diets. But, at the same time, removed so much poultry, pork, fish, and cheese from their diet that they halved their saturated fat intake—from 12% of their diet, down to 6% of their diet. So, of course, their cholesterol went down. If your diet goes from 12% saturated fat down to 6% saturated fat, it doesn’t matter if that 6% comes from beef, chicken, lard, or Twinkies. If you cut your total saturated fat in half, your cholesterol will follow—especially if you eat more fiber and vegetable protein, as they did here.
They conclude, “The results of the BOLD study [standing for Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet] provide convincing evidence that lean beef can be included in a heart-healthy diet that meets current dietary recommendations and reduces [cardiovascular disease] risk.” Crisco could be included. Krispy Kreme could be included, as long as you cut your total saturated fat intake. What they fail to mention is that risk would drop even lower if you also dropped the beef—as was pointed out by the chair of nutrition at Harvard, who’s previously pointed out that plant sources of protein are preferable.
The subjects in this study went from a high risk of dying from heart disease, to a high risk of dying from heart disease. Remember, we need to get our LDL (bad) cholesterol down to 50, 60 or 70 to become essentially heart attack-proof. For most people, that means eliminating saturated animal fat and cholesterol intake completely.
This study is really just showing how bad saturated fat is, from any animal source. Yes, based on saturated fat levels, lean beef is often better than chicken (and Twinkies). But, that’s like touting the health benefits of Coca Cola, because it has less sugar than Pepsi. It does—16 spoonfuls of sugar per bottle, instead of 15. Doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be better not consuming soda at all. Reminds me of this study: “Cheese intake…lowers…cholesterol…compared [to] butter.”
Yet, here’s the release. That’s how they ended up with the cholesterol-lowering effects of beef. If you cut out enough poultry, pork, fish, and cheese from your diet, you could get cholesterol-lowering effects from nearly anything.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- M. A. Roussell, A. M. Hill, T. L. Gaugler, S. G. West, J. P. V. Heuvel, P. Alaupovic, P. J. Gillies, P. M. Kris-Etherton. Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet study: Effects on lipids, lipoproteins, and apolipoproteins. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2012 95(1):9 - 16.
- J. Hjerpsted, E. Leedo, T. Tholstrup. Cheese intake in large amounts lowers LDL-cholesterol concentrations compared with butter intake of equal fat content. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2011 94(6):1479 - 1484.
- Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattleman's Beef Association. 2005. Twenty-nine Ways to Love Lean Beef.
- A. M. Bernstein, W. C. Willett. Conclusions of the Optimal Lean Diet Study go beyond the data. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2012 95(5):1294 - 1295.
Images thanks to readerwalker and jclor via flickr. Thanks to Stephane Lahaye and Ellen Reid for their Keynote help.
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Title
BOLD Indeed: Beef Lowers Cholesterol?
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
How are Americans exposed to saturated fat? Burgers actually fall well below chicken; see Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, & Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero.
The beef industry is by no means alone in having a corrupting influence on the scientific method. See, for example:
- Dietary Guidelines: Advisory Committee Conflicts of Interest
- Is Pomegranate Juice that Wonderful?
- Nerves of Mercury
- Does Coconut Oil Clog Arteries?
- The McGovern Report
- Safety of Noni & Mangosteen Juice
- Eggs & Cholesterol: Patently False & Misleading Claims
For more on being heart attack-proof, see Eliminating the #1 Cause of Death.
For further context, check out my associated blog post: How to Design a Misleading Study.
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