Hello Barbell Medicine,
Is there anything specifically bad about consuming saturated fat from whole milk in quantities exceeding the 10% rule (say 30% of daily kcal)?
I understand the recommendations for 10%-or-less in general, but I’m wondering why this recommendation is so low (?). Does saturated fat from whole milk cause heart disease, or is the recommendation derived primarily from statistics, and implied to pertain to all sources (palm, cocoa, etc.)?
Put another way:
Assuming an otherwise-healthy male is maintaining a healthy BMI, and an appropriate energy balance, and he likes to drink a gallon of whole milk a day year round, does this high amount of saturated fat intake portend long-term health problems independent of energy balance? If so, are there one or two mechanisms you can point to?
Apologies if you’ve covered this somewhere, there’s a lot of noise on the topic, and a lot of BS.
Generally speaking, dietary saturated fat consumed in excess of 10% daily Calories worsens blood lipid levels. Specifically, it increases atherogenic lipoproteins.
For more on cholesterol:
There are exceptions to this, e.g. saturated fat in milk does not seem to confer this risk (likely the opposite).
I would not recommend drinking a gallon of whole milk per day year round for pretty much anyone, as I think it unlikely to be possible within a health promoting dietary pattern. We can create hypotheticals to make it work, but as I said, this would not be my recommendation.
Thank you for the reference, and all of the fantastic content you guys put out! 10/4 on your recommendation. I agree that most people should definitely not drink a gallon per day.
That article is fantastic. And the paragraph in there about MFGM is super interesting. Went down the rabbit hole on that this morning. Again, thank you for all you do.
Thank you for the kind words.