Carbohydrates & Cardiovascular disease

[Vince]

The researchers answered this argument by analysing the 60 foods/food groups and health markers for all 158 countries together adjusted for health expenditure per capita. (They also adjusted for smoking). This is an ideal way to adjust for any ‘affluence = health’ confounder. The researchers found that the relationships between cereals, wheat, and energy from cereals and starchy roots combined, maintained a positive relationship with CVD deaths even after the adjustment for health expenditure.

Carbohydrates & Cardiovascular disease – Zoë Harcombe

 

[Cataceous]

The only strong and significant positive relationship between American CVD mortality and any of the 60 foods/food groups was with “Oilcrops”. The relationship was 0.65 in men and 0.6 in women. The only negative relationship, stronger than 0.5, for American CVD mortality was with eggs. This was the case with both men (-0.51) and women (-0.58) i.e. higher egg consumption was associated with lower CVD deaths.

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

Regarding the US, I doubt if there is a sufficiently large group of people doing proper paleo/low-carb for a sufficiently long period of time (as well as other "healthy user" attributes) in order for benefit of low carb to show up in an observational study. Most people eating high-fat in the US are still also eating high-ish carb and as such are part part of the unhealthy user population.

 

[Cataceous]

Regarding the US, I doubt if there is a sufficiently large group of people doing proper paleo/low-carb for a sufficiently long period of time (as well as other "healthy user" attributes) in order for benefit of low carb to show up in an observational study. Most people eating high-fat in the US are still also eating high-ish carb and as such are part part of the unhealthy user population.

It's not the US alone, it's 29 countries in the Americas. If you think there's statistical weakness in the underlying study then do point it out: Global Correlates of Cardiovascular Risk: A Comparison of 158 Countries

Due to the study's observational nature the signficance of the correlations almost certainly defies simplistic explanations such as "grain is bad, meat is good". You also have oddities like refined sugar and sweeteners correlating weakly with better blood pressure and less CVD mortality.

 

[ShawnCor]

That was a good read. I understood this before to a good degree, but its always nice to see another good study on this. Thanks for sharing.