All of the common diets in the West today are rich in unsaturated
fatty acids, which produces these effects (in conjunction with the
other common dietary components).  If you switch to a diet rich in
saturated fatty acids and low in unsaturated fatty acids (and also low
in oxidized cholesterol, meaning no eggs cooked while exposed to air,
for example), you will not see these unhealthy effects.  If you do
this, you cannot eat "meat," because the fat in meat is at least half
unsaturated, and often a lot more than 50% unsaturated (as in pork and
chicken).

I eat a lot of coconut, butter, cheese, boiled eggs, dark chocolate,
but no meat, and there are only health benefits from this diet, no
problems of any kind (and I also eat plenty of salt and sugar, though
I make sure to get enough potassium, which is important in the
hypertension context - my blood pressure is on the "low" end of
"normal").

Go to my free web site and you can learn about the molecular-level
mechanisms involved:

http://groups.msn.com/TheScientificDebateForum-

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=49118 says:
Before you bite into that burger or devour that doughnut, first chew
on this: New research shows that just one meal high in saturated fat
can affect the body's ability to protect itself against some of the
underlying causes of heart disease and stroke.

The research, conducted at The Heart Research Institute in Sydney,
Australia, appears in the Aug. 15, 2006, issue of the Journal of the
American College of Cardiology.

According to the study, even a single meal high in saturated fat can
reduce the ability of the body's "good" cholesterol, or high-density
lipoproteins (HDL), to protect the inner lining of the arteries from
inflammatory agents that promote the formation of artery-clogging
plaques. A single high-fat meal also can affect the ability of the
arteries to expand in order to carry adequate blood to tissues and
organs.

On the other hand, according to the research, eating a meal high in
polyunsaturated fat, a healthier form of fat, can increase the anti-
inflammatory properties of HDL, helping to protect the inner lining of
the arteries, called the endothelium, from plaque buildup.

"The take-home, public-health message is this: It's further evidence
to support the need to aggressively reduce the amount of saturated fat
consumed in the diet," said researcher Stephen J. Nicholls, MB, BS,
PhD, now a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. "This study helps
to explain the mechanisms by which saturated fat supports the
formation of plaques in the arterial wall, and we know these plaques
are the major cause of heart attack and stroke."

Saturated fats are found in both animal and plant products, and
typically are solid at room temperature. Examples include butter, lard
and palm oil. The American College of Cardiology and the American
Heart Association recommend that people limit their intake of
saturated fat to no more than 7 percent of their total daily calories.
Polyunsaturated fats, on the other hand, come mainly from plants and
are liquid at room temperature. Examples include sunflower and corn
oil.

For the study, Dr. Nicholls and his colleagues recruited 14 healthy
volunteers and supplied them with two meals, eaten one month apart.
The volunteers, ranging in age from 18 to 40, were examined and had
blood drawn before eating (following an overnight fast), three hours
after eating and again six hours after eating their supplied meals.
Neither the participants nor the researchers knew which meal was eaten
during which visit.

The meals were identical, except that one was high in saturated fat
(coconut oil), while the other was high in polyunsaturated fat
(safflower oil). Each meal consisted of a slice of carrot cake and a
milkshake. All meals were specially prepared so that each participant
consumed 1 gram of fat per kilogram of body weight - or 1 gram of fat
for every 2.2 pounds. (For a 150-pound person, that's nearly the fat
equivalent of eating a double cheeseburger, a large order of french
fries and a large milkshake at one meal.)

In examining the volunteers, Dr. Nicholls and his colleagues found
that after three hours, the saturated fat meal had reduced the ability
of the endothelium to expand the arteries in order to increase blood
flow. The researchers determined this by using a blood pressure cuff
to restrict blood flow and then monitoring the body's response. The
polyunsaturated meal also reduced this ability slightly, but the
results were not statistically significant.

After six hours, researchers found the meal high in saturated fat had
diminished the protective qualities of HDL, allowing more inflammatory
agents to accumulate in the arteries than had been present before the
volunteers ate. The polyunsaturated meal, however, seemed to boost the
anti-inflammatory abilities of the body's good cholesterol, with the
researchers finding fewer inflammatory agents in the arteries than
before the volunteers ate.

"In putting this all together," Dr. Nicholls said, "we have a
difference between the two meals regarding a number of factors that
influence the early stages of plaque formation. We have a situation
where consumption of a single meal containing a high level of
saturated fat is associated with impairment of vascular reactivity and
impairment of a normal protective property of HDL. In contrast,
consumption of a meal high in polyunsaturated fat results in HDL that
is more protective.

"It is a small study," he concluded, "but I think the findings have
broad implication because diet and exercise are the cornerstones of
all strategies for preventing heart disease."

Robert Vogel, MD, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the
University of Maryland Medical Center, did not participate in the
research, but agrees it provides "one more nail in the coffin" against
eating diets high in saturated fat.

"This study helps to flesh out just why we shouldn't eat too much
saturated fat," Dr. Vogel said. "Traditionally, we think of unhealthy
foods as raising cholesterol or raising blood pressure, but this
demonstrates that depending on what you eat, you can actually change
the effect of HDL - typically thought of as 'good' cholesterol - from
protective to detrimental. This opens up new insights and avenues for
research."

--
  Ron