INTERESTING: Is saturated fat associated with diabetes? It depends on which kind of saturated fat.

We pretend, without proof that all carbohydrates are equal. That all proteins are equal. That all fats are equal. That all saturated fats are equal. . . .

This interesting recent article in The Lancet, Diabetes and Endocrinology . . . considers the differing effects of even versus odd chain length in saturated fats. . . .

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Study (EPIC), a huge multi-national, long-term cohort study following 340,234 people in 8 European countries identified 12,403 new cases of type 2 diabetes.

Even chain length SFAs (14:0, 16:0, and 18:0) were positively associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes. This means that high levels of even chain saturated fat in the blood are associated with higher chances of diabetes. This may be caused by dietary SFA intake, but equally likely by excessive carbohydrate intake. Excessive intake of carbs led to De Novo Lipogenesis in the liver (literally the making of new fat) which produces many even length saturated fats. So, it was the carbohydrates that were increasing even chain length SFAs.

What about the odd chain length? These are typically the dietary saturated fats – like dairy fats for example. “odd-chain SFAs (15:0 and 17:0)… were inversely associated with type 2 diabetes.” Full fat dairy contains large amounts of odd chain SFAs, and is consistently associated with protection against Type 2 Diabetes. . . .

Looking at the chart of what correlated to even versus odd chain fatty acids, it is striking that dairy raises even chain SFA slightly, but odd chain SFA a lot. Red meat also tends to raise even chain SFA slightly, but alcohol, potatoes, soft drinks and margarine are the biggest culprits here. They tend to raise Even-chain FA and lower Odd-chain FAs – the worst combination.

Click the link to see the graphs, which have been excluded here.