> “Participants with the highest intake of red meat had a 30% increased risk of colorectal cancer and those with the highest intake of processed meat had a 40% increased risk,” said Peters, who holds the Fred Hutch 40th Anniversary Endowed Chair. “But this is an overall increased risk. Due to genetic variability, the risk can be higher in some people.”
> The longer intermittent fasting cycles seem to show no significant loss of lean muscle. (i'm way too lazy to go find the studies to back this up claim, but they're out there somewhere)
"Absolute" means "unquestionable, fundamental, ultimate, no exception", etc. You've linked to a single study which did not test all forms of IF. You can't say you know something absolutely if you haven't even tested for it.
Specifically, there are much longer periods of fasting which may have a different impact on the result which are not tested for here. There is a claim about alternate-day fasting which is actually not supported in the linked study.
In addition, the longer alternate-day fasting practices may include ad libitum which may have a detrimental effect. Lack of adequate protein is presumed by many to be linked to loss of lean muscle, and the quality and form of feeding during feeding windows would therefore be of high importance, but doesn't seem to be accounted for in these studies.
> Interventions: Participants were randomized to 1 of 3 groups: 8-hour TRE (eating 12 to 8 pm only, without calorie counting), CR (25% energy restriction daily), or control.
>In this RCT, a prescription of TRE did not result in weight loss when compared with a control prescription of 3 meals per day. Time-restricted eating did not change any relevant metabolic markers. Finally, there was a decrease in ALM in the TRE group compared with CMT. Together, the results of this study (1) do not support the efficacy of TRE for weight loss, (2) highlight the importance of control interventions, and (3) offer caution about the potential effects of TRE on ALM. Future studies should be aimed at understanding the effects of early vs late TRE and protein intake or timing as a means to offset the loss in ALM.
ALM = Appendicular (i.e., limb) Lean Mass.
One of the authors of this study, Ethan Weiss, is a cardiologist and was a big proponent of TRE, but after the results of his own study came in showing drastic loss of LBM in TRE group (to the point that most of the weight lost was LBM) and no added benefit, he completely stopped doing TRE, stopped recommending it, and went to Twitter and the news media to publicize the harm, eg: https://www.insider.com/new-research-finds-intermittent-fast...
>In the in-person cohort, the average weight loss in the TRE group was 1.70 kg. Of this, 1.10 kg (~ 65% wt lost) was lean mass; only 0.51 kg of weight lost was fat mass. Loss of lean mass during weight loss is normal but typically accounts for 20% to 30% of total weight loss
>So in summary: 1) no matter how you slice it, prescription of TRE is not a very effective weight loss strategy; 2) There was no advantage to TRE when compared to a proper control group; 3) What weight was lost looked to come more from muscle mass than fat mass
It's more likely the saturated fat, which red meat is especially high in. For example, saturated fat-driven weight gain results in a disproportionate amount of visceral fat gain relative to PUFA: https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article/63/7/2356/3433...
> Both groups gained 1.6 kg in weight; however, the MRI assessment showed that the SFA group gained more liver fat, total fat, and visceral fat, but less lean tissue compared with subjects in the PUFA group (Table 2).
No it wasn't, only relative to processed red meat:
> Over 5,483,981 person-years of follow-up, we documented 22,761 T2D cases. Intakes of total, processed, and unprocessed red meat were positively and approximately linearly associated with higher risks of T2D. Comparing the highest to the lowest quintiles, hazard ratios (HR) were 1.62 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.53, 1.71) for total red meat, 1.51 (95% CI: 1.44, 1.58) for processed red meat, and 1.40 (95% CI: 1.33, 1.47) for unprocessed red meat.
> Conclusions: Current evidence suggests that whole, fresh fruit consumption is unlikely to contribute to excess energy intake and adiposity, but rather has little effect on these outcomes or constrains them modestly. Single-meal RCTs, RCTs lasting 3–24 weeks, and long-term observational studies are relatively consistent in supporting this conclusion. Whole, fresh fruit probably does not contribute to obesity and may have a place in the prevention and management of excess adiposity.
> Conclusions: Current evidence suggests that whole, fresh fruit consumption is unlikely to contribute to excess energy intake and adiposity, but rather has little effect on these outcomes or constrains them modestly. Single-meal RCTs, RCTs lasting 3–24 weeks, and long-term observational studies are relatively consistent in supporting this conclusion. Whole, fresh fruit probably does not contribute to obesity and may have a place in the prevention and management of excess adiposity.
In a world where there is sugar in essentially everything, I would agree that it would be difficult to find a correlation between the effects of fructose in fresh fruit added to a diet and without it.
I shouldn't have said "does" but "can" would have been more appropriate.
Yet the obesity and Type 2 Diabetes epidemics have only gotten worse, with the diabetes epidemic reaching what appears (in this graph) to be an inflection point around the time sugar consumption started to decline (which makes sense when you realize it entails a shift to more fat consumption, including saturated fat): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568004/figure/ch3.fig2...
I'm amazed that here we are, in the third decade of the low-carb era, with the obesity rate now hovering over 40% despite a decline in sugar consumption, and this nonsense is still being taken seriously, let alone by people (like HNers) who think they're well-informed.
BTW go look at photos of Johnson and Lustig: they're both fat, unlike Barnard, McDougall and other doctors who advocate ultra low-fat, whole food, plant-based diets.
