Molecule in meat may increase heart disease risk

[van]

one might wonder if the presence of L-Carnitine in the bowel could be due to just plain overeating of meat/protein, coupled with  the fact that the body can only digest so much of a protein when it is denatured by heat.   Same could be said about  carbs feeding yeasts and fungus ( and their waste or by products causing harm or acting as toxins) in the bowel.

[LePatron7]

Very true Van

[cherimoya_kid]

So I'm just going to keep eating the way I do, and fuck all these studies that try to isolate one single chemical and act like it's the answer to a particular disease.  Studies are fine to confirm and fine-tune what we already know.  that's it.  This diet works, period. It's mostly just a matter of finding high-quality versions of the paleo foods, and finding the paleo foods that work best for your body at the time.  Getting the right eating schedule and eating mostly mono-style, as well as doing smart food combining, also help.

Studies like this are just for fine-tuning, and only in very specific cases. Most of the time they are useless. 

[PaleoPhil]

Hah, and few days later something contradicting appears
L-Carnitine Significantly Improves Patient Outcomes Following Heart Attack

Yeah, that's in line with the numerous other studies that found benefits from l-carnitine. Resorting to trying to pin heart disease on the miracle nutrient carnitine shows how desperate scientists have become to try to find some connection between heart disease and red meat. From that article:

"L-carnitine significantly improves cardiac health in patients after a heart attack, say a multicenter team of investigators in a study published today in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Their findings, based on analysis of key controlled trials, associate L-carnitine with significant reduction in death from all causes and a highly significant reduction in ventricular arrhythmias and anginal attacks following a heart attack, compared with placebo or control."

[PaleoPhil]

The plot thickens, does the carnitine/TMAO research implicate heart hammering whole grains*? 

"There is evidence linking Prevotella to consumption of whole grains http://humanfoodproject.com/from-meat-to-microbes-to-main-street-is-it-time-to-trade-in-your-george-foreman-grill, so the dietary culprit, if there is one, could be a meat/grain combo." (Beth Skwarecki, The Public Library of Science, http://blogs.plos.org/blog/2013/05/01/do-we-have-something-against-red-meat-or-just-complexity)

She also mentions Chris Masterjohn's point about fish and shellfish being the biggest producers of TMAO in the body.


*I think I just coined that phrase, as zero hits came up in Google and Bing for the term in quotes ("heart hammering whole grains"). Strange that I didn't think to come up with one before this to counter the endlessly vomited "heart healthy whole grains" nonsense. Does anyone have a better one?

[cherimoya_kid]

Heart hurting whole grains?