Originally posted by sherling22:
the best soln is to avoid both.
most of the nutritional studies fall generally into 2
categories:
1) population-based. they recruit randomised volunteer and monitor
their physiology over time while recording their food intake
patterns.
2) in animal models like mice or using cells culture in the lab to
test the effect of a compound.
both methods have pros and cons. method 1 can identify major trends
in a population over time but it cannot tell us why this food is
good or bad for us. method 2 [b]might be able to tell us
why but the problem is the dosage of the food is hard to
extrapolate from mice to humans. furthermore, if cells are used
instead, normal the scientists will over-dosage the food which
makes interpretation of the data doubtful. this explains why there
are often conflicting benefits/harm over the same kind of
food.
in short, there are many genes that are responsible for the
metabolizing and production of cholestrol in our body. 0.1% of our
DNA are different from each other (which causes us to look
different) and this small difference is by no means small. this
difference can have a big difference in each individual in
digesting and absorbing fats from food which explains why some ppl
have normal cardio measurements even with bad eating habits and
vice versa. right now, it is technically possible to screen
everyone on earth for his/her genes but the cost and time is
unbelievably high, so we will never know are we the lucky ones
having "better" genes or not. furthermore, we also do not
understand completely all the genes involved in digestion and
metabolism too. while this day is not here yet, the best advice is
reduce saturated fat and trans fat intake.
on the other hand, i acknowledge the fact that fat containing food
tastes better becos our tongue and brain is evolved to prefer such
foods. it is becos for the sake of survival, our body will tend to
prefer food that contain high calories to store energy in case we
can't hunt for food regularly. however, the development of
agriculture has made food production efficient and the industrial
evolution has reduced brawny work but our body does not evolve fast
enough to the change in our environment. so we are going against
nature by rejecting fatty food 
, what
an irony!!![/b]
Haha this reminds me when I was talking to my Canadian friend
some time back and he was saying his grandma still cooks with lard
and all and is healthier than all of them young 'uns put
together.
