davidleitner

Thank you all for the well-informed responses. I completely with Michael and Dean that we are not necessarily designed to live long but to live long enough to reproduce and pass on a few survival tips to our offspring. Yes, the Paleo-folk often appeal to this fallacy of doing what is natural instead of doing what will improve vigorous longevity. However, that doesn't mean that their conclusions are necessarily wrong - it just means they are using the wrong line of reasoning. There is something about this lard study that sets off my spider sense. Like I said, I am not in the same league, either in terms of biochemistry or CR, as most of you. I will need to digest your responses and references for a while, and hopefully come to some conclusions later.

I realize this title look like troll-bait, but please hear me out. Given the revived "DHA-Accelerated Aging Hypothesis Validated" thread, I noticed a surprising omission from the discussion. With all the focus on excess O-3 fats (which are clearly a problem), very little attention has been paid to to the fact that the group of mice fed a high-lard diet lived the longest! MR does touch on it here : A lot of the biochemistry is above my head right now, but I understand this to say that eating SaFA is basically a bad way to get your MUFAs. But here is my question: Is the fatty-acid profile of lard improving lifespan by another mechanism(s), perhaps helped along being consumed with a good dose of SaFA? According to Self Nutrition Data, 100g of lard has around 40g of SaFAs and 45g of MUFAs. Similarly, there are considerable SaFA's in human adipose: "compared with adipose fat composition, 27.1 ± 4.2% saturated, 49.6 ± 5.7% monounsaturated, and 23.4 ± 3.9% diunsaturated" according to http://www.jlr.org/content/49/9/2055.full. It seems counterintuitive that our bodies would store SaFA as fuel if if were simply going to kill us dead. And I say this with much much respect to Michael, who I have followed closely. Not in a creepy way :) Thank you for considering this question!

Jesse, if you find out more about this, please report back. I'm also interested in a ketogenic CRON diet.