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Crossfire

Is saturated fat something I need to worry about?

What the experts say

Rich Rollno doctorate · ultra-endurance athlete, author and podcaster; former entertainment attorney

Yes, and that includes the coconut oil everyone told you was a superfood

What it rests onHe restates the guideline position and names the clinicians he is following: Greger, Esselstyn, Ornish, McDougall, Garth Davis, Joel Kahn and Michael Klaper, all of whom he notes have addressed the question directly on his podcast. He concedes the paleo case on sugar explicitly and concedes that lauric acid is metabolised differently, and he prefixes the whole post with "I'm not a doctor or nutritionist and I certainly don't play one on the internet." He calls dismissal of the saturated fat and heart disease connection "at best misleading and at worst irresponsible."

Source: richroll.com ↗
Shawn BakerMD · orthopedic surgeon and strength athlete

Watch what actually happens to your own numbers, and do not assume the worst

What it rests onClinical observation of his own patient and reader population, with a de-escalation ladder attached rather than a denial that the rise happens.

Source: carnivore.diet ↗

Overview

Roll is addressing a general reader who has been told coconut oil is a superfood and is deciding how much to cook with. Baker is addressing someone who has already adopted an animal-based diet and is looking at a lipid panel that has changed.

Neither is speaking to the other's reader, and both attach a health-status condition to their advice, which is the unusual and useful thing about this pair: Roll withholds permission from the unhealthy and Baker escalates the response for the minority whose numbers move.

Where they agree

Both accept that dietary saturated fat changes blood lipids in some people, and both respond to that by telling the affected person to reduce saturated fat. Both attach conditions to their advice rather than issuing a universal rule. Neither claims sugar and ultra-processed food are unimportant; Roll concedes the point about sugar in writing.

What would settle it

For Roll: nothing in his source is his own analysis, so his position moves when the clinicians he names move. He gives no falsification condition of his own. For Baker: outcome data rather than particle data, specifically cardiovascular events in people whose ApoB rose on the diet and who chose to stay on it.

Practice does not pick a winner here

You do, and your call is dated, kept, and yours to change. Follow the people you already trust and what they publish turns into a short daily practice.

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