Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Butter, LDL, and the Myth of Plaque

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Butter, LDL, and the Myth of Plaque · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: Today we're going to tell you exactly why
• 0:06
  butter raises your risk of death. How
• 0:09
  ldl, uh, cholesterol drives the buildup of plaque into your
• 0:12
  arteries, and why your favorite keto
• 0:14
  influencer might be completely wrong about
• 0:17
  what really causes heart disease. We'll break
• 0:20
  down three major studies. One showing how higher
• 0:22
  LDL equals worse plaque, another linking
• 0:25
  butter to cancer and cardiovascular health, and a third proving that plant
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  based oils like olive and canola oil can, can
• 0:31
  literally lower your risk of dying.
• 0:34
  If you think plaque makes more plaque or that
• 0:37
  butter has gotten a bad rap, this episode is going
• 0:40
  to challenge that with fats, not
• 0:43
  fads.
• 0:47
  I am, um, your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terry Simpson,
• 0:50
  and this is Forku Fork University,
• 0:53
  where we make sense of the madness, bust a few myths,
• 0:56
  and teach you a little bit about food and
• 0:58
  medicine.
• 1:03
  Let's start with the core issue.
• 1:05
  Atherosclerosis. That is the
• 1:08
  buildup of plaque inside your arteries.
• 1:11
  Actually, technically, it's not inside your arteries.
• 1:13
  It's inside the inside of your arteries.
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  Meaning? Well, it's inside the
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  endothelium, but it doesn't cause
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  symptoms at first. But it is the root
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  cause of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular
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  disease, as well as peripheral vascular disease,
• 1:30
  blindness, amputations and kidney
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  failure. A recent study in the Journal of the
• 1:35
  American College of Cardiology made this very
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  clear. The silent plaque doesn't just
• 1:40
  sit there. It grows, it gets
• 1:43
  unstable and eventually it can rupture and
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  cause a heart attack. And m, what causes that plaque
• 1:49
  in the first place? Ldl, low density,
• 1:52
  lipoprotein cholesterol, and more specifically,
• 1:54
  APOB particles that carry
• 1:57
  cholesterol around. Here's the part
• 2:00
  the keto folks don't want to hear. It's not
• 2:03
  the plaque that causes more plaque. It's the
• 2:06
  LDL and the APOB that start and continue
• 2:09
  the process. No ldl, no
• 2:11
  plaque, period. Now, some folks
• 2:14
  will like to say, well, my LDL high, but my triglycerides are low,
• 2:17
  so I'm fine. Sorry, that's just not how
• 2:20
  biology works. A, uh, 2025 study in the
• 2:23
  Journal of the American Cardiology showed that people following
• 2:26
  a low carb, high fat diet, these folks had elevated
• 2:29
  ldl. And guess what they the
• 2:32
  higher the ldl, the worse the plaque. That
• 2:34
  was true. Regardless of how metabolically healthy
• 2:37
  they looked on the outside. The six pack
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  of abs does not make your arteries look better. So
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  no. High LDL is not a benign marker.
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  It's the spark that lights the fuse.
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  Let's talk about butter. In a major study published
• 2:52
  in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal
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  Medicine researchers looked at data, uh, from
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  three large prospective US cohorts,
• 3:00
  the Nurses Health Studies and the Health Professionals
• 3:03
  Follow Up Study. They found that higher butter
• 3:06
  intake was associated with an increased risk of
• 3:09
  death from all causes, from cancer
• 3:11
  and from cardiovascular disease. Now here's where
• 3:14
  it gets interesting. When they looked at what would
• 3:17
  happen if you replaced that butter with plant
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  based oils, things like olive oil, canola
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  oil and soybean oil, risk went
• 3:26
  down, not a little
• 3:28
  significantly. So yes,
• 3:31
  swapping out three pats of butter a day
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  for a tablespoon of plant based oil was
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  associated with a real measurable
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  drop in your risk of dying. And no,
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  not all oils are equal. Olive oil,
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  yes. Canola oil, yes.
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  Soybean oil, surprisingly, also
• 3:51
  yes, Corn and safflower oil. The data
• 3:54
  was weaker, possibly because people just don't use them as
• 3:57
  much or because how they're processed. But
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  overall, polyunsaturated and
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  monounsaturated fats like those found in olive and
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  canola oil, reduce inflammation,
• 4:07
  lower LDL and protect your
• 4:10
  arteries. This isn't a new theory.
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  These oils have been shown to have cardiovascular
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  benefits in randomized trials, in feeding
• 4:19
  studies, and now again in large population
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  data sets. Now let's be
• 4:24
  fair. Some of those older butter studies were
• 4:28
  inconsistent, but they often
• 4:30
  only measured diet once at baseline and
• 4:33
  didn't look at long term patterns. The new study
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  using cumulative dietary data is
• 4:39
  much more accurate and it's adjusted for things like
• 4:42
  refined grains and glycemic load to avoid
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  blaming butter for what white bread did.
• 4:48
  Even more fascinating, butter wasn't just linked
• 4:51
  to heart disease. It was linked to cancer
• 4:53
  mortality, particularly hormone
• 4:56
  sensitive cancers like breast and prostate.
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  Why? Saturated fats like those in
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  butter can trigger inflammation in fat tissue and
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  alter hormone signaling that creates
• 5:08
  a perfect storm for hormone driven
• 5:11
  cancers. So here's the bottom
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  line. If your LDL is high, whether it's from butter,
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  bacon, coconut oil, those MCT pumped
• 5:19
  keto shakes, your atherosclerotic risk
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  goes up and that atherosclerosis
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  progresses silently and can
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  suddenly become deadly. The
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  good news, it is not inevitable. You
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  can reverse the trajectory by lowering ldl,
• 5:36
  replacing saturated fats with plant based oils,
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  and making better food choices more fiber
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  consistently over time.
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  So no, butter is not back, butter is not a
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  health food. And no, high LDL is not just
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  a number. And no, that guy on YouTube
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  with a six pack and 300 milligram LDL is
• 5:56
  not a case study in heart health.
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  He's a case study waiting to happen.
• 6:03
  That's it for today's episode of Fork U. If you
• 6:06
  learned something new, or if you're about to swap your butter dish for an
• 6:09
  olive oil croup, hit subscribe and
• 6:12
  share this episode with someone who still thinks butter
• 6:15
  is a multivitamin. For more information
• 6:18
  about nutrition science, you can follow me on TikTok and
• 6:20
  Instagram, where I am rtrterrysimpson.
• 6:23
  Until next time, stay curious. Keep stay skeptical and
• 6:26
  remember, fork you, because if you're not hungry
• 6:29
  for science, you're just eating
• 6:32
  beliefs. This episode was written
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  produced by me, Dr. Terri Simpson. And while I am
• 6:38
  a physician, I am not your physician.
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  If you need to change your diet or discuss diet, please
• 6:44
  talk to your board certified physician
• 6:47
  and a registered dietitian. Not a chiropractor,
• 6:50
  not an eastern trained physician. And this
• 6:53
  episode was distributed by my friends at Simpler Media.
• 6:56
  My good friend, the pod God, Mr.
• 6:58
  Evotera. Have a good week everybody.
• 7:08
  You know I like butter as well as the next person.
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  Grew up eating margarine because we were poor, face
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  it. But you know what I've discovered? I
• 7:17
  actually like some of the great olive oils
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  better. Dipping bread in olive oil.
• 7:23
  What a treat. Hope you're well. What do you
• 7:25
  think? Olive oil, Butter? Both?
• 7:30
  >> Speaker B: Hmm. Uh, tough call. I use them
• 7:32
  differently. You know, butter I spread on bread.
• 7:36
  Olive oil I dip bread in, as you said.
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  Maybe they made an olive oil
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  stick that I could spread onto bread.
• 7:45
  Is that a thing?