Eating cheese plays a role in healthy, happy aging – who are we to argue? | Hacker News Reader

Eating cheese plays a role in healthy, happy aging – who are we to argue?

newatlas.com

24 pointsXzetaU837 comments

Is there even a better food type than cheese?

Even the tiniest morsel of parmesan as a midnight snack is toe-curlingly tasty, to say nothing of otherworldly things like a Stilton and caramelised onion chutney sandwich after a joint.

Idk potatoes are pretty great.

even better with cheese, though.

Try this recipe https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/276526/steakhouse-potatoes...

All the best foods are created by controlled decomposition.

Fermentation, leavening, acidification, etc

what else is "healthy, happy aging" but controlled decomposition? /s

Sometimes I’m sad that we cannot give awards on HN…

I've just recently started making sauerkraut and I'm amazed at how good it tastes.

Since we're here, if you want to fully explore that rabbit-hole I recommend getting The Noma Guide To Fermentation. If you want something simple and useful, try lacto fermenting celery. Celery is a magically useful ingredient in cooking, and fermentation extends its shelf life significantly while giving you a variant to use (the liquor).

It was interesting to read this article and come to the line where they said the benefit derived from "cheese and fruits." I read that and thought "I bet it's 90% fruit and 10% cheese." But no, actually the effect was stronger for cheese than fruit.

Probably because of C15 a recently discovered essential fatty acid that has incredible health benefits. Dairy products - full fat milk, butter, cheese etc from Grass fed cows is the best source.

Thanks for sharing about C15. It seems very interesting that this is an "essential" fatty acid (as the human body doesn't produce enough of it, for example choline), and yet not much is discussed about it popularly. On reading more about it, it seems that it has some more benefits in a substitute way than the current very well-known essential fatty acid omega-3 [1] (caveat: this study is done by a C15 fatty acid supplement company).

This could sort of also explain why both bovine milk and human milk don't contain as much of omega-3 fatty acids. Furthermore, given the apparent very low conversion efficiency of ALA omega-3 fatty acids to EPA and DHA fatty acids that it could also explain how lacto-vegetarians (no eggs (thus no dietary source of omega-3 in the form of EPA and DHA (almost nobody really consumes algal oil)), for instance about 1-4th-1/3rd of the population in India) seem totally fine from a basic health biomarkers standpoint.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35617322/

See previous discussion from ~12 hours earlier:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40734057 Eating cheese plays a role in healthy, happy aging – who are we to argue? (newatlas.com)

I can concur.

I am an old geezer been on keto forever so cheese is just one of the many fats I eat.

Most saturated fats in fact;

Cheddar cheese parmasan cheese full fat cream olive oil avacado oil coconut oil

I go through tons of the stuff.

I love ketosis.

No poly fats, mono fats or food squirted out of machines for me thank you.

So, this might all be quackery, but there are some people out there that think high saturated fat diets are the healthiest, which would line up with eating a lot of cheese. E.g. this subreddit is excited about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/?rdt=63805

Dunno if I believe it, but it's easy to test if upping the saturated fat in your diet is helpful to you or not.

I guess if you kept the total calories in line, it would be fine? It'd be interesting to know either way.

I've noticed saturated fats trigger a far greater sense of satiety for me than unsaturated fats, vegetable oils in particular, which I feel I could eat forever. So my personal estimation is sticking to sat fats over unsat fats will result in eating fewer calories.

This might explain why cheese and potatoes are staple dishes in a lot of cultures - that's kinda maximizing satiation isn't it?

Glad you mention potatoes too: they're FAR AND AWAY the most satiating food per calorie, based on a 1995 study https://www.thebodytransformationacademy.com/uploads/7/4/4/9...

I actually don’t think so. When you eat fat AND carbs, you tend to eat more of each than if you would have eaten them separately. Source: I’m Swiss and we have dishes like Fondue or Raclette, where each serving is often more than 200g or more cheese. Which would be a lot on its own, i.e. without bread or potatoes. Might also be because it is melted cheese though.

It’s quackery. There is a ton of scientific evidence showing that diets high in saturated fats cause high cholesterol, and high cholesterol is strongly associated with heart disease.

>strongly associated with

Is that causation or correlation?...

Correlation. Cholesterol is what the body uses to “fix” lesions in arteries. The spackle of the blood highway.

What causes the lesions? Many things, including bacteria and viruses.

There’s strong evidence that it’s causation.

If I had to give up cheese I would probably have a very sad rest of my life... I try to consume it in moderation tho

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.” — Oscar Wilde

I try to live my life by this combined with “Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.” — William Cowper.

lactose intolerance sucks

(I know I can eat aged stuff generally, but sometimes you just want a grilled cheese on sour dough with a good sharp cheddar)

Stop endorsing junk nutrition science, even when it happens to agree with your priors.

I don’t think it’s appropriate to call a peer reviewed paper junk science unless you actually read it, and explain the specific problems with the study.

In this case, as is typical with such things, the study itself is fine but the news headline implies a finding that categorically cannot be claimed or supported by this type of study, and is not in the study itself.

All nutrition science is junk.

This is like arguing about chiropractic or homeopathy papers. The field is diseased and you are wasting your time if you read or analyze individual papers.

That is just nonsense... we don't know much about nutrition, but that doesn't mean you can't learn things from a well designed study. We know very little about human nutrition, and can't really make any reliable practical advice from scientific understanding yet, despite media and "health influencers" trying to claim otherwise. That doesn't in any way mean that all studies themselves in the field are junk.

This particular study is an observational study. That is only the very first part of trying to understand things- they notice some correlations, which can be further studied later on. They don't typically tell you anything concrete or actionable as they cannot establish cause and effect. That doesn't mean there is anything fraudulent or "junk" about them- typically the authors will be honest about the limitations in the paper, but the pop news articles like the one linked here may not be.

The cheese is not even mentioned in the abstract of the study.

Guilt by association? Until it's been independently replicated, perr review and publication are irrelevant (and, and in some fields, might indicate foolishness)

There is no funding to replicate studies, it almost never happens. A study by itself can be either very strong evidence, or very weak evidence, it depends on how the study was designed, and what they found.

Mentally healthier + seeming to eat more cheese doesn’t NOT mean “eating more cheese makes you mentally healthier”

There are established correlations between gut biome and mental health. But correlation is not causation.

There was another study recently that found a link between cheese and increased cancer rates. I do not trust either this or the other study. I still like and enjoy cheese.

Betteridges Law of Headlines kicks in here. Any advice about nutrition that only advocates for eating more of something without mentioning what else you should eat less of is probably bogus.

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