In this episode, Victoria & guest co-host Amanda Jones get to speak with John O’Connor, founder of Gene Food, Integrative Health Coach, and all-around excellent thinker.

Today’s primary topic is lean mass hyper-responders (LMHR), a subset of lean people who, when they eat a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet (LCHF), experience a massive increase in LDL cholesterol.

Even though this group is relatively small, the concepts discussed apply to anyone interested in using a ketogenic or low-carb/high-fat diet, or any therapeutic diet (such as Carnivore, vegan, AIP, etc.), in a way that considers both the benefits and the risks.

They cover:

* Who are the lean mass hyper-responders and why you should care

* Is unlimited saturated fat beneficial? Harmless? For everyone?

* The KETO-CTA study

* You can find critiques of the study on John’s website here and also a more technical but really excellent write-up from Alex Leaf here.

* Saturated Fats and Health: A Reassessment and Proposal for Food-Based Recommendations: JACC State-of-the-Art Review

* Why some people in the keto/low-carb community might be pushing so hard against the risk of elevated LDL cholesterol, and continue promoting and eating the diet

* Some individuals are particularly sensitive to saturated fats…are you one of these people?

* The multi-faceted risk of promoting the idea that there’s no risk of unlimited amounts of saturated fat intake, elevated LDL, and ApoB

* Shoutout to Peter Attia and Dr. Tom Dayspring for their series The Straight Dope On Cholesterol

* What’s the difference between LDL-C and ApoB?

* Amanda gives a great explanation of why our ApoB levels matter in real life

* The interesting way that plausible - but not proven - ideas can gain in popularity, even with highly educated audiences

* The conversations over the KETO-CTA study outcomes and why, even in the face of black and white results, some people still skew the narrative

* We discuss John’s ideas on reactivity and autoimmunity - Toxicant-induced loss of tolerance for chemicals, foods, and drugs: assessing patterns of exposure behind a global phenomenon (the paper he references)

* The fallacy in focusing on mechanism (trying to track down the deep biochemistry of why something is happening) versus zooming out and focusing on the basics that we know work extremely well to improve health

A big thank you to John for coming on the show; we hope to have him on again soon!

Be sure to check out Gene Food for real-world guidance on your genetic data.

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