I'm trying to reason about macro-nutrients, it's fairly clear to me that limiting glycemic load is beneficial (decreasing triglyceride, LDL, inflammation, insulin sensitivity, etc.), and that unsaturated fats (especially Omega-3s) are generally healthy (they are necessary, reduces inflammation, and increase HDL while holding LDL constant), but I don't understand the relationship between saturated fats and cardio vascular disease.
So far as I can tell the lipid hypothesis, that is that risk of cardio vascular disease is increased with LDL cholesterol, is true. It also seems that increasing HDL reduces risk of cardio vascular disease. Nearly everyone admits that long-chain saturated fats increase both LDL, and HDL cholesterol. More precisely then my question is how much does HDL cancel out the negative effects of LDL.