“The diet-heart hypothesis has been repeatedly shown to be wrong, and yet, for complicated reasons of pride, profit and prejudice, the hypothesis continues to be exploited by scientists, fund-raising enterprises, food companies and even governmental agencies. The public is being deceived by the greatest health scam of the century.” – George Mann, ScD, MD, Former Co-Director, The Framingham Study
There’s always some food or other being bastardized by popular culture, but no group of nutrients are so regularly abused assaturated fats; the oft-appointed super-villain of the bunch being holesterol. In the wake of Ancel Keys’ Lipid Hypothesis and the resulting low-fat craze of the late 20thcentury, there’s a huge negative stigma associated with saturated animal fats. But what does science really have to say about the foods demonized by dieticians but treasured by traditional cultures: butter, organ meats, shellfish and tropical oils?
“Nutritionally I can’t think of a bigger lie than the one claiming that fats in general and saturated fats in particular are bad for us.” ~ Dr Michael R Eades
‘Politically correct’ nutrition and government food pyramids are based on the assumption that we should reduce our intake of fats, primarily saturated fats from animal sources. Yet, the much-maligned saturated fats that the Western world is encouraged to avoid are not the cause of modern diseases. If they were, and if the saturated fat and cholesterol myth were true, none of us would be alive today because saturated fat was the primary energy source for most of our ancestors. Studies of North American Indians, Eskimos, traditional European cultures, native Australians and the cultural diets of traditionally healthy peoples globally suggest that saturated fat intake across the board was proportionally much higher than the amount we consume today, yet these populations experienced little or none of the epidemic diseases of modern Western society. For example, the traditional Inuit diet that was comprised almost entirely of saturated fat (mostly in the form of whale blubber) and virtually no greens or other vegetables, accounted for the strength and endurance for which this population was admired. And the Masai of East Africa, who flourished on extremely fatty milk, meat and blood with an estimated 33% of calories from saturated fat. By all accounts, the diets of healthy primal cultures were differed vastly according to geography, but each group thrived on and prized saturated animal fats, benefiting from a selection of fatty meats, organs, oily fish, pure butter, lard, tropical oils, egg yolks, unpasteurized cheeses, cream and milk. Eating fat is not a new concept; it’s as old as the hills.
If modern health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity resulted from the consumption of saturated fats, one would expect to find a corresponding increase in animal fats in the Western Diet over the last hundred years. Yet the opposite is true. From 1910 to 1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the Western Diet declined from 83% to 62%, and butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four. Since the early 1970s, fat consumption in America has dropped from over 40% of total calories to 34% and average serum cholesterol levels have dropped as well (source).
“Although heart disease death rates have dropped–and public health officials insist low-fat diets are partly responsible–the incidence of heart disease does not seem to be declining, as would be expected if lower fat diets made a difference. This was the conclusion, for instance, of a 10-year study of heart disease mortality published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1998, which suggested that death rates are declining largely because doctors are treating the disease more successfully. The American Heart Association (AHA) statistics agree: Between 1979 and 1996, the number of medical procedures for heart disease increased from 1.2 million to 5.4 million a year. “I don’t consider that this disease category has disappeared or anything close to it,” says one AHA statistician.” ~ Gary Taubes, The Soft Science of Dietary Fat
“Most of us would have predicted that if we can get the population to change its fat intake, with its dense calories, we would see a reduction in weight. Instead, we see the exact opposite.”~ Dr Bill Harlan, Associate Director of the Office of Disease Prevention atNational Institute of Health
Saturated fat, friend or foe?
Saturated fats form a vital part of all cell membranes in the human body, they protect the immune system, the liver and other vital organs from toxins, and enhance the utilization of essential fatty acids. They are necessary for proper function of the brain and nervous system, hormonal function, metabolism, sex drive, for the absorption and utilization of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, and provide energy for the heart. Saturated fat makes up over half the fat in the human brain, and the body will manufacture saturated fat, even if you don’t eat any fat, because it is that essential to human health and everyday body functioning.
Cholesterol is a particularly vital saturated fatty acid that plays an essential role as the precursor to bile salts (needed for fat digestion), and helps form adrenal hormones associated with mood elevation, enhanced sexual function and protection from stress. Cholesterol helps to repair weakened and damaged arteries (which flies in the face of cholesterol being spotlighted as a precursor to clogged arteries) and is a powerful antioxidant – your body will produce more cholesterol when it is in need of its antioxidant properties. High serum levels of cholesterol, which we are told to avoid, are often a result of the body producing more cholesterol in order to support and protect itself from other factors, namely a diet high in processed foods, refined carbohydrates and devitalized polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Blaming cholesterol for ill health, heart disease and hyperlipidemia is a little like blaming the police for over-patrolling a dodgy neighbourhood, if you like. The importance of cholesterol can be highlighted further by the fact that mother’s milk, the perfect food for the developing infant, is not only rich in cholesterol, but also contains special enzymes that aid in the absorption of cholesterol from the intestinal tract.
But what about the Lipid Hypothesis?
“Nutritionally I can’t think of a bigger lie than the one claiming that fats in general and saturated fats in particular are bad for us.” ~ Dr Michael R Eades
‘Politically correct’ nutrition and government food pyramids are based on the assumption that we should reduce our intake of fats, primarily saturated fats from animal sources. Yet, the much-maligned saturated fats that the Western world is encouraged to avoid are not the cause of modern diseases. If they were, and if the saturated fat and cholesterol myth were true, none of us would be alive today because saturated fat was the primary energy source for most of our ancestors. Studies of North American Indians, Eskimos, traditional European cultures, native Australians and the cultural diets of traditionally healthy peoples globally suggest that saturated fat intake across the board was proportionally much higher than the amount we consume today, yet these populations experienced little or none of the epidemic diseases of modern Western society. For example, the traditional Inuit diet that was comprised almost entirely of saturated fat (mostly in the form of whale blubber) and virtually no greens or other vegetables, accounted for the strength and endurance for which this population was admired. And the Masai of East Africa, who flourished on extremely fatty milk, meat and blood with an estimated 33% of calories from saturated fat. By all accounts, the diets of healthy primal cultures were differed vastly according to geography, but each group thrived on and prized saturated animal fats, benefiting from a selection of fatty meats, organs, oily fish, pure butter, lard, tropical oils, egg yolks, unpasteurized cheeses, cream and milk. Eating fat is not a new concept; it’s as old as the hills.
If modern health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity resulted from the consumption of saturated fats, one would expect to find a corresponding increase in animal fats in the Western Diet over the last hundred years. Yet the opposite is true. From 1910 to 1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the Western Diet declined from 83% to 62%, and butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four. Since the early 1970s, fat consumption in America has dropped from over 40% of total calories to 34% and average serum cholesterol levels have dropped as well (source).
“Although heart disease death rates have dropped–and public health officials insist low-fat diets are partly responsible–the incidence of heart disease does not seem to be declining, as would be expected if lower fat diets made a difference. This was the conclusion, for instance, of a 10-year study of heart disease mortality published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1998, which suggested that death rates are declining largely because doctors are treating the disease more successfully. The American Heart Association (AHA) statistics agree: Between 1979 and 1996, the number of medical procedures for heart disease increased from 1.2 million to 5.4 million a year. “I don’t consider that this disease category has disappeared or anything close to it,” says one AHA statistician.” ~ Gary Taubes, The Soft Science of Dietary Fat
“Most of us would have predicted that if we can get the population to change its fat intake, with its dense calories, we would see a reduction in weight. Instead, we see the exact opposite.”~ Dr Bill Harlan, Associate Director of the Office of Disease Prevention atNational Institute of Health
Saturated fat, friend or foe?
Saturated fats form a vital part of all cell membranes in the human body, they protect the immune system, the liver and other vital organs from toxins, and enhance the utilization of essential fatty acids. They are necessary for proper function of the brain and nervous system, hormonal function, metabolism, sex drive, for the absorption and utilization of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, and provide energy for the heart. Saturated fat makes up over half the fat in the human brain, and the body will manufacture saturated fat, even if you don’t eat any fat, because it is that essential to human health and everyday body functioning.
Cholesterol is a particularly vital saturated fatty acid that plays an essential role as the precursor to bile salts (needed for fat digestion), and helps form adrenal hormones associated with mood elevation, enhanced sexual function and protection from stress. Cholesterol helps to repair weakened and damaged arteries (which flies in the face of cholesterol being spotlighted as a precursor to clogged arteries) and is a powerful antioxidant – your body will produce more cholesterol when it is in need of its antioxidant properties. High serum levels of cholesterol, which we are told to avoid, are often a result of the body producing more cholesterol in order to support and protect itself from other factors, namely a diet high in processed foods, refined carbohydrates and devitalized polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Blaming cholesterol for ill health, heart disease and hyperlipidemia is a little like blaming the police for over-patrolling a dodgy neighbourhood, if you like. The importance of cholesterol can be highlighted further by the fact that mother’s milk, the perfect food for the developing infant, is not only rich in cholesterol, but also contains special enzymes that aid in the absorption of cholesterol from the intestinal tract.
But what about the Lipid Hypothesis?
Shockingly, the data put forward by Ancel Keys in the 1950s never offered any conclusive evidence to show that saturated fat causes heart disease and has been widely discredited (see here for a searing review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition all the way back in 1973). Yet people jumped onto the low-fat bandwagon with gusto and, by the 1980s, saturated fat had become “this greasy killer”, in the words of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, and the model Western breakfast of eggs and bacon was well on its way to becoming a bowl of Special K with low-fat milk, a glass of orange juice and toast, hold the butter – a dubious feast of insulin-spiking refined carbohydrates. In fact, if you look at the fullstudy of over 20 countries and their food intake (the published results were based on a mere handful of those countries to suit the intention of the study which was of course to vilify saturated fat), the true conclusion is that saturated fat is not a relevant disposing factor of heart disease. Sadly, some of the key proponents of modern nutritional thinking hang wrongly upon one of the most dangerous diet myths of our time.
“Indeed, the history of the national conviction that dietary fat is deadly, and its evolution from hypothesis to dogma, is one in which politicians, bureaucrats, the media, and the public have played as large a role as the scientists and the science. It’s a story of what can happen when the demands of public health policy–and the demands of the public for simple advice–run up against the confusing ambiguity of real science.” ~ Gary Taubes, The Soft Science of Dietary Fat
So, will people ditch the low-fat dogma?
“Indeed, the history of the national conviction that dietary fat is deadly, and its evolution from hypothesis to dogma, is one in which politicians, bureaucrats, the media, and the public have played as large a role as the scientists and the science. It’s a story of what can happen when the demands of public health policy–and the demands of the public for simple advice–run up against the confusing ambiguity of real science.” ~ Gary Taubes, The Soft Science of Dietary Fat
So, will people ditch the low-fat dogma?
Awareness of the essential role of saturated fats is on the increase and more and more people are jumping on the saturated fat bandwagon, embracing cholesterol as vital to human health. Note that the February 2011 edition of Reader’s Digest, a fairly conservative periodical, sported a front page feature called “The New Science of Dieting”, and an interview with Gary Taubes (author of Good Calories, Bad Calories) dispelling certain cholesterol myths as well as the ‘calories in/calories out’ theory. Regardless of the general quality of science reporting in Reader’s Digest, it’s exciting to note that these ideas are beginning to surface in mainstream popular culture.
For further reading, I would suggest the following links:
Know your fats (The Weston A. Price Foundation)
Does dietary saturated fat increase blood cholesterol? (Whole Health Source)
The soft science of dietary fat (Gary Taubes)
The oiling of America (Dr Mary G. Enig & Sally Fallon Morell)
LDL cholesterol: “bad” cholesterol, or bad science (Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons)
Is it all a big fat lie? (Dr Malcolm Kendrick)
Saturated fat and heart disease: studies old and new (Dr Michael R Eades)
The truth about saturated fat (Dr Mary Enig & Sally Fallon Morell)
Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
Low-fat diet in myocardial infarction (The Lancet)
For further reading, I would suggest the following links:
Know your fats (The Weston A. Price Foundation)
Does dietary saturated fat increase blood cholesterol? (Whole Health Source)
The soft science of dietary fat (Gary Taubes)
The oiling of America (Dr Mary G. Enig & Sally Fallon Morell)
LDL cholesterol: “bad” cholesterol, or bad science (Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons)
Is it all a big fat lie? (Dr Malcolm Kendrick)
Saturated fat and heart disease: studies old and new (Dr Michael R Eades)
The truth about saturated fat (Dr Mary Enig & Sally Fallon Morell)
Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
Low-fat diet in myocardial infarction (The Lancet)
