We’ve heard the story a thousand times before. Our doctors tell us to avoid saturated fat, citing the “fact” that it causes high cholesterol and, subsequently, heart disease. With heart disease being the leading cause of death in America (as of 2007), the supposed cause of it is obviously an important issue. Unfortunately, the world — and I’m not exaggerating here — has been led astray.What is Saturated Fat?
Essentially, saturated fat is the fatty acid that occurs naturally in animals and animal products, such as beef, chicken, bacon (tasty, tasty bacon), eggs, and milk. A good indicator that what you’re eating is fat of the saturated variety is its state at room temperature; saturated fat is solid, whereas other fats (like mono- and polyunsaturated) are liquid.
So what’s the purpose of fat? Well, besides making food DELICIOUS, it has served as humanity’s main source of energy for the vast majority of our existence.
Saturated fat is good for you. Period.
Ancel Keys and His Deception
In the 1950s, a researcher by the name of Ancel Keys conducted a study called the “Seven Countries Study”. Basically, it looked at the saturated fat intake across seven countries and found that those same countries experienced high death rates due to heart disease. So, he took this “correlation” and ran with it.
What about the other countries? Well, despite having access to another 15 countries’ data, he chose to leave them out because they contradicted the conclusion he had made BEFORE conducting the study. That’s a classic case of bad science.
In any case, despite heaps of research going against his hypothesis, including whole societies that thrived (nearly disease-free) on high fat, low carb diets, his hypothesis still won out. Even to this day, there is still no established link between saturated fat and heart disease. From 1988 to 1999, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office undertook a project to finally prove this myth, but it collapsed after 11 years of sheer and utter failure.
So What?
What can we take from this? Well, for one, be a skeptic to what the medical establishment tells you. Unfortunately, the people who are in a position to give you “professional” medical advice can be just as misinformed as anyone else.
More importantly, eat meat! Eat eggs! Eat milk, heavy cream — it’s all good. What you should be avoiding is pro-inflammatory food, mainly grains, processed food (including margarine), and vegetable oils rich in Omega-6.
In A Nutshell
We’ve been duped — saturated fat is good for us. Eat it.
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Love this info. THANK YOU.
Nicely written, good thoughts Steve. Do you have any citations for where you got your information? I’d like to do some more research on this.
Thanks Jason! I get a lot of information from http://www.marksdailyapple.com. For this topic specifically, check this out: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/
Think about it. 50 years ago when everyone slathered all their food with butter almost everyone was healthy. Obviously animal fats are not as good as omega 3 and 6 and it is about choices. Today most people are eating a ton of processed fats, hydrogenated by us and that is worse than saturated fats! Thanks for a good article, I am putting it in the blog carnival: http://www.bestblogreview.com
It is a world of plastic food to say the least. We do eat a diet of nonfood. The medical establishment leads the pack in giving the wrong advice.
Our food supply is brand driven. The name of the game is profitability. Being in the green really is a matter of eating a paleo type diet. How can we worry about fat when soda is considered a drink fit for humans.
We thrive on a good amount of healthy fats. Saturated fat from grass fed beef is what American’s need in their diet. Traditional food has many advantages.
However, it seems that starch has become a catagory that rules on supermarket shelves. Americans bought nearly $1.6 billon worth of pasta in a recent 12 month period. This puts pasta among the top 50 items in the grocery aisle that sells.There are no nutritional advantages from white pasta.
Wow, lets blame saturated fat for all our health problems. Now, we can have more room in our already expanded sluggish system for some disease producing processed “foods.”