Saturated Fat: Is It Really Bad For You?

What If Saturated Fats Are Actually Good For You?

Before I start I’d just like to say that this article covers a very controversial topic. Not because the science involved is flawed, or because I’m trying to push some new “miracle weight loss technique” on to you.

It’s “controversial” because what I’m going to show you goes against almost every article and news report brought to you by the mass media, and the misinformation generated by the billion dollar “health food” industry.

I’m going to go against what 99% of us believe to be indisputable FACT, what most of us have been taught to believe since BIRTH! And because of that, you might have a hard time taking everything in. All I ask is that you read this article with an open mind, OK?

Flawed Research and Profit Margins

So where has the misinformation about saturated fats come from? All the way back in the 1950′s would you believe!

In 1953 a gent named Ancel Keys published a paper called “Atherosclerosis, a Problem in Newer Public Health“. Keys’ paper claimed a “remarkable relationship” between fat intake and heart disease.

Keys studied six countries, and showed that those with the highest number of deaths from heart disease also ate the most fat, while the opposite was true for those countries that had the fewest number of deaths from heart disease. This became known as the diet-heart hypothesis.

At the time there were plenty of critics, such as Jacob Yerushalmy, who pointed out that there was diet and heart disease data available from 22 countries. In 1957 he wrote a paper that showed the diet-heart hypothesis disappeared if all 22 countries were studied.

Nevertheless, the American Heart Association (AHA), mass media and health food companies jumped all over Keys’ study. He became a minor scientific celebrity and evolved his work into the 1970′s “7-countries” study.

In this piece of work he posed that animal-fat consumption was closely liked to a risk of heart attack, and that total cholesterol was linked to heart disease. The overall conclusion was that the saturated fats in animal foods (NOT any other types of fat) raised cholesterol and caused heart disease.

Of course this study was flawed; 3 of the countries selected in the study did not support his conclusion. There was also no mention of stress, refined sugar consumption, smoking or exercise levels. But the mass media and health food industry jumped all over the new study.

Fast-forward to the present day, and billion-dollar health companies and food producers are still marketing their products based on these findings. Despite the fact that nobody has ever proven these findings to be true.

Do you think that billion-dollars advertising budgets have the power to influence public opinion? Absolutely. And that kind of money is pretty hard to argue with!

Proof That Saturated Fat Is Good For You

Is there any evidence to support the idea that saturated fats are not bad for you, or dare I say it, actually GOOD for you? Well yes there is, I’m glad you asked!

In the 1960′s, George Mann of the Vanderbilt University conducted a study on the Masai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania. He found that their diet consisted almost entirely of raw milk (unpasteurized), red meet and blood. This means that their diet was about 60% fat, half of which saturated.

Curiously he discovered that the tribe had very low body fat percentage, low levels of cholesterol and were virtually free of heart disease.

There have also been studies on native pacific island inhabitants. Traditionally they have a very high saturated fat intake from the palm, coconuts and cocoa plant foods they consume. Again, heart disease was virtually non-existent.

There is also a low rate of heart disease in the Eskimo population that survives almost entirely on whale blubber, seal fat and organ meats and fish.

But what about the argument that these studies must have been conducted on people that are lucky enough to have “good genetics”?

British researchers, confused by the findings from Mann’s study of the Masai, actually challenged the “good genetics” theory and put it to the test. They followed a group of former Masai men in Nairobi, who had begun to consumer a more modern, westernized diet. And they found that their cholesterol levels and heart disease risk had gone through the roof.

This was also true of pacific islanders that had moved away from their native island and adopted a western diet.

It is starting to sound very much like the modern day diet, and our reliance on processed foods is the REAL cause of heart disease, but more on that in a bit…

Types Of Saturated Fats

There are more than 12 ‘types’ of saturated fats, with the most common being stearic acid, palmitic acid and lauric acid.

Stearic Acid – These days it is widely accepted and established that stearic acid has either no negative impact on heart disease risk, or is actually beneficial in reducing the risk of heart disease.

In fact, part of the digestion process of stearic acid means that the liver breaks it down into something known as oleic acid. This is a monounsaturated fat that is abundant in olive oil. And we all know that olive oil is regarded as heart-healthy (think the traditional Mediterranean diet).

Stearic acid can be found in rich quantities in animal fats and cocoa.

Lauric Acid – Did you know that lauric acid has been proven to significantly increase levels of the good HDL cholesterol? It has also been shown to improve your overall immune system.

Until recently I had no idea of this fact, but the healthy saturated fat – lauric acid is being studied for its ability to improve immune system functions in HIV/ AIDS patients.

Palm oil and organic coconut oil are the best sources of lauric acid.

Palmitic Acid – While palmitic acid has been shown to increase levels of the bad LDL cholesterol, it actually increases levels of good HDL cholesterol to the same extent, if not more.

If you increase the ratio of good vs bad cholesterol in your body, then this lowers the risk of heart disease. And as you can see, palmitic acid can help you do this, and is certainly not damaging your cholesterol ratio.

So if saturated fat isn’t bad for you, and is not a cause of heart disease, then what is?

The REAL Causes Of Heart Disease

So then, the health food industry continue to pump huge sums of money into making you believe that fatty foods and saturated fats are making you overweight, and increasing your risk of heart disease. But they haven’t actually been able to prove it, have they?

So what are the REAL causes of weight gain and increased risk of heart disease?

Smoking

Stress

Lack of exercise

Too much refined sugar & high fructose corn syrup (found in processed “low fat” foods)

Refined vegetable and cooking oils

Too many refined carbohydrates (e.g. white bread, low fiber cereals)

And here’s a big one….. Trans fats (artificial, hydrogenated oils)

The real cause of heart disease and other degenerative diseases is inflammation inside your body. All of the factors listed above can cause this inflammation, and are the real risk factors. Not saturated fats.

I hope this article has shown you the light as far as saturated fat is concerned. Please bear in mind that I’m not suggesting that it is OK to eat processed foods that contain tons of saturated fats. However, including sat fats from natural, organic sources is not harmful. In fact it can actually improve your health and help you to lose that stubborn belly fat!

If you are really interested in this topic then I highly recommend you check out the following articles: Men’s Health – What If Bad Fat Is Actually Good For You and The Truth About Saturated Fats by Mary Enig, PhD, and Sally Fallon.

Mary and Sally are both considered experts in their field, and boast the following achievements:

Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. is an expert of international renown in the field of lipid biochemistry. She has headed a number of studies on the content and effects of trans fatty acids in America and Israel, and has successfully challenged government assertions that dietary animal fat causes cancer and heart disease. Recent scientific and media attention on the possible adverse health effects of trans fatty acids has brought increased attention to her work. She is a licensed nutritionist, certified by the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists, a qualified expert witness, nutrition consultant to individuals, industry and state and federal governments, contributing editor to a number of scientific publications, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association. She is the author of over 60 technical papers and presentations, as well as a popular lecturer. Dr. Enig is currently working on the exploratory development of an adjunct therapy for AIDS using complete medium chain saturated fatty acids from whole foods. She is the mother of three healthy children brought up on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), as well as of numerous articles on the subject of diet and health. She is President of the Weston A Price Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk. She is the mother of four healthy children raised on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Check out these excellent books on Saturated Fats & Healthy Eating co-authored by Mary and Sally:

You can also check out my article on healthy cooking oils – organic extra virgin coconut oil for an example of how to introduce saturated fats to your diet and learn about a healthier way to cook your food.

Back to the Fat Burning Foods home page.

Why not learn about negative calorie foods for another way to lose weight fast.

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