If you’re like me and consume (gasp!) saturated fat and animal fat, you most likely spend a lot of time explaining to friends and family that think you are crazy that these fats are good for you.  With decades of incorrect nutrition information on fats fed to the public by almost all mainstream nutrition sources, it be difficult if not virtually impossible to have people listen to you without really knowing your facts.  Here’s some support.

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health by Gary Taubes is a must read!  Taubes is an award-winning science writer and in his book he lays out over 450 pages of scientifically referenced information to support why fat and saturated fat are not bad nor the main cause of heart disease, and how refined carbohydrates are actually the culprit in heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

He does an amazing job presenting the evidence behind how once the world of science “concludes” something as fact, “rational” scientists lose all objectivity from peer pressure that they will be marginalized and ridiculed for challenging the status quo.  Facts from scientific study that contradict the theory of the day are completely dismissed-it’s like the scientists can not even see them.  This is the tragedy of current science and how the mainstream nutrition information of today could be so wrong about all fat, but particularly saturated fat, and refined carbohydrates.

At your next social event or conversation when you are defending butter, eggs, and even bacon in your diet, here’s some information (which Taubes lays out) that might help until you read his book. Besides your own experience of how good you feel when you consume saturated fat (the best barometer and argument that exist), let’s discuss some misinformation about saturated fat, cholesterol, and heart disease to start.

Firstly, “total cholesterol” is not the best indicator of heart disease.  Many things influence cholesterol: exercise, weight loss/gain, stress, hormones, medications and alcohol.  We now know HDL, LDL, and triglycerides are better warning signs (but even so LDL is very misleading).  However, when studies were conducted on fat in the diet and heart disease, the only thing measured was total cholesterol, and consequently incorrect assumptions were made-that had consequences for decades.

He explains that while any diet that causes you to lose weight will lower total cholesterol some what, it does not lower the rates of heart disease and can even increase it when starchy carbs and sugars are chosen over good fats.  When studies were done in the 1940s and 1950s the subjects lost weight and had a minor drop in cholesterol, but lower cholesterol levels were never shown to be associated with a reduction in heart disease risk (in fact many studies showed the opposite).

While saturated fats can raise LDL that carry cholesterol,
it is carbohydrates that elevate VLDL.
This VLDL carries triglycerides (and some cholesterol). Drs. Albrink, Man, and Meigs found that
elevated triglycerides were far more common than high cholesterol in
coronary-heart-disease. When a patient is put on a low fat diet, it might lower
LDL a little but it will raise VLDL disproportionately, the much more
significant risk factor for heart disease.

Even though there is still some question on LDL being “bad”
as there are many different densities of LDL that are not measured and is
controversial today, let’s assume for this discussion that some LDL is
bad. And what we do know is that
high HDL is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Carbohydrates lower HDL (and raise
triglycerides). Monounsaturated fat (the most commonly known source is olive
oil) increases HDL and lowers LDL cholesterol. Taube states, “The observation that monounsaturated fats
both lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL also came with an ironic twist: the
principle fat in red meat, eggs, and bacon is not saturated fat, but the very
same monounsaturated fat as in olive oil.
The implications are almost impossible to believe after three decades of
public-health recommendations suggesting that any red meat consumed should at
least be lean, with any excess fat removed.

“Consider a porterhouse steak with a quarter-inch layer of
fat. After broiling, this steak
will reduce to almost equal parts fat and protein. Fifty-one percent of the fat is monounsaturated, of which 90
percent is oleic acid. Saturated
fat constitutes 45 percent of the total fat, but a third of that is stearic
acid, which will increase HDL cholesterol while having no effect on LDL.
(Stearic acid is metabolized in the body to oleic acid, according to Grundy’s
research). The remaining 4 percent
of the fat is polyunsaturated, which lowers LDL cholesterol but has no
meaningful effect on HDL. In sum,
perhaps as much as 70 percent of the fat content of a porterhouse steak will
improve the relative levels of LDL and HDL cholesterol, compared with what they
would be if carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, or pasta were consumed. The remaining 30 percent will raise LDL
cholesterol but will also raise HDL cholesterol, and will have an insignificant
effect, if any, on the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL. All of this suggests that eating a porterhouse
steak in lieu of bread or potatoes would actually reduce heart-disease risk,
although virtually no nutritional authority will say so publicly. The same is true for lard and bacon.”

Next Taubes goes on to describe in detail how carbohydrates,
particularly high starchy foods, refined flour products, sugar, and
high-fructose corn syrup are the main cause of heart disease, diabetes, and
obesity. He explains how some of
these foods raise glucose but others such as high-fructose corn syrup raises
triglycerides and well as increases the oxidation of LDL particles—leading to
increased risk of atherolsclerosis and heart disease.

I highly suggest reading Good Calories, Bad Calories. Taube spent 5 years on the research for
this book, and his conclusions were due to the information he uncovered not
preconceived notions. The science
and history of nutrition is fascinating and enlightening.