Stop Fearing Fat

The Fear of Fat

Fear of dietary fat is one of the biggest hurdles I have to over come with most clients. The idea that dietary fat will clog the arteries and eventually kill us with an unforeseen massive heart attack has been around for a long time. This is what I have grown up believing. I’ve spent the last 10 years deep in the nutrition-health world. That time has totally changed my perspective. I no longer believe that fat is bad and the root of all health evils. In fact, I believe the total opposite, fat is healthy and an important part of the human diet. Never mind that fact that it’s DELICIOUS!

I’ve had 10 years of nutrition classes, lectures, books, conferences, master mind groups and the review of scientific studies to reset my thinking. I don’t expect you or any of my clients to be spending your time digging deep into fats, proteins, carbohydrates and their impact on the human body. That’s what I and others in the wellness community are here for, to help share information.

My plan for today’s post was to give you more information about the fatty acid profile of some of the more popular natural, saturated fats like olive oil, avocado oil, lard etc.. You know, break it down and outline what each fatty acid does, the good/bad. I realized, before I could focus on why fat is good I wanted to share why I don’t believe fat is bad. If you avoid fat, please read on. I think you may find the information interesting.

Fat Phobia and Nutritional ‘de-evolution’

Our nutritional “de-evolution” has led to a reduction of natural, satiating dietary fats and an increase in consumption of industrialized seeds oils, processed carbohydrates and sugar.

This evolution can be traced back to the early 1950s and a scientist named Ancel Keys. Dr. Keys was a biologist and pathologist interested in the cause of disease, particularly heart disease. Dr. Keys sole focus became dietary fat with an emphasis on saturated fat. His dogmatic pursuit and persistence to prove his hypothesis correct (exactly the opposite of what scientists are supposed to do) revolutionized the study of heart disease. It seemed simple and logical, even intuitively reasonable – eat cholesterol and you’ll have more cholesterol in the blood leading to clogged arteries and heart attack. The general idea of this diet-heart hypothesis was simple: cut dietary fat to a minimum, which will reduce high blood cholesterol levels and eradicate heart disease.

An idea being simple and intuitively easy to understand doesn’t always make it right. The idea that eating food rich in cholesterol increased blood levels of cholesterol was, in fact, undermined by Keys own research. He ran studies feeding volunteers huge amounts of dietary cholesterol only to have their blood cholesterol levels remain the same. Unfortunately, these results did not deter his resolve to prove his original hypothesis. He simply declared it a point that required no further consideration and continued chasing his hypothesis¹. “…Keys was not on the lookout for his own biases. He considered the burden of proof to be on those opposing him.”² Keys pushed his agenda and continued to claim his unproven hypothesis as fact even in the face of conflicting data from other prominent scientists. His diet-heart hypothesis never lost momentum despite data from other studies reinforcing the idea that dietary cholesterol does not, in fact raise blood cholesterol levels³.

A scientist named Peter Ahrens had just such data. His research suggested the possibility that carbohydrates from processed foods like cereal, sugar, grains and flour might be the link between obesity and degenerative diseases like heart disease. He also predicted that if his ideas were correct, reducing dietary fat, as Keys was suggesting, would actually cause the situation to worsen because the consumption of carbohydrates would increase.⁴

John Yudkin, a professor of physiology at Queen Elizabeth College in London was another scientist with data that conflicted with Keys diet-heart hypothesis. Yudkin hypothesized that sugar was actually the cause of heart disease not fat and debated this idea with Keys for 20 years, from 1950 – 1970.

Keys was never deterred and ultimately won the scientific debate in 1980. Dietary fat was accepted as the cause of heart disease, setting in motion what was in essence the largest, unsupervised diet experiment ever conducted using unsuspecting U.S. citizens as participants. The structure of this experiment came in the form of a report released by the U.S. Government called the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. As Peter Aherns hypothesized in 1950, the results of this experiment have not been good.

The report encouraged a reduction in dietary fat, especially saturated fat. Animal protein has a lot of saturated fat so, to sufficiently reduce fat in the diet, protein also needed to be reduced. This left carbohydrates as the only macronutrient left to fill the void. 1980 was the start of the American low-fat, high carb diet. It was also the moment in time that the American obesity epidemic really took off.⁵

The American people proved very compliant and followed the guidelines, only to become fatter and sicker as a result. While the number of people that actually die from heart disease has declined since the 1960s, this is not because heart disease is disappearing. It is believed to be due to advances in medical care resulting in an increased survival rate of those who suffer from an attack⁶. Despite the decreased death rate, heart disease continues to be the leading cause of mortality for both men and women⁷. So, we stopped eating fat but heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death, hmmm.

Saturated Fat Is NOT Killing Us

It has been decades since Keys officially presented his diet-heart hypothesis along with his research and data. Since that time his work has been reviewed extensively and deemed flawed⁸ In her book, The Big Fat Surprise, Nina Teicholz concludes that

“The sum of evidence against saturated fat over the past half-century amounts to this: the early trials condemning saturated fat were unsound; the epidemiological data showed no negative association; saturated fat’s effect on LDL-cholesterol (when properly measured in subfractions) is neutral; and a significant body of clinical trials over the past decade has demonstrated the absence of any negative effect of saturated fat on heart disease, obesity, or diabetes. In other words, every plank in the case against saturated fat has, upon rigorous examination, crumbled away.” ⁹

Dietary Fat = Health and Vitality

Even before Keys vilified fat there was evidence to suggest that fat was in no way harmful to good health. In 1906 Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an anthropologist who did his training at Harvard spent a year with the Inuit in the Canadian Arctic living and eating as the Inuit did. His diet, like theirs consisted of 70 – 80% fat from meat, fish and eggs. The Inuit favored fat over all other forms of sustenance. All fatty parts of an animal were prized foods. Leaner meats were fed to the dogs (even the tenderloin which we in the industrialized world would consider a delicacy!) Not only did this fatty diet not cause the Inuit’s health to deteriorate, it was quite the opposite. Stefansson described the Inuit as the healthiest people he had ever lived with.¹⁰

In 1960, George V. Mann, a doctor and professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, spent time studying the Masai who also had a diet very high in fat – 60% of their calories came from fat in the form of meat, milk and blood. Carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables were looked upon as food for cows. The Masai were very healthy and had blood pressure and body weight about 50% less than American men of the same age. Mann describes the Masai as “exceptionally active and fit”.¹¹

So, if fat or more specifically saturated fat wasn’t the cause ill health what was?

If Not Fat, What?

As it turns out, Pete Ahrens and John Yudkin were on to something but the majority of the scientific community even when presented with these plausible alternatives chose to continue to focus solely on dietary fat. Had these ideas been taken seriously the health and wellness of the American people might have gone a very different way.¹²

Sugar

Billy Wilder said, “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.” This holds true for the diet-heart hypothesis. In 1999 Alessandro Menotti, one of the lead scientists in Keys most famous study, the Seven Countries Study, went back and reviewed the data. This second look showed that sweets correlated best with coronary mortality, not fat. The “sweets” reviewed were pastries. This correlation was obvious even with the exclusion of more common high sugar foods like ice cream, chocolate and soda.¹³ Sugar was a factor, but this data was overlooked until years later.

Carbohydrates are SUGAR

Carbohydrates have filled the fat void in the modern “low-fat heart healthy” diet. Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Unfortunately, fruits and vegetables are not the type of carbohydrate filling the fat void. Refined, processed carbohydrates high in sugar are. The increase in processed, refined carbohydrate consumption insures that a typical American’s day is filled with sugar, resulting in a rollercoaster effect of both blood sugar and insulin spikes.

The singular focus on fat has eclipsed the intuitive knowledge that excess sugar is bad for health and allowed sugar in the diet to be ignored for decades.

The Problem is Sugar & Insulin not Fat

So, if fat isn’t causing causing cardiovascular disease (heart disease), heart attacks and death what is? Sugar. Well, actually sugar as it relates to insulin. Here are two quotes from the book Eat Rich, Live Long by Ivor Cummings and Dr. Jeffrey Gerber, MD

“There is no more important factor in weight loss and longevity than your insulin status – period. The single unifying factor among people who live to over one hundred years of age is a low insulin status.”^{14 15}

Sugar, also known as carbohydrate, raises hormonal levels of insulin.

“We have a terrifying obesity epidemic, intimately linked to high insulin. We have an exploding type 2 diabetes epidemic – also related to high insulin. We have a growing Alzheimer’s epidemic, with some leading researchers now calling the disease ‘type 3 diabetes’ because it’s related to insulin resistance in the brain. And rates of cardiovascular disease are steadily growing out of control – yet another high insulin issue.”

As outlined above, the American people have been very compliant. We have listened and followed the advice given through the dietary guidelines. We have adopted a low-fat diet yet cardiovascular disease has not been eradicated, it is in fact on the rise.

Protein & Fat, Part of a Healthy Diet

Dietary protein like bacon, eggs, steak, chicken, fish and the like have a very small impact on the level of sugar in your blood (blood sugar). Fat has such a negligible effect on blood sugar that it is considered neutral, no effect. Increases in the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood impacts the amount of insulin your body must secrete. Insulin clears sugar out of the blood. Carbohydrates have an enormous impact on blood sugar and insulin.

If you want to control your insulin you need to eat food that doesn’t impact blood sugar. Stop eating sugary carbohydrates and start enjoying delicious animal protein and naturally healthy saturated fats like olive oil, coconut oil, butter, lard and avocado.

Protein

Proteins and fats are essential to life. Prior to the diet-heart hypothesis, animal fats made up a large percentage of the American diet. As these natural fats were dropped from the diet, they were replaced by processed carbohydrates. Carbohydrates along with protein and fat are the three macronutrients that make up the diet of the human species.

Proteins are large molecules composed of long chains of amino acids. Amino acids are indispensable and essential to life.¹⁶ They are the building blocks of the body and give structure to cells, play an important role in the transportation of nutrients, are necessary for tissue repair and wound healing and are an integral part in the body’s detoxification process.

Fat

Fat is also an essential part of the diet. More than half of the human brain is composed of fat and requires essential fatty acids from the diet for proper growth and function. Studies have observed a relationship between the brains ability to perform and the development of disease when the intake of dietary fatty acids is imbalanced. ¹⁶ As Dr. Westin A. Price discovered over 100 years ago, the nutritional value of the diet is a vital component of good health. Dietary fat increases the nutritional value of the diet by increasing the absorption of available nutrients. The absorption of vitamins and minerals found in fruits and vegetables is greatly increased when eaten with a source of dietary fat like an avocado.¹⁷

A Time for Change

If you are suffering with ill health, it’s time to re-evaluate what your healthy diet should look like. If you have spent years avoiding natural fats and protein and your health has deteriorated, it’s probably time to try something different.

Researchers like Vilhjalmur Stefansson, George Mann and other more contemporary nutritional scientists suggest that protein and fats are the only essential macronutrients.^{19 20} The research done with the Inuit and Masai has suggested that health and vitality is dependent on the consumption of protein and fat not carbohydrates. In light of this, the government recommended American diet seems backward, with the bulk of the diet coming from carbohydrates, the non-essential macronutrient and a reduction in the essential macronutrients protein and fat.

How much sugar are you eating? Do you even know? Can you identify where the sugar in your diet comes from? I’m all about sugar, actually low-sugar diets. If you need help breaking up with sugar I’m here for you. I know it can be hard. Hard to first identify where the sugar is sneaking into your diet and then harder still to let it go. Yes, it might seem hard (at first) but isn’t your health worth it? Isn’t a dietary change a simple, first step solution when compared to the alternative of a life time or prescription medication and progressive, degenerative disease?

By eliminating a lot of the sugar in your diet you will again be creating a void. Let’s try something different and fill that void with protein and healthy, natural fat.

I’ll leave you with one final quote from the British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017:

“Despite popular belief among doctors and the public, the conceptual model of dietary saturated fat clogging a pipe is just plain wrong. A landmark systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies showed no association between saturated fat consumption and (1) all-cause mortality, (2) coronary heart disease (CHD), (3) CHD mortality, (4) ischemic stroke or (5) type 2 diabetes in healthy adults. Similarly in the secondary prevention of CHD there is no benefit from reduced fat, including saturated fat, on myocardial infarction, cardiovascular or all-cause mortality. It is instructive to not that in an angiographic study of postmenopausal women with CHD, greater intake of saturated fat was associated with less progression of atherosclerosis whereas carbohydrate and polyunsaturated fat intake were associated with greater progression.” ²¹(emphasis mine)

Get Started

I hope you found the information about fat, protein and carbohydrates helpful. If you are interested in eating foods that don’t impact your blood sugar and insulin. Please down load my free guide, Low Carb for Life. Please enter your name and email below to have the guide emailed to you.

Be well,

References

KEYS, A. (1954). Studies on serum cholesterol and other characteristics of clinically healthy men in Naples.Arch Intern Med, 93(3), 328. doi:10.1001/archinte.1954.00240270014002
Teicholz, N. (2014). Why we think saturated fat is unhealthy. InThe big fat surprise: Why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet (p. 57). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Ravnskov, U. (1995). Quotation bias in reviews of the diet-heart idea.Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 48(5), 713-719. doi:10.1016/0895-4356(94)00222-
Ahrens, E. H. (1957). DIETARY CONTROL OF SERUM LIPIDS IN RELATION TO ATHEROSCLEROSIS. JAMA, 164(17), 1905. doi:10.1001/jama.1957.62980170017007d
Ogden, C. L., & Carroll, M. D. (2011, June 6). Products – Health E Stats – Overweight, Obesity, and Extreme Obesity Among Adults 2007-2008. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_07_08/obesity_adult_07_08.htm.
Levy, R. I. (1981). Declining mortality in coronary heart disease. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 1(5), 312-325. doi:10.1161/01.atv.1.5.312 Retrieved from http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/1/5/312.full.pdf
Lloyd-Jones, D., Adams, R., Carnethon, M., De Simone, G., Ferguson, T. B., Flegal, K., … Hong, Y. (2009). Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics–2009 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee.Circulation, 119(3), 480-486. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.108.191259
Rosch, P. J. (2008). Cholesterol does not cause coronary heart disease in contrast to stress. Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal, 42(4), 244-249. doi:10.1080/14017430801993701
Teicholz, N. (2014). Why we think saturated fat is unhealthy. InThe big fat surprise: Why butter, meat, and cheese belong in a healthy diet (p. 326). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
Stefansson, V. (1946). Not by bread alone. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company.
Mann, G. V. (1966). Atherosclerosis in the Masai. American Journal of Epidemiology, 95(1), 26-37. Retrieved from http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/26.short
Reiser, R. (1973). Saturated fat in the diet and serum cholesterol concentration: a critical examination of the literature. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 26(5), 524-555.
Alessandro Menotti et al., “Food Intake Patterns and 25-Year Mortality from Coronary Heart Disease: Cross-Cultural Correlations in the Seven Countries Study,” Eur J Epidemiol 15, no. 6 (1999): 507-515.
Cummins, I., Gerber, J., & Turner, R. (2018). Chapter 10. In Eat Rich, Live Long: Use the power of low-carb and keto for weight loss and great health(p. 225). Las Vegas, NV: Victory Belt Publishing.
Franceschi et al., “Genes Involved in Immune Response/Inflammation, IGF1/Insulin Pathway and Response to Oxidative Stress Play a Major Role in the Genetics of Human Longevity: The Lesson of Centenarians,” Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 126, no.2 (2005): 351-61.
Westman, E. C. (2002). Is dietary carbohydrate essential for human nutrition?. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 75(5), 951-953. Retrieved from http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/75/5/951.2.full
Manninen, A. H. (2004). Metabolic Effects of the Very-Low-Carbohydrate Diets: Misunderstood “Villains” of Human Metabolism. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 1(2), 7-11. doi:10.1186/1550-2783-1-2-7
Young, V. R., & Borgonha, S. (2000). Nitrogen and Amino Acid Requirements: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Amino Acid Requirement Pattern. J Nutr, 130(7), 1841-1849. Retrieved from http://jn.nutrition.org/content/130/7/1841S.full
Chang, C. Y., Ke, D. S., & Chen, J. Y. (2009). Essential fatty acids and human brain. Acta Neurol Taiwan, 18(4), 231-41.
Kopec, R. E., Cooperstone, J. L., Schweiggert, R. M., Young, G. S., Harrison, E. H., Francis, D. M., … Schwartz, S. J. (2014). Avocado Consumption Enhances Human Postprandial Provitamin A Absorption and Conversion from a Novel High- -Carotene Tomato Sauce and from Carrots. Journal of Nutrition, 144(8), 1158-1166. doi:10.3945/jn.113.187674
Malhotra A, Redberg RF, Meier P
Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions

Br J Sports Med 2017;51:1111-1112.

Amy White, Functional Nutritionist

I’m Amy a board certified holistic nutritionist, certified functional nutritionist and lifestyle practitioner and certified Life Coach. I help women in midlife understand the changing needs of their body so that they can stop dieting and lose weight permanently. At 56 I live what I teach. Don’t believe the story that your best years are behind you. They are not. Your best years are just starting!

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