Is It Safe To Eat So Much Fat ?
Is It Safe To Eat So Much Fat ?
In a word , yes . Saturated fat ? Yes .
What ? Doesn ’ t that go against what doctors , nutritionists , and the government tell you ? Yes , it does . Ask yourself : “ Has the advice to lower intake of fat resulted in a healthy population ?” No way . In fact , the rise in obesity and diabetes coincides with the onset of the low-fat movement that took full swing in the 80s .
Most of what we believe about fat being dangerous comes from a single man : Ancel Keys . Keys had a hypothesis that consuming fat caused heart disease . It ’ s easy to understand . Just like sugar ends up in your blood , so must fat . Turns out he was wrong . The fat in our blood is made by the liver from sugar . It ’ s the sugar in your diet that get turned into the fat that circulates in your blood , otherwise known as triglycerides .
Keys was a very persuasive man , however . He performed now-refuted and very much flawed observational studies . In one study , the 7 Countries Study , he found a correlation between intake of saturated fat and an increased rate of heart disease . However , he cherry picked his 7 countries from a list of over 20 , only selecting the countries where his correlation was seen . Data from Italy and Japan where rates of Sugar were also recorded that showed that a correlation could have just as easily been made for sugar , but Keys refused to . Countries who did not fit his hypothesis became known as paradoxes - The French paradox being that the French who eat some of the highest levels of saturated fat in the world have low rates of Heart disease , as do the Swiss . The Russian Mortality Paradox is another . They eat some of the lowest levels of saturated fat and , have a high incidence of mortality from heart disease .
Consider the Inuit – or “ Eskimo ” people in the Arctic . They subsist on fish , seal meat , whale meat , and blubber . They give the lean meats to the dogs . No heart disease . Consider the Maasai in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania . They eat nothing but meat , fat , milk , and blood . No heart disease . Clearly , Ancel Keys was wrong . Yet , in 1977 Keys and his cronies were able to convince the USDA to adopt the dietary guidelines still in effect today .
In her book , “ The Big Fat Surprise ,” named best science book of 2014 by The Economist , journalist Nina Teicholz ( TIE-shulz ) uncovers a myriad of randomized controlled trials – the holy grail of scientific studies – that show absolutely no correlation between the intake of saturated ( or other ) fat and heart disease . In 2014 , a review of 76 observational and RCTs with more than 650,000 participants found that those with a high saturated fat intake did not have an increased risk of heart disease . 76 studies ! No proof !
The combination of eating a high carbohydrate and a high fat diet is clear . Your insulin is high . Fat is denser than carbs , calorie wise . All the fat you eat gets stored , but only because of the carbs which raise insulin . Sure , that ’ s dangerous . However , take away the carbs and your body can burn the fat for fuel .
That leaves us with a paradox . If you want to lose weight , eat a bacon double cheeseburger with extra cheese and bacon , even mayo . Just ditch the bun . It doesn ’ t sound healthy , but in fact it is .
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