The Truth About Saturated Fat

January 17, 2008

Remember in the 90's those cookies that claimed they

were low in saturated fat, (snackwells) but they had

tons of sugar to make up for the fat? Those were not

low in calories, too much sugar in them too.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/1/5/the-truth-about-satu\

rated-fat.aspx

The first scientific indictment of saturated fat was

made in 1953. Dr. Ancel Keys published an influential

paper comparing fat intake and heart disease mortality

in six countries: the United States, Canada,

Australia, England, Italy, and Japan. The Americans

ate the most fat and had the highest death rate from

heart disease; the Japanese ate the least fat and had

the fewest heart disease deaths.

But while data from those six countries seemed to

support the diet-heart hypothesis, statistics were

actually available for 22 countries. When all 22 were

analyzed, the apparent link disappeared. The death

rate from heart disease in Finland was 24 times that

of Mexico, although fat-consumption rates in the two

nations were almost the same.

This fascinating MSNBC article examines in depth why

saturated fat has been unfairly demonized, and the

truth about fats and heart health.

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

I don’t know if you fell for it, but I certainly did

-- the low fat myth. I bought it hook line and sinker

in the 70s and early 80s, and it was all based on

flawed science. Low fat is actually quite good for

the 1/3 of people who are carb nutritional types.

Unfortunately it wasn’t very good for me at all and

caused some health challenges.

Fortunately though, I continued to study and learn and

eventually realized that fat was not the evil it was

being made out to be.

A subset of the low fat myth that persists to this day

is the belief that saturated fat will increase your

risk of heart attacks. In 2002 the " expert " Food &

Nutrition Board gave the following misguided

statement: " Saturated fats and dietary cholesterol

have no known beneficial role in preventing chronic

disease and are not required at any level in the

diet. "

Folks, this is simply another myth that has been

harming your health and your loved ones for the last

30 or 40 years, ever since Dr. Keys managed to

convince the establishment that his unproven

hypothesis was fact.

Confusing the Facts is Part of the Problem

Part of the scientific confusion relates to the fact

that your body is capable of synthesizing saturated

fats that it needs from carbohydrates, and these

saturated fats are principally the same ones present

in dietary fats of animal origin. However, and this is

the key, not all saturated fatty acids are the same.

There are subtle differences that have profound health

implications, and if you avoid eating all saturated

fats you will suffer serious health consequences.

There are in fact more than a dozen different types of

saturated fat, but you predominantly consume only

three: stearic acid, palmitic acid and lauric acid.

It’s already been well established that stearic acid

(found in cocoa and animal fat) has zero effect on

your cholesterol levels, and actually gets converted

in your liver into the monounsaturated fat called

oleic acid.

The other two, palmitic and lauric acid, do raise

total cholesterol. However, since they raise “good”

cholesterol as much or more than “bad” cholesterol,

you’re still actually lowering your risk of heart

disease.

Why do You Need Saturated Fat?

Foods containing saturated fats include:

Meat

Dairy products

Some oils

Tropical plants such as coconut and palm trees

These (saturated) fats from animal and vegetable

sources provide a concentrated source of energy in

your diet, and they provide the building blocks for

cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone

like substances.

When you eat fats as part of your meal, they slow down

absorption so that you can go longer without feeling

hungry. In addition, they act as carriers for

important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Dietary

fats are also needed for the conversion of carotene to

vitamin A, for mineral absorption, and for a host of

other biological processes.

Humans have eaten animal products for most of their

existence on earth and therefore, they have consumed

saturated fats for most of that time. If saturated

fats were of no value or were harmful to you, why

would breast milk produce saturated fats like butyric,

caproic, caprylic, capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic

and stearic acids, which provide a naturally perfected

source of nourishment to ensure the growth,

development and survival of your infants?

Saturated fats are also:

The preferred fuel for your heart, and also used as a

source of fuel during energy expenditure

Useful antiviral agents (caprylic acid)

Effective as an anticaries, antiplaque and anti fungal

agents (lauric acid)

Useful to actually lower cholesterol levels (palmitic

and stearic acids)

Modulators of genetic regulation and prevent cancer

(butyric acid)

However, There IS Still a Link Between Fat and Heart

Disease!

Now, it is clear that there is some association

between fat and heart disease. The problem lies in the

fact that most studies make no effort to differentiate

between saturated fat and trans fat. I believe this is

the missing link.

If researchers were to more carefully evaluate the

risks of heart disease by measuring the levels of

trans and saturated fat, I believe they would find a

completely different story.

Trans fat is known to increase your LDL levels, or

" bad " cholesterol, while lowering your levels of HDL,

known as " good " cholesterol, which, of course is the

complete opposite of what you need in order to

maintain good heart health. It can also cause major

clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other

serious health problems.

Unfortunately, many food companies use trans fat

instead of oil because it reduces cost, extends

storage life of products and can improve flavor and

texture.

Your body needs some amount of saturated fat to stay

healthy. It is virtually impossible to achieve a

nutritionally adequate diet that has no saturated fat.

What you don’t need, however, are trans fats.

One point you should be aware of is the loophole used

by many food companies to get around the labeling

requirements for trans fats. See, they can still claim

their product is trans fat-free if it has less than

500 mg trans fat per serving. So many have decreased

their serving size to the point that the ratio of

trans fat falls below 500 mg.

Therefore, if a serving size seems ridiculously low,

it’s probably hiding trans fat content.

Contradictory Results SUPPORT Nutritional Typing

Studies also clearly show that despite great

compliance to low saturated fat diets, there is a wide

difference in biological responses. What could this

mean? Is it just poor science or flawed studies?

Not necessarily, because for one, it absolutely

supports nutritional typing, which predicts that

one-third of people will do very well on low saturated

fat diets (which supports the studies showing that

they work), but another one-third of people need high

saturated fat diets to stay healthy. I happen to be

one of those who need a high saturated fat diet to

stay healthy and warm.

I would agree with the final conclusion of this MSNBC

article, that bad habits, such as lack of exercise and

not eating the right foods for your biochemical needs

cause more heart disease than any specific “bad food.”

As Dr. Volek stated, “If you consistently consume more

calories than you burn and you gain weight, your risk

of heart disease will increase – whether you favor

eating saturated fats, carbs, or both.”

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