The Saturated Fat Myth

Everyone knows that saturated fat is bad.  Anymore, there's no point even talking about it.  It's common knowledge.  That's why the nutrition, fitness and health experts have made sure everyone knows to cook with margarine and vegetable shortening and avoid butter and lard at all costs.

Or...  wait...  no, turns out they say they made a bit of a mistake.  Now they say that the highly processed man-made trans-fats and hydrogenated oils in things like margarine and vegetable shortening are causing an unprecedented amount of health problems ranging from chronic illness to a significantly higher risk for heart disease and cancer.

Oops.

Don't worry though, they've got it now.  Polyunsaturated fats.  I mean, with a word that big, how could they be wrong?  Besides, they only made one little slip-up before right?  I mean, we don't even know how many peoples' health was ruined by that advice since there's no good way to quantify it, so why not just forget it ever happened.  Seriously though.  Peanut oil.  Vegetable oil.  Canola oil.  That's healthy right?  Vegetarians sure do push them, and they're healthy right?  Granted, they don't have any actual research to back any of this up, but since when has research been important?  Even if they are wrong again, what's the worst that'll happen.  You can get over a heart attack or a little cancer can't you?  Just walk it off.

Sarcasm aside, am I the only one who sees something wrong with all of this. What's worse in my opinion is no one asks questions.  I encourage everyone to double check what I say elsewhere, go read some studies, get some facts.  On the other hand, when anyone questions the nutritional information handed down from on high by such credible sources of the USDA, creators of such gems as the infallible Food Pyramid, they get called crazy.  Don't get me wrong, not all nutritional researchers are pushing lies.  I don't want you to be cynical, just a healthy mix of open-minded and skeptical.

Research? What Research?

Let's look briefly at a few gems of 'research' that proved so infallably that saturated fat is a dietary anathema.  The study most often cited as 'proof' of the evils of saturated fat is the Framingham Heart Study conducted in 1948 on around 6,000 individuals from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts.  However, after 40 years the director of the study had this to say:

"In Framingham, Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol... we found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active."

So, the director of the study that 'proves' saturated fat is bad just said the people who ate the most saturated fat and cholesterol were the most healthy.  Another study conducted in the United Kingdom had one group stop smoking, reduce amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol in their diets and increase intake of unsaturated fats such as vegetable oils.  The other group was told to not change anything, keep smoking and keep eating butter and lard.  After just one year, deaths in one group were 100% higher than the other group.  Guess which group had double the deaths? The group that quit smoking!  Yet here's what the author of this oft cited study concludes:

"The implication for public health policy in the U.K. is that a preventative programme such that we evaluated in this trial is probably effective..."

Twice as many people died on the diet they recommended as people who ate their normal high saturated fat diets and kept smoking. How can anyone say that a diet with twice the number of deaths in non-smokers than in smokers is "probably effective"?  I guess it doesn't matter, the media apparantly doesn't read the study, just the last paragraph.  They're busy people after all, and it's not like they're supposed to report the facts, or be concerned about what's best for you or anything.

The Research No One Talks About

• Studies of skull sizes of our ancestors have shown that before the argricultural revolution, when people's diets were high in saturated fats, our brains were actually bigger than they are now.  So simple a caveman could do it? Turns out he probably has a bigger brain then us to begin with.

• Mother's milk contains over half of its calories in fat.  A majority of that is saturated fat.  Cholesterol is also higher in proportion in mother's milk than almost any other food.  Saturated fat and cholesterol are both essential to brain development in children (like those big-brained cavemen).  If saturated fat and cholesterol are so awful for our children, don't you think they wouldn't be in such high concentrations in mother's milk?  Oh, you mean there's a reason babies aren't born holding a bottle of baby formula.

• Eskimos and Masai are two cultures that have some of the lowest incidences of heart disease and the best blood cholesterol levels in the world.  They must be saturated fat free vegetarians right? Not quite, Eskimos eat a diet consisting mainly of high saturated fat meat from marine animals and fish.  The Masai live primarily on beef, cow's blood and milk.  How curious.

• The University of Maryland went over the data from some studies by the American Cancer Society that linked animal fats to heart disease and certain cancers.  After looking over all of the exact same data, the University of Maryland researchers found it showed that vegetable fat consumption was directly correlated to cancer and heart disease and animal fat wasn't.  The exact opposite of the American Cancer Society's conclusion from the exact same data.

• Saturated fats facilitate the absorption of calcium into your bones.  If you're concerned about osteoporosis, taking calcium supplements is going to be a waste of your time unless you have sufficient saturated fat in your diet.  Granted, you should be getting enough calcium from dietary sources to begin with rather than supplements, but that's for another time.

• They strengthen and enhance your body's immune system.  Not enough saturated fats means more susceptibility to illness.  Saturated fats must be unhealthy if eating more of them keeps you from getting sick as often.  Wait....

• Saturated fat is one of the fats shown to help raise Testosterone levels and keep them up. (The other is monounsaturated fat)  Higher Testosterone levels reduce cancer rates, keep your body from metabolizing muscle for energy and help your body build new muscle and recover from workouts quicker.  Who would want that?  Oh, I guess martial artists probably would.

• Saturated fats fill you up quicker.  Why is this a good thing?  Ask someone who is trying desperately to lose weight (I've been there) and they'll explain this is important.

• Saturated fats make up a half of cell membrane structure poviding stiffness and rigidity to your cells.  I know that doesn't sound like much, but its important.

Wrapping It Up

Hopefully, this has opened your eyes a bit to the benefits of saturated fats and the myths about how bad they are for you.  If you take nothing else away from this article, make it this - saturated fats are good for you, not bad for you.  You can find a significantly more in-depth article about the structure of fats as well as more information on saturated fats and cholesterol in particular here: The Skinny on Fats.  As well as an article briefly outlining the pros and cons of the different types of fats: The Definitive Guide to Fats.

Have anything to add?  Let me know what you think in the comments.

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