Is Saturated Fat Bad For You?
Most of us grew up being told that foods like red meat, eggs, and bacon raise cholesterol levels. This idea that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for you and contribute to heart disease is so deeply ingrained in our cultural psyche that few people even question it. But is it really true?
It all started with Ancel Keys and his “Seven Countries” study (1958), where his research found a significant association between fat and saturated fat intake and heart disease mortality. Keys managed to implant his idea into the American Heart Association and, in 1961, the first-ever guidelines calling for Americans to cut back on saturated fats, as the best way to fight heart disease were published. The US government adopted this view in 1977 and the rest of the world followed. But the evidence backing these guidelines was weak and researchers such as Yerushalmey and Hilleboe (1957) pointed out that if 21 other countries were included in Key’s study, the association he observed was weak at best.
Our dietary guidance has followed Keys’ view for 50 years now. And yet despite half a billion pounds spent trying to prove his hypothesis, the evidence of its health benefits has never been produced. In fact, what the research conducted over the last 30 or so years does reveal is that there is no evidence to say that the consumption of saturated fats causes heart attacks or strokes. The research actually shows that low-carbohydrate diets are significantly more effective at lowering incidences of heart attacks or strokes than low-fat diets. And yet, the government’s dietary recommendations have barely changed.
So the guidelines were changed to recommend a lower fat, higher carbohydrate diet – grains, pasta, rice, and potatoes replaced meat, cheese, and eggs on our dinner plates. Breakfasts of eggs and bacon ceded to bowls of cereal and orange juice. And as a consequence, we British now eat 46 percent less saturated fat than we did in 1975 and UK authorities recommend that two-thirds of calories should come from carbohydrates. And as a consequence, we are the fattest we have ever been!
The problem with this recommendation, as researchers have suggested since the 1950s, is that carbohydrates are uniquely fattening. When eaten, the body is stimulated to release insulin, which turns out to be very efficient at storing away fat. As well we have fructose, the main sugar in fruit, causing the liver to generate triglycerides and other lipids in the blood. Excessive carbohydrates lead not only to obesity but also, over time, to Type 2 diabetes and, very likely, heart disease.
A 2010 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1) found that when you replace saturated fat with a higher carbohydrate intake, particularly refined carbohydrates, you exacerbate insulin resistance and obesity, increase triglycerides and small LDL particles, and reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol. The authors state that dietary efforts to improve your cardiovascular disease risk should primarily emphasise the limitation of refined carbohydrate intake and weight reduction.
The best possible science from the past decade now indicates that too many carbohydrates overall – even of the supposedly healthy, whole-grain kind – increase the risk of these diseases compared with a diet low in carbohydrates. In other words, too much whole-grain cereal for breakfast and whole-grain pasta for dinner, with fruit snacks in between, add up to a less healthy diet than one of eggs and sausage, followed by fish.
If this isn’t enough to convince you here are some more reasons you should be eating more fat.
Healthier skin
The body needs healthy fats, including saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, and Omega-3 fats, to regenerate skin tissue, and it’s these fats that are the preferred building blocks in the body.
Immune health
Saturated fats found in butter and coconut oil (myristic acid and lauric acid) play key roles in immune health. Loss of sufficient saturated fatty acids in the white blood cells hampers their ability to recognize and destroy foreign invaders, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
Liver health
Adding saturated fat to the diet has been shown in medical research to encourage the liver cells to dump their fat content. Clearing fat from the liver is the critical first step to calling a halt to fat storage. Additionally, saturated fat has been shown to protect the liver from the toxic effects of alcohol and medications, including Paracetamol and other drugs commonly used for pain and even to reverse damage once it has occurred. Since the liver is the lynchpin of a healthy metabolism, anything that is good for the liver is good for getting rid of fat around the middle. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils do not offer this protection.
Fat for weight-loss
Fat does not make you fat and all calories are not created the same! The theory that all calories have the same impact on your weight and metabolism remains one of the most persistent nutrition myths out there. For example, calories from a cinnamon bun are different from calories from an avocado in how they affect your hormones, your metabolism, and even your appetite.
Kevin Hall, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), studies mathematical systems and biology. He found that eating more fat shuts off your brain’s hunger and craving centers and that eating healthy fats improves food intake, taste preferences, and metabolism. This has also been shown in human experiments, where those who ate high-fat diets had a much faster metabolism. Low-fat, high-carb diets spiked insulin, subsequently slowing metabolism and storing belly fat. The higher-fat diet group had a faster metabolism, even eating the same number of calories (2).
Here’s your takeaway:
- Focus on healthy fats such as avocados, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, nuts and seeds, eggs, grass-fed meat, wild oily fish, full fat (preferably organic dairy if you tolerate it), and dark chocolate. Yay!
- Avoid all polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, and safflower oil. All restaurants will use industrial vegetable seed oils. These cause inflammation in the body.
- Avoid all manufactured trans fats such as margarine and processed shop-bought foods like cakes, biscuits, crackers, crisps, and all deep-fat fried foods. These fats are oxidised, cause inflammation, and are toxic to the body.
- Limit your consumption of carbohydrates, especially refined and processed types, and focus more on vegetables, clean protein, and healthy fats!
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to nutrition recommendations. Everybody is different and your physical activity level and individual nutritional needs will dictate the amount of carbohydrate you need each day to function at your optimum level. If you would like help to lose weight or just want to fine-tune your diet, don’t hesitate to contact me here for a bespoke nutrition consultation.
References:
1. Siri-Tarino, P; Sun, Q; Hu, F et al. Saturated fat, carbohydrate, and cardiovascular disease. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010, 91 (3), pp 502–509, https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2008.26285
- H. Sherman, Y. Genzer, R. Cohen, N. Chapnik, Z. Madar, O. Froy. A timed high-fat diet resets circadian metabolism and prevents obesity. The FASEB Journal, 2012; 26 (8): 3493 DOI: 10.1096/fj.12-208868
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