I can bet that you know someone that believes saturated fat is bad for them. Do you know why this is?

For nearly half a century, Americans have been cautiously trying to avoid saturated fat. They treat it like a serial killer with a target on their heart and arteries. The notion that saturated fat clogs arteries and causes heart disease has never been proven! The American government has spent billions of tax dollars in attempt to prove that saturated fat is bad for your heart. Yet, they haven’t ever been able to do so. The most recent study cost 725 million dollars. They collected data from approximately 20,000 women that adhered to a diet low in total fat and saturated fat on average for 8 years and came to the conclusion that this type of diet has no influence on reducing heart-disease rates.


How and why do Americans uniformly have the same negative view on saturated fat?

Ancel Keys Ph.D was the first to experiment on the hypothesis that saturated fat is bad for heart health. Keys wanted to explain why the death rate in the U.S. was declining, but the death rate due to heart disease was rising. Keys compared the intake of dietary fat and heart disease related deaths in six different countries. The published paper Keys wrote stated that Americans consumed the highest levels of dietary fat and had the highest death rate due to heart disease. The Japanese consumed the least fat and had the lowest heart disease related deaths, with the other four countries falling somewhere in the middle in order. Keys then publicly hypothesized that consuming fat will cause heart disease, known as the “Diet-Heart Hypothesis.”

The problem with the experiment Keys conducted was that there was published statistics on 22 different countries and if he analyzed all 22, the connection of fat and heart disease disappears! Two countries consumed the same level of fats, yet one country had a heart disease related death rate 22 times higher! The “Diet-Heart Hypothesis” compares only two factors, not the link that causes heart disease. This leaves many other variables that can affect heart disease un-analyzed. Despite the obvious flaws in the “Diet-Heart Hypothesis,” the American Heart Association (AHA) and media pushed this way of thinking onto Americans in an attempt to calm their worries about the “heart disease epidemic” that was being experienced.

In 1977, Congress made it policy to endorse a low fat diet, despite much criticism from the American Medical Association and scientific community. Congress changed the eating habits of millions of Americans based on an unproven hypothesis on saturated fat, without any proven data on the possible effects that may result.


Is saturated fat bad for my heart?

The question here shouldn’t be “if saturated fat is bad or not”, rather “in comparison to what?” Saturated fat is much healthier for your heart when you compare it to Trans fat, yet is not as healthy as polyunsaturated fat. Compared to whole grains and vegetables, saturated fat would be neutral. Compared to refined carbohydrates such as many cereals and candy, saturated fat is a much healthier choice. There have been multiple studies of tribes that had diets of mostly meat and whole milk. These tribes were lean, had extremely low cholesterol levels, and heart disease didn’t exist. To rule out genetic factors, when the tribes were relocated and started to eat a more modern diet, their cholesterol levels skyrocketed!

Saturated fat raises LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels, but actually elevates your HDL (“good”) levels just as much if not more. It’s commonly accepted that LDL places plaque onto your arteries and HDL removes it. A higher ratio of HDL to LDL is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. This ratio serves as a better precursor to heart disease than LDL levels alone. LDL also comes in two forms, small dense particles (“bad”) and large fluffy (“good”) particles. This explains why people with high levels of LDL may not get heart disease, yet those with slightly elevated levels get chronic heart disease. Replacing carbohydrates with unsaturated or saturated fat decreases the amount of small dense LDL. Overall, studies show that people who consume the highest amount of saturated fat have the same rates of heart disease than those who consume the least.


Does saturated fat affect any other areas other than the heart?

An individual’s saturated fat intake affects many other systems in the body than just the heart. These systems are affected when saturated fat intake is too low.

  • Brain: The human brain is made up of mostly cholesterol and fat. Unsaturated fats are great for your brain, but many Americans are unaware that the main portion of fatty acids that compose the brain are actually saturated. Limiting saturated fat withholds vital nutrients your brain needs to function at an optimal level.
  • Bones: Calcium requires saturated fat to be efficiently absorbed into bones.
  • Immune System: Insufficient levels of specific saturated fatty acids hinder the white blood cells’ ability to fight off bacteria and viruses.
  • Lungs: Surfactant* layers air spaces in the lungs allowing them to properly function. The fat content of surfactant is saturated fatty acids. When surfactant has to replace the saturated fatty acids with other fatty acids, the airspaces can collapse causing respiratory problems. *(The main function of surfactant is to lower the surface tension at the air/liquid interface within the alveoli of the lung.)*
  • Liver: Saturated fat protects and helps reverse damage to the liver from toxins such as medications and alcohol. Consumption of saturated fat also encourages the liver to reduce its fat content. This leads to a reduction of belly fat storage.
  • Nerves: Specific saturated fatty acids are utilized by the nerves to control metabolism and the release of insulin.


Is there an alternative to a low-fat diet that helps lower my risk for heart disease and improve my overall health?

Many studies have shown that consuming a low-carbohydrate diet is an effective way to reduce your risk for heart-disease, stroke, and metabolic syndromes. Low-carbohydrate dieters show lower dense LDL and triglyceride levels and a better HDL to LDL ratio than low-fat dieters. The human body actually can make fat from carbohydrates. When carbohydrates are consumed they are converted into glucose and absorbed into the blood stream. Subsequently, insulin levels spike to direct the glucose and the excess gets converted to triglycerides and fat. Diets with low levels of carbohydrates have lower concentrations of fat in their blood. Keeping your insulin levels low limits the amount of fat that is being produced inside the body. Low insulin levelsalso allows the fat that is consumed to be utilized for energy.

The emphasis on reducing saturated fat has led people to choose options that are much worse. Companies market products as low-fat and as a healthy alternative, but are worse. These products contain added sodium, trans fats, and refined sugars that replace the saturated fat. I’m not saying that saturated fat is healthy, but it’s a much healthier alternative to starches, refined carbohydrates and sugars which have been proven to cause health problems. As for all diets, moderation is the key. Consuming extremely high amounts or eliminating any one single nutrient can have negative effects on one’s health. To experience the greatest health benefits, I recommend taking the focus off of saturated fat and direct it to limiting empty carbohydrates.

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REFERENCES

  1. Keys, A., Aravanis, C., Blackburn, H., Buzina, R., Djordjevic, B. S., Dontas, A.S., Fidanza, F., Karvonen, M.J., Kimura, N., Menotti, A., Mohacek, I., Nedeljkovic, S., Pussu, V., Punsar, S., Taylor, H.L., Van Buchem FSP. Seven Countries: A Multivariate Analysis of Death and Coronary Heart Disease. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1980.
  2. Keys, A., Aravanis, C., Blackburn, H.W., van Buchem, S.P., Buzina, R., Djordjevic, B.S., Dontas, A.S., Fidanza, F., Karvonen, M.J., Kimura, N., Lekos, D., Monti, M., Puddu, V. Taylor HL. Epidemiological studies related to coronary heart disease: Characteristics of men aged 40-59 in seven countries. Acta Med Scand. 1966;460:1-392.
  3. Keys A. Coronary heart disease in seven countries. Circulation. 1970;41(S1):118-139.
  4. Veldhuizan, E., Haagsman, H., 25 August 2000, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000527360000256X