***CLIENTS BE SURE TO READ*** (Anyone with a goal of improving health also feel free to benefit from reading too.) What concerns me most about people’s perception of a “good diet” and a “bad diet” is by far the assumption of fats and saturated fats in particular been the lead cause to fat gain and disease. 3 times last week I had concern raised from clients who feared they may be consuming too many eggs, should they just be eating egg whites because yolks will increase cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. Commercially the “anti saturated fat” message has long been sold to the public, so it leaves them with a decade of misinformation. That’s often hard to apprehend. What you really need to consider is, which countries are suffering from an epidemic of heart diseases / obesity / diabetes, what is their countries dietary recommendations and who are following in their footsteps. After looking at the stats the next step is to spot a relationship. Now ill open the jigsaw for you. During the 1920’s heart disease was rare in America, but by the 50’s was the leading cause for death among Americans. This correlates similarly to most western countries. So question we need to ask is what changed throughout the years? Ancel key, an American nutritionist was the influential figure who developed the dogma against saturated fats. In the mid 50’s he hypothesized that heart disease was a nutritional disorder linked to the quantity of fat in the diet. He then moved to publish a study examining saturated fats role in heart disease. This study is known as “the seven countries study” Many scientists were sceptical about Keys data. But despite many opposing studies, the American media soon turned the whole “fat fallacy” into a government profitable agenda. The main problem with Keys, whole saturated fat dogma was he really was blinded by his own bias. Instead of investigating his theories further, he went on a mad mission to validate his hypothesis. Which lead to cherry picking data, (7 countries study) which instigated the low fat high carbohydrate push in the 80’s and 90’s was actually data selected from 22 countries by Keys. Meaning he actually fitted the data to meet his hypothesis and painted over this in his finding. Cognitive bias is by far an area most are prone to miss… So without turning this into a history lesson or a “how many studies can you quote” post, I’ll keep it simple. By the early 80s America was heavily involved with the “minimize all fats and increase with grains” agenda. As soon as this became commercialised the general public were basing their diet around refined Carbohydrates, hidden sugars, while without realising minimising the amount of protein they ate out of fear of consuming saturated fats. So what did we start to see? We started to see an epidemic that grows in obesity and disease. All through mixed messages, biased science, and profitable agendas…. Cholesterol is a power component of your diet. Listen up because this is the information you aren’t receiving! Cholesterol is critical for health. It is an essential component in EVERY cell in the body. The liver turns cholesterol into bile to be used to break down and absorb fat soluble vitamins. Now, think outside of the box? No cholesterol, no bile salt, no fat soluble vitamins? This intern creates deficiencies right? Vitamin A, D, E and K are therefore fat soluble vitamins? Are they important? A – Promotes eyesight, a healthy immune system because of the role it plays in producing red blood cells D- Immunity, bone health, MOOD, reproduction… E & K - Vitamin E is important in the formation of red blood cells and it helps the body use Vitamin K. In particular it helps widen blood vessels and keep blood from clotting inside them? READ THAT LAST POINT AGAIN. The reason most people are still avoiding saturated fats is down to the fear of artery clogging. The bottom line is saturated Fats mildly elevate LDL cholesterol (bad) while what is ignored is saturated fats significantly raise HDL cholesterol (good)… This helps transports cholesterol AWAY from the arteries and towards the liver. But critically, it means blood vessels that are weakened can be repaired. The following vitamins needed for optimal health can be utilized, cell repair can happen and hormone production can take place. So who is getting their diet right? Eskimos in the Artic, have a diet consisting largely of whale meat and blubber, which is 75 percent saturated fat; and they live long healthy lives free of heart disease and cancer. The diet of the Maasai tribe in Kenya consists of meat, milk, and blood from cattle. It is 66 percent saturated fat. The Tokelau island which is now territory of New Zealand have a diet consists of fish and coconuts, which is around 60 percent saturated fat. They don’t seem to be going through an epidemic of heart disease, increased LDL, obesity? The French have low rates of heart disease and other diseases compared with the Americans. The French diet contains lots of saturated fats in the form of butter, cheese, cream, eggs and meats. In general, people of Mediterranean countries consume quite large amounts of saturated fats – and enjoy good health. Eating foods without realising like vegetable oils, processed low fat, margarine all promote a loss of saturated fat. The very thing you want in your diet. Food from the land, natural in its state. Foods like, bacon, butter, cheese, nuts, eggs. MEAT!!! Buy real food, supermarkets are there to make a profit! Never forget that. An example I like to use is supermarket butter goes through a confinement process which equates to a huge reduction in levels of vitamin A and D that you would receive from grass fed butter.” Real food.” Food quality does matter! Especially if you’re overweight??? Where ever possible you should consume quality food. Think about the source of origin. The list really does go on, but I have a habit of losing myself in the middle of a post by going off and covering all sorts of areas. The message isnt that you should gorge on butter, bacon, and cheese. It’s also not that you should avoid all carbohydrates like the plague. It’s that you should educate yourself to understand food quality, whats important and that theres no scientific reason that natural foods containing saturated fat cant, or shouldnt, be part of a healthy diet!!! I hope this helps.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 10:24:45 +0000
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