Were You Raised on a Low Fat, Nutrient and Hormone Depleting, Low Energy, Bland Tasting Diet?

If you grew up from the mid 1950’s through the early 2000’s, you were likely raised to believe that fat in your diet was bad.  You were raised in a low fat, nutrient depleting, hormone depleting, low energy, and bland tasting food era.  Of course there are exceptions, but the general publicity on fatty acids was bad.  Dietary fats have little to do with cholesterol levels, read that again!

Fats play numerous important rolls in the body, including:
 – Providing a source of energy
 – Acting as building blocks for cell membranes and hormones.
 – Aiding the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K
 – Allowing for the proper use of proteins
 – Serving as a protective lining for the organs of the body
 – Helping regulate energy absorption by slowing the absorption of food.
 – Increasing satiety
 – Making food taste good

Fats are building blocks for every cell membrane in the body.

So where did this all go off, when it is clear that we NEED fatty acids for health?

The first studies on cholesterol and saturated fats, were on Total Cholesterol levels (HDL and LDL cholesterol had not yet been discovered).   They also were done on animals, and they did not take steps to stop oxidation, which when cholesterol is oxidized, is more likely to turn into plaque. It was Ancel Keys whose studies that began in the 1950’s who declared, very loudly (think, squeaky wheel gets the oil) that saturated fats, from animals, were causing high total cholesterol levels in middle aged men and they were dying of heart attacks due to this.  His first study being the Diet Heart Hypothesis.

From 1958-1964 Keys did his Seven Country study in Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Finland, Netherlands, Japan, and the USA.  He chose countries likely to confirm his previous studies, instead of countries like France or Switzerland which would challenge his previous studies.  The Mediterranean countries were still recuperating from World War II; therefore, they were still in poverty.  Italy was coming out of 25 years of a Fascist government and in poverty.  The Greeks were tested during Lent, a time that they were fasting, which meant no foods from animals.  The Mediterranean Diet came from this study being done!  A time when the people studied happened to not being eating animal foods, yet normally they not only eat animal foods, they eat quite a bit of red meat!

Other scientists continued to study, sugar was coming up as a possible cause, as was weight and smoking, lack of exercise and high blood pressure, but saturated fats were NOT showing to be a cause.

The squeaky wheel Keys was busy writing papers putting those scientists down, claiming they were incorrect, and he was correct.

Even more frightening is that the American Heart Association (AHA) was receiving massive funds from Proctor and Gamble, one of the Big Food Manufacturer giants.  In 1941 General Foods, Quaker Oats, Heinz, the National Biscuit Company and the Corn Products Refining Corporation formed the Nutrition Foundation, a foundation that worked to influence opinions and scientific conferences and studies by funding them.  They benefitted immensely from the heavily carb loaded foods that were being recommended (cereals, breads, crackers and chips), polyunsaturated fats that were also being recommended, and were in all of their foods.  So, these very biased companies, were funding research and conferences that would be telling us how we should be eating…

The National Academy of Sciences was created by Congress in 1863, they were to be a means that congress could use for scientific matters that were beyond what they knew.  In 1940 the National Academy of Sciences formed the Food and Nutrition Board.  This board had been requested by the USDA to write a review of the “Dietary Goals” that Congress wanted to pass (a low-fat diet was healthiest).  Somehow, the contract was never signed, and somebody cancelled the request!  The National Academy of Sciences went ahead and funded its own study on the diet/heart evidence.  They felt that a fat reduced diet should NOT be recommended to all of the American people.  Their reasoning was that heart disease is increased by high carbohydrate diets, polyunsaturated oils increase the risk of cancer and children would not have adequate nutrition on a low-fat diet.  In 1980, the House and Senate decided to pass the “Dietary Goals” (a low-fat diet was healthiest).  The purpose of the National Academy of Sciences was to provide checks and balances on all the nutrition work of others, and it failed.

So now all Americans, from 2 years old, male, and female, were advised to eat a low-fat diet, avoid saturated fats, and to use hydrogenated and polyunsaturated oils based on these “Dietary Goals”.  None of the studies showed any benefit to women and children.

So instead of going back to saturated fats, beef tallow, butter, lard etc., that had been proven safe, yet the publicity on them so bad over the years, scientists at edible oil companies began looking for a new fat they could use within their laboratories.  Vegetable oils when heated cause toxic oxidative products like aldehyde that interferes with DNA and formaldehyde, often used to preserve body parts.  Do you really want to be ingesting this?!

Sadly, many were affected negatively by the low-fat diet of this era.  If you are still eating low-fat, I urge you to stop!  We need a balance of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Good Fats vs Bad Fats

The difference between a good fat and a bad fat is in the way they are processed, not in the inherent nature of the source.
EXCEPTION – Canola (Rapeseed or mustard seed), soy and cottonseed oils.

The good fats/oils

Fatty Acids DYSfunction:
Healthy fatty acid deficiency is epidemic.

Historically speaking:
Historically, EFA deficiency was not an issue, because the range of foods was much broader. 
 – Before agriculture we ate 300-1,000 different foods
 – Now we eat 17-20 different foods

Wild things in their natural forms are high in Omega 3’s.
 – Insects, cold water fish, flax seeds, grass fed beef, etc.

Other Factors:
 – Cooking is a factor that contributes to EFA deficiency.  For example, cooking fish destroys most of the Omega 3 oils.
 – Industrialization is another contributing factor.  Grain fed beef is completely void of Omega 3’s, whereas grass fed beef is not.

Supermarket oils:
Living fats/oils are very sensitive to light, heat oxygen and become rancid easily.
 – The more unsaturated the fat, the more unstable it is.

Unstable oils are the ones most important to our health in terms of EFA’s.
 – Cannot be heated.
 – Cannot be exposed to light.

Therefore, supermarket oils, in clear plastic bottles, shelved under bright light and not refrigerated are not supporting life.

General Guideline:

You need a mixture of healthy fatty acids in your diet to maintain optimum health.

30% Saturated fats
10% Polyunsaturated fats (Omega 3’s and 6’s)
60% Monosaturated fats (Olive Oil)

Note:
These guidelines are controversial and vary greatly within individuals.

Information taken from “The Big Fat Surprise” by Nina Teicholz and the NTA, Module 6, Fatty Acids