You don’t have to buy the low-fat lie. The truth is that healthy fat is a very important aspect of our diet. The confusion comes in being able to understand which fats are considered healthy and which are not and why.
Researchers claimed saturated fats are linked to heart disease.
After World War II, we began to see a rise in coronary heart disease in America. Some researchers were proposing that foods with saturated fats (like eggs and red meat) were the culprit. They assumed a direct correlation that eating fat made you fat and ran with it.
Sugar industry pays Harvard researchers to blame saturated fat for heart disease.
The sugar industry then stepped in during the 1950s, because the link between increasing sugar usage and heart disease was beginning to emerge as the common demoninator. So, the sugar industry paid Harvard researchers (and this is well documented), to shift the blame from sugar to saturated fat.
American Heart Association recommends reducing fat intake.
By the 1960’s the American Heart Association was recommending that people reduce their fat intake and in 1976, the U.S. Senate held a series of committee meetings on the topic, entitled, “Diet Related to Killer Diseases.” Unfortunately, while diet is related to killer diseases, they attacked the wrong diet.
American’s take-away message: “carbohydrates are good and fat is bad.”
Food guidelines were then set forth for eating less saturated fat and focusing on carbohydrates. That was just the beginning of the war on fat. While guidelines encouraged more carbs in the form of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, Americans got the message that carbs… any kind of carb… was good (even refined carbs), while fat was bad. The food industry jumped on the opportunity and high-carb, low-fat and trans-fat containing foods became the foods of choice. Low-fat or no-fat marketing took off.
America’s sugar addiction and obesity epidemic began after low fat diet recommendation.
Because our favorite foods without natural fat had very little to no flavor, sugar was utilized to takes its place. So, it was no coincidence that both America’s sugar addiction and obesity epidemic began soon after low-fat diets became the standard recommendation.
No evidence links heart disease to high-fat diets.
The problem, however, was that none (no, not one!) of the studies done that created this entire new protocol actually linked high-fat diets to heart disease. The science wasn’t there at all. It is also important to know that there was not a consensus on this decision either. Many experts were not on board.
Studies have debunked the low-fat lie.
Numerous studies have since debunked this myth (or really – lie) and proven that there is no evidence connecting dietary saturated fat to an increase in the risk for coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease, including a 7-year study of more than 48,000 women showing that low-fat diets do not lead to greater weight loss or less disease than a high-fat diet.
The rise in heart disease started in the 1940’s.
It turns out our ancestors were right all along. People have eaten fat (even saturated fat) for 1000’s of years and heart disease started it’s climb in the 1940’s.
Next week we will continue to discuss this controversy, and the importance of fat in the diet.