Fats, Oils and Public Enemy #2

We’ve all heard the story a thousand times… Saturated fat causes heart disease. Eating fat makes you fat. Eating meat is bad because it contains artery-clogging saturated fat that causes you to have a coronary. We all know that above all, we should eat low-fat… Only… the entire story is almost completely wrong.

Saturated Fat is NOT the Cause of Heart Disease or Obesity

Consider the following:

1. Mother’s milk contains over 50% of its calories as fat, much of it saturated fat. It also contains a higher proportion of cholesterol than any other food. Did God really design Mother’s Milk to set our children on the path to heart disease? It is shocking that current recommendations include low-fat diets for children.
2. Cohen studied Jews who lived in Yemen and ate fats entirely of animal origin plus fruits and vegetables. He compared them to Yemenite Jews living in Israel. Their diets contained margarine, vegetable oils and sugar. He found very little heart disease or diabetes in the former group but high levels of both diseases in the latter.¹
3. People in the north of India eat 17 times more animal fat than those in the south while having an incidence of coronary disease seven times lower.²
4. A survey of 400 Masai warriors in Tanganyika showed a long continued diet exclusively of meat and milk. The men had low levels of serum cholesterol and no evidence for arteriosclerotic heart disease. If you have seen any photos of these amazing people, they are all tall, lean and strong.³
5. Several Mediterranean societies have low rates of heart disease even though fat, including highly saturated fat from lamb, sausage and goat cheese, comprises up to 70% of their caloric intake. The inhabitants of Crete, for example, are remarkable for their good health and longevity.

Surely then if eating fat caused us to die early then the countries that eat the most fat would live the shortest lives. That would have to be right, wouldn’t it? But according to United Nations statistics, this is not true at all. Japan is currently (in 2010) number one in longevity and the people in Japan who live the longest are the Okinawans who eat lots of fatty pork and cook in lard. Second is Hong Kong where the food is not particularly low fat. Third and fourth place are Iceland and Switzerland where they eat some of the highest fat diets in the world.

Clearly, eating fat is not the cause of heart disease or obesity.

The low-fat myth is tragic because it is a sure path to overweight, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and depression. But knowing this is also liberating because in fact everyone hates low-fat food. It tastes boring. Actually, it has very little taste at all. Can it really be right that our bodies have been designed to enjoy only tasteless food? By the time you have read this BluePrint you will know that fat is not bad, eating (natural) tasty food is healthy, which fats are the best ones to eat and which to reduce and which to strictly avoid. Eating the right fats has a dramatic effect on our life expectancy and on how we look.

The Tragedy of Low-Fat

Natural fats in general are actively health-promoting foods. Our taste buds are wired to enjoy the taste of fatty foods. When scientists design products to eat that are low fat, they have to work out a way to make them taste acceptable even though they are missing fat. To achieve this, the products are filled with sugar, artificial sweetener and MSG – three of the most damaging toxins in our environment today.

And if that isn’t enough, your body needs fat in your diet to be able to absorb many nutrients critical to your body’s health. Without fat in your diet, you miss out on:

• Calcium – needed to build healthy bones, teeth, nerves and muscles. Even if there is enough in your diet, if you can’t absorb it, over time you can develop osteoporosis and muscle pains.
• Vitamin A – critical to good vision and healthy skin.
• Vitamin D – protects you from osteoporosis, cancer and heart disease.
• Vitamin E – the primary antioxidant protecting your cell membranes and so the precious contents of your cells. It protects your eyes against degeneration, your heart against disease and your lungs against cancer.
• Vitamin K – important for healthy blood and healthy bones.
• Co-Enzyme Q10 – without which people develop high blood pressure, swollen ankles and feet, congestive heart failure (which is often fatal) and general fatigue.

How common are all these problems today? Eating low fat is a major contributing cause to the modern day degenerative conditions.

Further, when you eat low fat, your body has to try to compensate for what it is missing. This causes it to use up other nutrients at a much higher rate making you more likely to develop depletion of antioxidants, co-enzyme Q10 (again!), chromium and protein.

What is the difference between Fat and Oil?

The technical term is ‘lipid’ which means a fat or an oil. The only difference is that oils are liquid at room temperature and fats are solid. I will use the terms interchangeably.

Let me tell you what you need to know about the chemistry of fats.

Fats are made up of three fatty acids on a glycerol backbone. The nature of the fat is determined by which three fatty acids make up that fat. Most fats are a mixture of different fatty acids and the varying proportions of these fatty acids is what makes different fats.

Fatty acids are made up of chains of carbon atoms between 4 and 22 carbon atoms long. The length of the chain has a big effect on the properties of that fat. For example, short chains tend to be more liquid (oils – like coconut oil, butter) and long chains more solid (fats – like beef fat).

Fatty acids can also be either saturated or unsaturated. Saturated means that between all the carbon atoms in the chain there are only single bonds. This is important because it means that the fatty acids make straight chains. The straight chains tend to lay in close and tight to one another and so make the resulting fat more solid (a fat).

Unsaturated fatty acids have one or more double-bonds in the chain (usually 2 or 3). These double-bonds can be in one of two forms: one called cis and one called trans. The cis double-bond puts a kink in the fatty acid making it hard for them to pack in close. This results in a more liquid result – an oil.  The trans double-bond leaves the carbon atom chain straight making the fatty acid lay in close and become more solid. With two exceptions, trans fats are not naturally occurring which makes them very difficult for your body to use and to get rid of. In fact artificial trans fats are a leading cause of heart disease, cancer and obesity today.

The location of the double bond in the fatty acid is counted from one end of the molecule. That end is called the omega carbon atom. So a fatty acid with a double bond that is three carbon atoms from the omega end is called an omega-3 fat. Because the cis double-bond puts a kink in the fatty acid, it would actually be an oil. Examples are fish oil and flax oil.

The Good Fats and the Bad Fats

This is really very simple. The bad fats are the artificial trans fats. Your body simply does not know how to handle them because they have never occurred in the food supply before they were invented by man at the turn of the last century. As a result, they are a major cause of heart disease today as well as Alzheimer’s, cancer, obesity, liver dysfunction, infertility in women and probably diabetes. You probably know that all of these are major problems in epidemic proportions in Australia today.

Without doubt, trans fats are Public Enemy #2.

Trans fats have a lot of very convenient properties for food technologists. Firstly nothing will eat them (except humans!) so they give good shelf life to products made with them. They are easy to store for a long time without refrigeration. You can manufacture them to have whatever properties you want for your purpose. But above all, they are very cheap to make as they are made from cheap canola, soy or corn oil.

Trans fats are also called hydrogenated oil, or partly hydrogenated oil.

You will find a lot of Public Enemy #2 in most fast foods and in almost all packaged foods in the supermarket. Most salad dressings, biscuits, margarine, fruit bars, nut bars and muesli bars – even from the ‘health food’ shop. Just about anything from the bakery. Almost anything that is deep fried or just fried in a take-away shop. If it is commercial food and the manufacturer does not state ‘Trans Fat Free’, then you can be sure it contains trans fat.

Since trans fat has now been clearly proven to cause heart disease even when consumed in small amounts, you would think there should be at the very least a health warning required on such foods. Currently in Australia trans fat labelling is voluntary! In many countries now, trans fat labelling is mandatory and in some countries, it is simply illegal to have trans fat in the food. This is the case in Denmark which has been working on reducing trans fat in the food supply for 20 years. As they have reduced trans fat consumption in that country from 6 grams per day to 1 gram per day, there has been a corresponding drop of heart disease by 50%.⁴ You can see why I have called it Public Enemy #2.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency has decided that voluntary manufacturer measures will result in trans fats being removed from the food supply. So far, it hasn’t worked. (Surprised?) When a mother eats trans fats, it goes into her milk. If a mother from the UK were to feed her baby in Denmark, she would be breaking the law because of the amounts of trans fat in her milk.

The Good Fats

Short and medium chain fatty acids are digested, absorbed and processed by your body in a completely different manner to long chain fatty acids. They have a number of special properties as a result.

The short chain fatty acids have four carbon atoms (found mostly in butter) or six carbon atoms (in goat butter). They are anti-microbial and protect us from viruses, yeasts and bacteria. They are easily absorbed and converted into energy and so cause less weight gain than long chain fats such as found in olive oil and commercial vegetable oils.

The medium chain fatty acids have 8 to 12 carbon atoms and are also found in butter fat as well as tropical oils such as coconut oil. Several studies on coconut oil have shown it to be a remarkably beneficial oil to have in your diet. It causes a drop in LDL (bad cholesterol), a rise in HDL (good cholesterol) with a reduction in body fat, especially abdominal obesity (“belly fat”)⁵. In other words, it is good for your heart and trims your waistline. Not only that, but coconut oil and coconut cream are quite delicious.

I don’t recommend you eat too much of the vegetable oils. When you do, eat ones that have been cold-pressed, extra-virgin and preferably organic. They should come in dark glass bottles and taste clearly of what they were made from. You might want to try macadamia oil, olive oil, almond oil, avocado oil and sesame oil.

Modern highly refined vegetable oils that all look and taste the same – i.e. no taste at all – are best left on the supermarket shelf in their clear plastic bottles. Most of them are made from genetically modified plants and many are partly hydrogenated to improve their shelf life.

For frying at low temperatures, use olive oil or butter. For frying at higher temperatures, use coconut oil, organic dripping, peanut or sesame oil. If the oil smokes, you are heating it too much.

Personally, I love vegetables sautéed in coconut oil or lightly steamed in butter. Steak is just right when lightly fried at medium temperature in butter. You are best to not burn the steak or the butter.

Eat Organic

It is important that you eat meat from organic sources. Make sure you eat organic and pasture fed meat and organic free range chickens. Eat the skin. In fact, eat as much of the fat as you want. Eat the organs too. They are especially rich in nutrients including co-enzyme Q10.

Not surprisingly, cows that are grass fed have been shown to produce more nutritious beef. Steer clear of grain-fed. If you are eating fish never eat fish that have been grown in a fish farm. They get fed grains with the entire pesticide load that comes with that. The fish oil that makes fish good to eat depends on the fish eating algae and other sea plants. When fed grains, the fish oil no longer contains the omega-3 oils that you need but the omega-6 from the grains which you don’t.

Eat eggs as much as you like. A boiled egg makes a very nutritious and convenient to carry high-protein snack. They are also quite cheap even when organic and free range.

The healthiest and safest foods to buy don’t have an ingredient list, they are the ingredient.

Drink Whole Milk

While it is true that some people cannot digest milk, there are many studies that show that drinking milk lowers the risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, arthritis and general disability. When you buy milk, be sure to buy organic and preferably raw. A lot of the reactions that people have to milk are actually to the processed product and not to the raw milk. It tastes much better too.

Eat Nuts

Several studies have shown that those who eat tree nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts) are healthier than those who don’t. It is believed that this is mostly due to the omega-3 fatty acid content but they also contain lots of minerals⁶ and antioxidants. Researchers in Australia have found that eating a handful of nuts a couple of times a week helps to keep your eyes healthy as you age⁷. Not good enough for you? Eating nuts is also good for your figure⁸.

Don’t expect to get these benefits from eating peanuts because they are a legume and grow under the ground, not in a tree.

Action Plan

So you can stop feeling guilty and eat your steak. Just keep eating plenty of veges too. Eat the chicken skin. Fry (gently) in butter or coconut oil. Drizzle butter over your veges. Use coconut cream in your slow cooker, eat avocados, eat nuts… And watch your blood sugar drop, your waistline improve, your energy levels improve, your digestion get strong, your allergies disappear and your vitality return. Without a day of going hungry.

Yours in Health,

Richard Sawyer.

Key Message

• Eating fat does not make you fat – it is sugar and starch that do that.
• Saturated fat does not cause heart disease – that is caused by sugar, starch, trans fat and various nutritional deficiencies especially co-enzyme Q10, vitamin E and vitamin C.
• Trans fats are Public Enemy #2 and cause much of modern disease even when consumed in small quantities.
• Trans fats are in almost all packaged foods – biscuits, ‘health bars’, salad dressings and take away. You must be vigilant on this one. Taste is not a good indicator at all.
• Fatty foods taste good because our bodies need fat. The problem is trans fat.

Making It Real

1. Eliminate Public Enemy #2 from your diet – throw out anything containing trans fat that is in your pantry. Be very careful eating out especially with anything fried or deep fried. If you can’t confirm it contains no trans fat, don’t risk it. Heart disease is no joke.
2. Buy organic pasture-fed meat and organic free-range poultry. Then you can eat the skin and the fat safely.
3. Use coconut oil in your cooking and eat nuts. They are good for your waistline.
4. Full cream milk is a healthy food. Get it with the least processing possible. Preferably raw.

References

1. COHEN AM. Fats and carbohydrates as factors in atheroclerosis and diabetes in Yemenite Jews. American heart journal. 1963;65:291-3. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14022002.

2. Malhotra SL. Epidemiology of ischaemic heart disease in India with special reference to causation. British heart journal. 1967;29(6):895-905. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6058823.

3. MANN GV, SHAFFER RD, ANDERSON RS, SANDSTEAD HH. CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE IN THE MASAI. Journal of atherosclerosis research. 4:289-312. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B94T7-4T4XVFR-1&_user=10&_coverDate=07%2F08%2F1964&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1272503382&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=95cbcbd29b0d586a925471def4bedc4d.

4. Stender S, Dyerberg J. Influence of trans fatty acids on health. Annals of nutrition & metabolism. 2004;48(2):61-6. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14679314.

5. Assunção ML, Ferreira HS, dos Santos AF, Cabral CR, Florêncio TM. Effects of dietary coconut oil on the biochemical and anthropometric profiles of women presenting abdominal obesity. Lipids. 2009;44(7):593-601. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19437058.

6. O’Neil CE, Keast DR, Fulgoni Iii VL, Nicklas TA. Tree nut consumption improves nutrient intake and diet quality in US adults: an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004. Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition. 2010;19(1):142-50. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20200000.

7. Tan JS, Wang JJ, Flood V, Mitchell P. Dietary fatty acids and the 10-year incidence of age-related macular degeneration: the Blue Mountains Eye Study. Archives of ophthalmology. 2009;127(5):656-65. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19433717.

8. Bes-Rastrollo M, Wedick NM, Martinez-Gonzalez MA, et al. Prospective study of nut consumption, long-term weight change, and obesity risk in women. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2009;89(6):1913-9. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19403639.