By Explode @ Shutterstock.com
Originally posted April 3, 2013.
Two nationally known MDs are concerned, linking red meat and “artery-clogging” saturated fat to cancer and stroke.? First you must consider the source. Would you consult your master electrician about a plumbing problem? Probably not. Then why would you consult your physician (trained in prescriptions and surgery) about nutrition rather than a nutritionist/biochemist like Dr. Mary Enig, Ph.D.? Your master electrician, your master plumber, your physician and your nutritionist/biochemist are all seasoned professionals. Each has years of study, examinations and licenses behind them. But is it in your best interest to mix and match? Not for me it isn’t.
So let’s look at the saturated fat ogre. Here is what nutritionist/biochemist Dr. Enig has to say in Eat Fat, Lose Fat; “If eating saturated fat caused heart disease and weight gain, then eliminating those fats should have resulted in a decline in heart disease and an increase in weight loss. But look around you…. While we Americans have been dutifully eliminating fat from our diet, eating low-fat foods, and avoiding saturated fats from tropical-oils, butter, and red meats, obesity rates and overall incidence of heart disease have continued to climb. The truth is that the ‘diet police’ condemned the wrong culprit. It wasn’t saturated fat or coconut oil (a dietary staple in Thailand and the Philippines with consistently lower heart disease than our own) that caused our galloping heart disease rates. An entire body of research indicates grains and sugars (especially high-fructose corn syrup)—not saturated fats—as the cause of obesity, and vegetable oils and trans fats as key factors in heart disease.”
Dr. Enig continues, “The medical literature actually contains only two studies involving humans that compared the outcome (not just indicators like cholesterol) of a diet high in animal fat with that of a diet based on vegetable oils. Both studies showed that animal fats actually protect you from heart disease.”
In a final nail in the saturated fat coffin, Dr. Enig writes, regarding women, “A truly surprising result of all studies involving women is the finding that in women, high cholesterol levels—even as high as 1,000mg/dl—are not a risk factor for heart disease. In fact, for women, low cholesterol is more dangerous than high cholesterol.”
I am going to continue my series on red meat/saturated fat and cholesterol in coming weeks. And I plan to bring you a lot more input from Dr. Mary Enig, whose research on nutrition I follow rather than that of media-favored MDs. It’s just common sense. I will also bring you compelling math on the number needed to treat (NNT). I will be outlining for you severe pharmaceutical industry fraud.
Closing on the upbeat, I bring you a little more “Let Them Eat Fat” (tongue in cheek) greatness from controversial writer Ron Rosenbaum. “The hysterical crusade against fat has become a veritable witch hunt…. We are discovering that fatty delights can actually be good for you. They allow Spaniards, Italians and Greeks to live longer, and they make us satisfied with eating less.
Mr.Rosenbaum continues, “Roast Goose for instance is a supremely succulent, mind-altering flavorful fatty food. In most of America, roast goose would be reviewed as the raven of cardiac mortality, hoarsely honking ‘never more.’ And listening to the doctors on cable TV, you might think that it is better to cook up a batch of meth than to cook with butter.”
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