One More Nail In The Coffin Of The Lowfat Diet

Yesterday I heard a segment on the radio (KQED public radio in SF) in which investigative journalist Nina Teicholz spoke about her new book, The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet. Her book makes a scientific, "evidence-based" case for eating a diet high in saturated fats, and explains the rise and reign of the low-fat myth.

She spoke well. The audio is available here and/or here. She is also speaking at the Commonwealth Club tonight.

This is interesting to me for various reasons.

First, I want to know what to eat to keep myself healthy. I've been eating a diet high in saturated fats for a while now, and it's nice to have further confirmation that this makes sense.

Second, Sally Fallon Morell and the Weston A. Price Foundation have been on the record in favor of the high-saturated-fat diet for at least fifteen years, and for most of that time, they were disparaged and/or dismissed by the mainstream.

The fact that the saturated fat idea has become palatable to the liberal establishment (as represented by public radio and the Commonwealth Club) is heartening to me.

Let's hope that they get curious and start examining the rest of the dietary dogma that has been force-fed to an easily led public.

The Era Of The Lowfat Diet Is Coming To A Close

This very important article announcing the end of the low-fat era just appeared in the Daily Mail newspaper. Here are some choice quotes from the article:

"It is time to bust the myth of the role of saturated fat in heart disease and wind back the harms of dietary advice that has contributed to obesity." — Dr. Aseem Malhotra, interventional cardiology specialist registrar at Croydon University Hospital, London

Babies Need To Eat Fat, Says International Journal of Obesity

I came across this article the other day from the International Journal of Obesity, "reprinted" on the Nature.com website.

The editor concludes that babies who do not eat enough fat before age two tend to be fat as adults. The editor also suggests doing additional research to determine if a low fat diet might be problematic for folks over age two.

I think this is an excellent line of inquiry, and one that has too seldom been pursued in recent years.

Saturated Fat Does Not Cause Cardiovascular Disease?

"A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD," says a piece recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Click here to read the abstract.

This directly contradicts the mainstream nutrition "party line" of the last 30-some years.

There's so much I want to say about this. I'm not sure where to start. Except to say that I'm not surprised.

And I'll offer this thought:

When you are trying to understand anything about food and nutrition especially, or about human beings in general, it is important to understand the mainstream party line, but it is also important to understand the "alternative" positions. When one of the alternative positions make WAY more sense than all other explanations, that's probably because it's right and the others are wrong.

The articles about fats that make the most sense to me are on the Weston A. Price Foundation web site. Click here if you'd like to take a look.