*** SATURATED FAT IS NOT THE PROBLEM! *** I get so fed up when I read articles demonising saturated fat and linking it to heart disease, despite the lack of scientific evidence to support this. Please share this post if this resonates with you! Yesterday I read on a blog “Saturated fats and trans fats, won’t do much good if you’re trying to create a happy healthy body, whereas unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are awesome! Saturated fats are most commonly found in animal foods, such as dairy products and meat, and sadly they’re not great for your body.” The below figures (from the USDA database) show how the types of fat that different foods contain is not as simple as saying “saturated fats are most commonly found in animal foods”. You can see that lard and pork chops actually contain more monounsaturated + polyunsaturated fat than they do saturated fat. Pork chops also have less saturated fat per 100g than olive oil or almonds do! All 4 foods types contain some saturated fat, some monounsaturated fat and some polyunsaturated fat. Olive oil is almost universally recommended as being good for us, yet proponents of “plant-based” diets would tell us we should avoid lard because of the saturated fat it contains. How can olive oil be good for us if it contains the same saturated fat found in lard? And what about all the great monounsaturated fat found in lard - the same monounsaturated fat – oleic acid - we are told is what makes olive oil so good for us? Lard – per 100g • Saturated fat 39g (23.8g of 16:0 palmitic acid) • Monounsaturated fat 45g (41g of this is 18:1 oleic acid) • Polyunsaturated fat 11g (10g of 18:2 linoleic acid) Pork Chops, raw – per 100g • Saturated fat 2.5g (1.5g of 16:0 palmitic acid) • Monounsaturated fat 3g (2.8g of this is 18:1 oleic acid) • Polyunsaturated fat 0.9g (0.8g of 18:2 linoleic acid) Olive oil – per 100g • Saturated fat 13.8g (11.3g of 16:0 palmitic acid) • Monounsaturated fat 73g (71g of this is 18:1 oleic acid) • Polyunsaturated fat 10.5g (9.8g of 18:2 linoleic acid) Almonds – per 100g • Saturated fat 3.8g (3g of 16:0 palmitic acid) • Monounsaturated fat 31.6g (31.3g of this is 18:1 oleic acid) • Polyunsaturated fat 12.3g (12.3g of 18:2 linoleic acid) Also, lets talk about the link between saturated fat and heart disease… In the UK there are many doctors and scientists disputing the link between saturated fat and heart disease. Here are links to some of the higher profile specialists and what they have to say on this topic: 1. Dr John Briffa is a practising doctor, author and international speaker. He is prize-winning graduate of University College London School of Medicine, where he also gained a BSc degree in Biomedical Sciences. Here’s what he has to say on saturated fat: drbriffa/2010/01/15/two-major-studies-conclude-that-saturated-fat-does-not-cause-heart-disease/ 2. Dr Aseem Malhotra is a cardiology specialist registrar who writes for The Guardian. Here’s his view on saturated fat: medicalnewstoday/articles/267834.php 3. Zoe Harcombe is an author, obesity researcher and nutritionist who read Mathematics/Economics at Cambridge University. Here’s her view: zoeharcombe/the-knowledge/saturated-fat-does-not-cause-heart-disease/ Not to mention all these: Gary Taubes: garytaubes/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Science-The-soft-science-of-dietary-fat.pdf Kris Gunnars: authoritynutrition/saturated-fat-good-or-bad/ Chris Kresser: chriskresser/the-diet-heart-myth-cholesterol-and-saturated-fat-are-not-the-enemy Sébastien Noël: paleoleap/fear-of-saturated-fat-and-cholesterol/ Sarah Ballantyne: thepaleomom/2011/11/what-about-fat.html Chris Masterjohn: blog.cholesterol-and-health/2010/01/saturated-fat-is-not-associated-with.html Robb Wolf: robbwolf/2011/08/03/big-fat-blog-post-part-1/ We really need to stop spreading the saturated fat is bad myth. I think this is one of the most crucial steps to getting people to change their attitude to nutrition. Please share this post if you agree!
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 12:22:24 +0000
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