Don’t believe everything you read or hear about fat … or cholesterol.
In recent years fat in general, and saturated animal fat in particular has gotten an undeserved (and unscientific) association with causing health problems in general and cardiovascular disease in particular (and it’s similarly false parallel that taking statin drugs to lower are beneficial in reducing cardiovascular mortality).
‘…studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.’ [article link]
Not only is saturated animal fat a natural part of our food supply (and has been since the beginning of time), fat is essential for health. Below you’ll find a very informative article to help you understand how important fat, including quality animal and vegetable fats (i.e. from organic, pasture or grass fed animals), are for your health (and how bad the fat from grain fed animals and processed vegetable oils are for humans). Although long and at times technical, this article is well worth the read. And by the way, cholesterol is good – it’s a critically important component of many physiologic functions within the human body. Eating good fat makes you healthy.
From NBCNews.com: What if “bad fat” isn’t really bad?
“Suppose you were forced to live on a diet of red meat and whole milk. A diet that, all told, was at least 60 percent fat — about half of it saturated. If your first thoughts are of statins and stents, you may want to consider the curious case of the Masai, a nomadic tribe in Kenya and Tanzania. In the 1960s, a Vanderbilt University scientist named George Mann, M.D., found that Masai men consumed this very diet (supplemented with blood from the cattle they herded). Yet these nomads, who were also very lean, had some of the lowest levels of cholesterol ever measured and were virtually free of heart disease.” ... continue reading at NBC News
Good Butter is Good This definitely flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but the truth is that butter is a great fat and a great food BUT, it must be ‘good butter’ – from pastured cows, not feedlot, hormone / antibiotic dosed, grain-fed cows. Here are two articles that explain Why butter is good for you:
10 Healthy Reasons To Enjoy Real Butter
Why Butter Is Better
For more information, visit these resources:
The Cholesterol Myths, Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
The Cholesterol Myth That Could Be Harming Your Health, Joseph Mercola, MD. (Huffington Post)
Fat is Good
Dangers of Statin Drugs: What You Haven’t Been Told About Popular Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines – Weston A. Price Foundation
Below is Part 1 of The Big Fat Fiasco with author Tom Naughton – this is a brilliant presentation, broken into five segments, every one a gem of scientific reason made understandable. [for Parts 2-5, click here]
A Personal Note From Dr. Kratka (AKA ‘Dr. Fat’): My friends and professional colleagues jokingly refer to me as ‘Dr. Fat’ because whenever I can, I ‘preach’ the gospel of eating healthy fats. And I eat fat … whenever and wherever possible. Whether it’s the walnuts and avocados that I add to the many healthy recipes I make, the yummy outer portion of a grass-fed rib eye steak, fantastic New Zealand rack of lamb, the cream sauces I make because of my love for French cooking (and fat) – I just love fat. As a doctor, scientist and evidence-based lifestyle health coach, I know that fat is good for us. IMPORTANT CAVEAT: the quality of fat we eat is critical to whether it produces health or disease within the body.
I also know that in addition to the quality of animal and plant fats being integral to a healthy diet, so is consistently eating large quantities of organic vegetables and fruits which provide fiber, antioxidants, water and a host of phytonutrients, known and unknown, which the body requires to act – in concert with quality fats – for optimal physiological function. Furthermore, incorporating regular moderate to intense exercise – think move, pant and sweat – a Bonfire mantra, into one’s lifestyle is equally important to maintaining healthy physiology and avoiding disease.
Want more? Go deep at The Fat Hypothesis and The Truth About Saturated Fats by renown authors Mary Enig, Ph.D and Sally Fallon. Or visit the Weston A. Price Foundation
REFERENCES
Ravnskov, U, et al. LDL-C does not cause cardiovascular disease: a comprehensive review of the current literature. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol., 2018; 11(10): 959-970 [article link]
Diamon DM, Ravnskov U. How statistical deception created the appearance that statins are safe and effective in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2015 Mar;8(2):201-10 [PDF here]
Legrand P, Rioux V The Complex and Important Cellular and Metabolic Functions of Saturated Fatty Acids. Lipids. 2010 Oct; 45(10): 941–946. [article link]