Good Calories Bad Calories: Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.

PS…this just in “Don’t blame it on the burgers”. May 11,2010 The Independent

Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.

The first of the 11 Critical Conclusions of Good Calories, Bad Calories from Gary Taubes’ book .

• Taubes reveals the myth that dietary fat and especially saturated fat cause disease and obesity. This myth gained momentum when; infectious diseases had been conquered, and more people were living long enough to get diseases such as heart disease -along with new diagnosis technology and increased attention all happening post WWII.

• Taubes also uncovers the myth that the American diet has shifted away from plant based foods to animal foods (high in saturated fat), he show that Americans have traditionally been big meat-eaters.

• The myth that the fat eaten (especially the saturated fat and cholesterol) clogs the arteries is cleared up with the history of the cholesterol hypothesis, how it lives on today and why.

• Gary show that there is no link between cholesterol levels and clogged arteries, how many get heart disease even with low cholesterol and many with high cholesterol levels never get the disease.

• Much attention is paid to Ancel Keys who was the driving force behind the fat-cholesterol hypothesis. Keys believed that dietary fat raises cholesterol and causes heart disease and here is where the low-fat diet dogma was born, which developed into the low-fat-and-low saturated fat version.

• What happens then is a confirmation bias; only looking at supporting evidence; much contradicting evidence is dismissed.

• For example; The Framingham Heart Study did not support Keys’ hypothesis; NIH funders refused to allow publication of the results.

• Virtually every study comparing diet, cholesterol, and heart disease within a single population failed to support the hypothesis.

And yet we continue to be told;

Dietary fat causes heart disease.

• 1977 -the first time ever that a government institution had taken a stance on dietary fat—turned it from a scientific into a political issue when Senator George McGovern announced the publication of Dietary Goals for the United States  recommending caloric proportions of 55-60% carb, 30% fat with no more than a third of that saturated.

With the government on board and researchers going where the research money is not to mention Rose’s philosophy of picking a hypothesis early on and sticking to it no matter what, the truth was getting harder and harder to find.

Thankfully there are other countries with research and much ignored research in the US that with a little digging makes clear that

Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, does not cause heart disease.

So with studies showing that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease why do we get heart disease and clogged arteries?

The answer lies in the second Critical Conclusion:

Carbohydrates do (cause heart disease), because of their effect on the hormone insulin. The more easily-digestible and refined the carbohydrates and the more fructose they contain, the greater the effect on our health, weight, and well-being.

This critical conclusion will be posted next.

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