Saturated Fats are Healthy For You

First, let's define saturated fats. These fats usually come from an animal source (the exception being coconut and palm oil) and are naturally solid at room temperature. Think butter, lard, beef tallow.

For years, saturated animal fats have been criticized as the cause of a long list of human health problems. Main stream medical personnel, the American government and the media constantly remind us that eating saturated animal fat will clog our arteries, raise our cholesterol levels, and increase our risk of atherosclerosis and a death from heart disease.

However, nothing could be further from the truth, and there are many studies which show these fats are essential for good health.

Saturated Fats and Carbohydrates

In actuality, many studies are showing that carbohydrate consumption is the true villain when it comes to health, because of its effect on insulin within the body.

Saturated fats, when eaten on a low carb diet have no effect on arterial health or blood sugar and in fact, the lower the carb intake and the higher the saturated fat intake, the less saturated fat, blood sugar, and insulin in the bloodstream.

The blood markers that indicate heart disease, insulin resistance and the symptoms of diabetes are improved when eating a high saturated fat, low carb diet. Jeff Volek and his colleagues have authored several papers about the relationship between fat intake, carbohydrate intake and health conditions such as atherosclerosis and diabetes.

In one study, Dr. Volek and his team compared the markers for heart disease from the blood of a group of people on a very low-carb diet (35 grams of carbs and 100 grams of fat, with 36% as saturated fat) with a group on a low-fat diet (191 grams of carbs and 24 grams of fat, with half from saturated fat). Both groups ate about 1500 calories per day.

Despite the consumption of three times the saturated fat, the group on the lower carb diet had lower levels of saturated fat in their blood than the low fat group did.

The explanation for this is that when carbohydrate intake is low, the body burns fat as an energy source instead. Since the body is burning the fat being eaten for energy, there is less left to circulate in the blood.

Bottom line is that the fat content of the diet is not a indicator for the fat content in the blood stream, and eating fat and cholesterol has nothing to do with how "clogged" your arteries might be.

Rather, high levels of blood SUGAR and insulin promote the storage of fat, higher blood fat levels and inflammation within the arteries. This inflammation then triggers the body to deposit cholesterol at the site of the injuries as a repair mechanism.

In other words, the higher the intake of carbohydrates, the higher the blood sugar and insulin and the more likely you will develop heart disease, no matter what your fat intake is.

Older Studies Revisited

In addition, the famous 1964 Framingham study was supposed to show that eating a diet high in saturated fat would increase cholesterol levels. In 1992, Dr. William Castelli, the director of the Framingham study, declared publicly that the Framingham results did no such thing.

Instead, he said, the data showed that for this group of study subjects, "the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the persons’ serum cholesterol levels."

Today, the Harvard School of Public Health website refutes the "low fat" theory, saying:

"Eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet" has been the mantra for healthful eating for decades. Touted as a way to lose weight and prevent or control heart disease and other chronic conditions, millions of people have followed (or, more likely, have tried to follow) this advice. Seeing a tremendous marketing opportunity, food companies re-engineered thousands of foods to be lower in fat or fat free. The low-fat approach to eating may have made a difference for the occasional individual, but as a nation it hasn't helped us control weight or become healthier. In the 1960s, fats and oils supplied Americans with about 45 percent of their calories; about 13 percent of us were obese and under 1 percent had type 2 diabetes, a serious weight-related condition. Today, Americans take in less fat, getting about 33 percent of calories from fats and oils; yet 34 percent of us are obese and 8 percent have diabetes, most with type 2 diabetes.

Walter Willett, the chair of the Department of Nutrition within the Harvard School of Public Health has said that "the focus of dietary recommendations is usually a reduction of saturated fat intake, no relation between saturated fat intake and the risk of CHD was observed in the most prospective study to date."

The Benefits of Saturated Fats

Dr. Mike Eades wrote a nice post on Tim Ferris' blog about the health benefits of saturated animal fats. They include:

• Improved cardiovascular risk factors
• Stronger bones
• Improved liver health
• Healthy lungs
• Healthy brain
• Proper nerve signaling
• Strong immune system

The Weston Price Foundation has a similar list of the benefits of these fats and the studies supporting the benefits here.

Closing Thoughts

Saturated animal and tropical fats are not killers, and are not foods to be afraid of or feel guilty about eating. These foods are a necessary and important part of any health building diet, and they are protective substances that humans have been eating for thousands of years.

Nina Planck, author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why writes:

"When I began to read about fats with an open mind, I learned some curious things. Consider this: lard and bone marrow are rich in monounsaturated fat, the kind that lowers your LDL and leaves HDL alone. Stearic and palmitic acid, both saturated fats, have either a neutral or beneficial effect on cholesterol. Saturated coconut oil fights viruses and raises HDL. Butter is an important source of vitamins A and D and contains butyric acid, which fights cancer. As for the vaunted polyunsaturated vegetable oils, we eat far too many. Refined corn, safflower, and sunflower oil lower HDL and contribute to cancer."

Duane Graveline, M.D. writes:

"We also should remember that our strongest antagonists in what I chose to call "back to basics" diet will be the food industry for there is relatively little profit in basic foods.

I fondly remember the words of Doctor Paul Dudley White, cardiologist to the presidents back in the mid-fifties. When pressed to support the politically motivated "prudent" diet of fat and cholesterol restriction replied, "See here, I began my practice as a cardiologist in 1921 and never saw a myocardial infarction patient until 1928. Back in the MI-free days before 1920, the fats were butter, whole milk and lard, and I think we would all benefit from the kind of diet that we had when no one had ever heard of corn oil."

Today most people have forgotten all about Dr. Dudley White and his prophetic words of advice. If Dudley White had been in control of our dietary destiny then, cardiovascular disease would probably not be the immense problem it is today."

And finally:

"Whatever causes coronary heart disease, it is not primarily a high intake of saturated fat."--Michael Gurr, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the School of Biological & Molecular Sciences in Oxford, editor-in-chief of Nutrition Research Reviews, renowned Lipid Chemist, and author of authoritative study on Coronary Heart Disease

Sources for Further Reading

• The Case for Not Restricting Saturated Fat on a Low Carbohydrate Diet
• Comparison of Low Fat and Low Carbohydrate Diets on Circulating Fatty Acid Composition and Markers of Inflammation
• The Danger of Low Fat Diets for Kids
• Nutrition and Physical Degeneration A book about how introducing process foods to populations consuming traditional diets introduces disease.

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