Fat is Not the Enemy

The more I read and learn about diet and nutrition, the angrier I am becoming, and the more disheartened I feel about my place in society.  For years I ate low fat, or fat free foods thinking that these foods were helping to keep me thin, or prevent me from gaining weight.  The reality of it is that there is a high probability that these types of foods were actually helping to perpetuate a path which lead to obesity.

For years you and I have been told that eating foods which are high in fats puts us at greater risk for coronary heart disease, raises cholesterol and contributes to weight gain.  Here is the truth; there are only two studies which make a direct connection between saturated fat consumption and increased risk of coronary heart disease, the majority of research shows no connection at all. 

In fact in a recent article published by a group of scientist from the Harvard School of Public Health, titled “Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease, a Critical Review”, deconstruct piece by piece the arguments which created the false link between fat consumption and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD).  In fact in the article the authors actually make the statement that the “low fat campaign has been based on little scientific evidence, and may have caused unintended health consequences.”

This same article found that a weak and non significant correlation exists between dietary cholesterol and the risk of CHD.

Another study done in 2006 published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed research done on 48,835 women based on diet, the group was divided into two groups one group ate a low fat diet, while the other ate their normal diets.  After 8.1 years of following these women, the study found that low fat diets didn’t reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, and even in the health of women who had heart disease the study didn’t find improvement. 

Ultimately the amount of saturated fat consumed probably has little or no bearing on heart disease.

The Journal of the American Medical Association also published information derived by Doctor David Ludwig of the Harvard School of Public Health which found that “dietary fat is not a major determinant of body fat”.  What Doctor Ludwig’s research found was that people who secreted high levels of insulin had the most amount of weight gain, which supports Gary Taubes’ assertions in “Why We Get Fat” that controlling insulin levels is what determines whether or not we gain or lose fat.  In fact Ludwig points out that insulin in the body does two things, first stimulates hunger, and second is a fat storage hormone which makes you store belly fat.  What he found was that patients who ate a low-glycemic diet lowered their bad cholesterol while raising their HDL (good cholesterol), and lowered triglyceride levels. 

Another study by the Women’s Health Initiative found that 50,000 women on low-fat diets had no significant weight loss. 

Why all this bad information? 

Most of the problem stems from poor government policy created in 1977 when Senator George McGovern’s committee attempted to create “Dietary Goals for the United States” a ridiculous notion of trying to create a national food ideal, at the heart of their goals was the lipid hypothesis, which held the notion that the consumption of fat increased levels of cholesterol which lead to the rise in heart problems.   Much of the information they used to support their beliefs was from a single study done on the connection of red meat, and certain types of poultry with the rise in cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.  When word leaked about McGovern’s work to the beef and poultry lobby, they applied pressure which forced McGovern’s group to change the wording of their publication from beef, and poultry to a less innocuous word which didn’t have its own lobby and settled on the term dietary fat.  So hence a simple game of semantics has formed over 40 years of dietary misinformation. 

Couple that with 40 plus years of marketers attempting to capitalize on this new dietary paradigm, selling us “heart healthy” margarine instead of butter, which by the way, when contains trans fats is significantly worse than butters saturated fat.  Further the natural health benefits of butter far outweigh margarines “vitamin enriched” crap.  I have spent years following the marketing bullshit, buying foods which I thought were better for me when in reality these foods were part of the problem. 

Still another study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that when fats were replaced by carbohydrates there was a direct connection to the increase in fat.  Essentially the fat free, and low fat food movement is at the core of the increase of obesity in this country, all the low fat, fat free food that is being sold tends to replace fat calories of carbohydrate calories, and they are carbohydrates not of the slow kind but the kind that helps keep our insulin levels high.

Basically any food labeled with the words “heart healthy”, “vitamin enriched”, or “healthier” is probably a bunch of over processed crap that has had the nutritional value sucked out of it, and a few minerals thrown back in to make it “enriched”.  “Enriched” in terms of “healthy” foods is like the phrase “kicked in the balls” to define a relaxing day. 

Most of the foods we should be eating can be found in the produce department, meat, and seafood departments.  Unfortunately for us they don’t have a marketing department to tell us how great they are for us; you have to just find out for yourself.    

I am pissed off, and angry that food education is so poor in the United States that we learn what is “healthy” from overpaid marketing agencies.  What further upsets me is that our federal government which is supposed to protect the consumer, is part of the problem first for not having the strength to stand up to the lobbyist, and second is full of such bureaucratic bullshit they can’t publish and provide us the general public valid uncorrupted information. 

End Saturday evening rant here…

Bitch Slap Dwayne

Last week Dwayne, who I met at the Biggest Loser Resort in Malibu, hypothesized an idea for us to have a competition to see who can reach 250 lbs first.  He didn’t actually challenge me, and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I wanted to challenge him.

I’ve decided that now I am ready to throw down the gauntlet, with my proverbial bitch slap…

Bring it on big boy.  I am going to whoop your ass so bad you’ll put on lipstick, and high heels, and start calling me daddy.   It won’t even be hard for me to kick your butt.  In fact I might just stop working out all together, and start taking knitting classes in lieu of exercise so I can make it fair.  Are you sure you want to take on this challenge?  Because I actually fear for your psyche, I’m just not sure if it will be able to handle the constant weekly abuse from my receding waist line, while you stay in the same place.

So bring it on, the white glove has been smacked against your face and dropped to the ground so what of it Dwayne?  It’s time to rumble.

End crazy trash talking here…