Debunking a big fat fairy tale
Nutritional advice and nonsense are horribly intertwined. While plumes of poppycock about salt, superfoods and detoxing continue to be dispensed, the myths around fat are probably the worst offenders.
Almost every bit of advice on the topic tells you the same thing: saturated fat is a bad fat. It will raise your cholesterol; raised cholesterol will cause earlier death.
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, on the other hand, are good. These kinder fats can help to reduce “bad ” cholesterol and increase “good ” cholesterol. Saturated fat can be avoided by eating a diet rich in plant foods and low in animal-based foods.
Ho-hum and eye-roll. There ’ s no nice way to say it (though readers of this column will know I ’ ve tried in the past) — this is absolute bollocks. Before this theory took hold mid-20th century, nobody had thought to isolate saturated fat as the cause of disease. Probably because (as you ’ ll see if you examine the data) there ’ s no proof of causation at all, by country or globally.
Enter a well-connected American physiologist, Ansel Keys, who staked his reputation on proving this theory. That he achieved it has little to do with science and everything to do with egos, politics and right place, right time. Why did the myth continue and become “common knowledge ”? Yup, politics and economics.
I do think, too, that part of why poor old saturated fat so easily took the rap, is its name. I mean it sounds like a fat that ’ s drenched in fat, doesn ’ t it?
Actually, the word “saturated ” just refers to the fact that every carbon atom in the fat molecule has a hydrogen atom partnering it. The molecule is “saturated ” with hydrogen atoms. This makes it the most stable of all fats.
Monounsaturated fat has one hydrogen atom missing in the molecule, poly has more than one. Nothing ominous there.
But here we are, still being warned off the stuff. That ’ s despite saturated fat intake being unconnected to cholesterol levels, despite cholesterol in food being unconnected to blood cholesterol (which Keys himself admitted), despite no evidence for raised cholesterol causing heart disease. And despite little understanding of which foods contain which fats.
But prevailing dogma has industry backing (how can they sell statins if saturated fat doesn ’ t increase cholesterol and cholesterol doesn ’ t kill you?); and besides, they have our bias to help things along.
Many doctors, cardiologists, biochemists, researchers and dietitians have been hammering away at undoing this thinking for decades. If you want to learn more, the sites of Dr Malcolm Kendrick and Dr Zoe Harcombe should be your first port of call, as well as Nina Teicholz ’ s book