More and more scientific research is showing that saturated fat might not be the terrible demon it has been made out to be.

The fat/cholesterol hypothesis, which states that the consumption of saturated fat leads to build-up of cholesterol, which clogs the arteries leading to coronary heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, has been accepted as the norm for many years.  But there is a wealth of research that suggests that this may be barking up the wrong tree.

Saturated fat is harmless don't waste the skin!

This research, which concludes that saturated fat is not the culprit, but the over-consumption of carbohydrates and sugars is, has been suppressed and ignored for many years.

Saturated Fat & Cholesterol.

There are many facts about saturated fat and cholesterol which may surprise you.  The lions share of cholesterol is produced by the body, and if you eat less saturated fat, your body will compensate by producing more internally.  Cholesterol is a very valuable substance in the body and it is essential to all the cells.  In many cases, heart attack victims have not eaten any more saturated fat than more fortunate individuals.  Low cholesterol often causes more problems with the heart than high.

Also, high cholesterol is just not an issue for women, it makes no difference to their risk of heart attack or stroke. The same applies to people over 65 years of age.  Even though the majority of heart problems occur in the elderly age group, cholesterol is not a risk factor in old age.

Statin drugs are pushed by Drug Companies and Doctors, who believe that their cholesterol-lowering properties decrease the risk of heart attack, but actually the benefits of Statins are due to something else, not their ability to lower cholesterol.  Statins also come with many more side-effects affecting many more people than the Drug Companies would have us believe.  These include mental confusion and loss of memory, muscle wastage, aches and pains, impotence and even increased cancer risks.  Therefore they may not decrease overall mortality from all causes, and can make the life you do have left to be of lesser quality, and frankly miserable, as they make you feel in many ways old before your time.

The Saturated Fat-Cholesterol-Heart Hypothesis

Unfortunately scientific journals have carried papers loaded with information like this for decades, but because they argue against the prevalent zeitgeist of the saturated fat-cholesterol-heart hypothesis, these papers are not shared with the public.  Most of us get our information on health matters from popular media such as magazines, newspapers and television, and these studies don’t often make it as far out into the world as this.  So the public carries on believing that saturated fat is bad news, and they should fill up on wholewheat bread and pasta.

To make a fatty liver on a goose, you don’t feed it fat, you feed it grain and lots of it, producing foie gras.  It is thought that it is grain – carbohydrate – which leads to the rapid buildup of body fat, and without this, one can consume pure, saturated fats such as butter without having to worry about putting on weight or increasing heart risks. Despite low-fat eating becoming an obsession over the last 30 years or more, heart disease is on the increase.  Perhaps what we are doing is not working…. food for thought?