Saturated Fat is Good for You!

"Saturated fats and dietary cholesterol have no known beneficial role in preventing chronic disease and are not required at any level in the diet." Food & Nutrition Board (1)

If you're on the prowl for a bogus claim to investigate, you need look no further than the modern industry of public health. The problem is not the scientists in many cases. They are just people who like getting to the bottom of things, finding answers to questions, and hopefully helping out their fellow man. I've been privileged to know a couple, they're good people.

However, the public health industry is tied to government and private enterprise which creates conflicts of interest. It is funded by government and business, politically driven, and the careers of public health politicians are wrapped up in whatever claims they have made to knowledge. Thus, they ignore and suppress evidence that goes against their recommendations while playing up health threats like the swine flu, in order to secure more funding for them and their pharmaceutical partners.

My beef here is with the negative press surrounding saturated fat. This is not meant to be the final word on the topic, merely an appetizer of resources for the curious omnivore and a spur to doubt. The meat is at the end.

1. Most saturated fat consumed by humans comes in three forms, stearic, palmiric, and lauric acids. Stearic acid, found in cocoa and animal fat, has long been known to science as a benign, and potentially beneficial, fat. It is converted by the liver to oleic acid, a fat found in the uber-healthy olive oil. Palmiric and lauric acids raise total cholesterol levels, but studies have shown that they raise good cholesterol as much as, or even more than, the bad kind. Thus they have a nil effect on circulatory health.(2)
2. Human mammary glands produce an array of saturated fats: butyric, caproic, caprylic, capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic and stearic acids.(3)
3. If you've thought about a low-fat diet, get this. When your liver doesn't see enough saturated fat floating in the bloodstream, it starts turning carbohydrates into saturated fat. That's right, your body can and will synthesize saturated fat.
4. Low-carb and low-fat diets have been compared, and the judge has ruled. Low-carb diets that are high in saturated fats reduce LDL cholesterol, raise HDL cholesterol, and decrease triglyceride levels well beyond what is seen in a low-fat diet.(4)
5. Studies on saturated fat intake and the risk of death have been inconclusive. The studies claiming to show benefits from reducing saturated fat are flawed, and other better-conducted studies have shown benefits from a diet containing saturated fat, including weight loss.

This is heresy though. Get on google and do some searching. You will find many modern nutritionists and laypeople bashing anyone who merely suggests that saturated fat might not be so bad. Many in the anti-fat crowd have written papers and built prideful (and lucrative) reputations on the idea that saturated fat is bad for you. Many more are simply duped by flawed statistical studies and "expert opinion" (aka science by consensus).

Industry meanwhile loves the saturated fat hypothesis. It means they can lay the blame for the numerous diseases caused by environmental toxins, pharmaceuticals, and other dietary options on the hamburgers you've been eating. When people get rare cancers and other chronic diseases from irradiated beef (FDA does not require meat be labeled irradiated), then saturated fat can be blamed instead.

The following list of resources contains all the saturated fat points made above and many more. The second list of resources points out all the good reasons to eat meat and dairy from ethical producers.

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS)

The Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts

What if bad fat isn't so bad? (MSNBC article) No proof that saturated fat causes clogged arteries or heart disease

Saturated fat and health literature review

Your body synthesizes and stores more saturated fat on a high-carb diet

Dangers of Agribusiness resources:

Irradiation

Hormones in Beef and Dairy

Virus Farming

Environmental Destruction Results From Factory-Raised Cattle