By David Blyweiss, M.D., Advanced Natural Wellness

October 10, 2016

• Debunking the saturated fat myth
• It’s not the fat, it’s the sugar
• Beat the health toll the American diet is taking on you

Eating saturated fats will kill you. They’ll clog your arteries, give you a heart attack and send you to an early death.

This is what you’ve been told for years. But is it true?

Well, this is a myth that’s been sold to the American public for more than 50 years. And a huge number of folks (including the medical professionals who we look to for advice) bought into it… hook, line and sinker.

However, it’s been anything but good for us.

Once saturated fat was taken off the table, we started loading up on fats like the ones found in corn and soybean oil. And what a disaster that’s been!

These types of vegetable oils are ultra-processed. Most of them come from GMO crops. This in combination is highly inflammatory – and absolutely lethal for your heart health.

If you’ve gone the low- or no- fat route, that’s no good either. These foods taste horrible without the addition of salt, sugar, flavorings, preservatives and other additives. These too, contribute to inflammation and heart disease.

Ultimately, the saturated fat myth – which by the way, is based on flawed and biased data – has destroyed the health of a countless number of people over the past several decades…

It’s not the Fat that’s Killing us, It’s the Sugar

Since movement against saturated fat began, there have been well over 70 studies showing absolutely no link between these fats and heart disease.

So why are we still avoiding fat like the plague, while loading up on altered, processed, sugared and chemical laden carbs?

It may all be due to a little bit of underhanded trickery.

You see, over the past half century, the fat myth has repeatedly been disproven. But during that same period, the horrible health consequences of eating too much sugar and carbs have been proven over and over again.

Well, in a surprising turn of events, a cache of historical sugar industry documents was recently discovered. These papers expose a deception so cunning that it dramatically changed the way we eat.

What did the papers reveal?

The sugar industry provided funding to help promote the risk of fats. They swept the health risks of sugar under the rug. Sugar executives even paid off three Harvard scientists to publish a review on sugar, fat and heart disease.

How the Sugar Industry Changed the Way We Eat

The paid-for study concluded that: “Since diets low in fat and high in sugar are rarely taken, we conclude that the practical significance of differences in dietary carbohydrates is minimal in comparison to those related to dietary fat and cholesterol.”

Read that again. If you didn’t catch the irony of this statement, I’ll point it out for you. Since America gave up saturated fats, this is EXACTLY the diet that most folks are eating: Low fat. Low cholesterol. High sugar. High carb.

And these days, we know this trend is killing us.

It’s fueling an epidemic of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. All of these increase your risk of heart disease.

It damages your arteries, increases triglycerides and raises inflammatory markers linked to heart problems. It also fills your bloodstream with deadly small, dense LDL particles. These are the type of LDL that slips into your arteries and cause plaque buildup.

Saturated fat, on the other hand, can actually have a positive effect on LDL particle size. It contributes to the formation of large, fluffy LDL particles that can bounce around in your arteries without accumulating into blockages.

With this in mind, I recommend looking at your diet with a critical eye. Eating a wholesome diet with reasonable amounts of saturated fats from healthy sources is much better for you than substituting with low- and no-fat foods.

And by healthy sources, I don’t mean eating more cheese, pizza, pastry, desserts and processed meats. These foods make up a large part of America’s saturated fat intake, and none of them are good for you.

Instead, enjoy grass-fed beef or organic, pasture-raised poultry on occasion. Don’t fret over using a little organic butter on your food or eating an egg or two at breakfast.

Just keep it within reason, and complement your fat sources with an abundance of fresh, organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and wild-caught fish.

SOURCES:

Keys A. Coronary heart disease in seven countries. Circulation. 1970;41:1-210.

Chowdhury R, et al. Association of dietary, circulating, and supplement fatty acids with coronary risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2014 Mar 18;160(6):398-406.

Yudkin, J. Dietary Fat and Dietary Sugar in Relation to Ischaemic Heart-Disease and Diabetes. Lancet. 1964 Jul 4;2(7349):4-5.

Yudkin, J, et al. Sugar Intake and Myocardial Infarction. Am J Clin Nutr. 1967 May 20(5):503-506.
Yudkin, R. Levels of Dietary Sucrose in Patients with Occlusive Atherosclerotic Disease. Lancet. 1964 Jul 4;2(7349):6-8.

McGandy RB, et al. Dietary fats, carbohydrates and atherosclerotic vascular disease. N Engl J Med. 1967 Jul 27;277(4):186-92 contd.

Kearns CE, et al. Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents. JAMA Intern Med. Published online First Sept 2016.

Siri PW, Krauss RM. Influence of dietary carbohydrate and fat on LDL and HDL particle distributions. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2005 Nov;7(6):455-9.