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Title: Enjoy Saturated Fats, They’re Good for You!
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URL Source: http://lewrockwell.com/miller/miller38.1.html
Published: Jul 19, 2011
Author: Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
Post Date: 2011-07-19 13:04:33 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 143
Comments: 11
This article is taken from a talk I gave at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in Albuquerque last week, on the controversial subject of saturated fats. Some of the slides that I used for this talk are put in here. The medical establishment and government health authorities say that consumption of saturated animal fats is bad for us and causes heart disease. According to the lipid hypothesis – the label used for the diet-cholesterol theory of heart disease – saturated fats raise serum cholesterol levels, and high blood cholesterol causes obstructive plaques to form in arteries, called atherosclerosis. This pathologic process causes coronary heart disease and the need for coronary artery bypass surgery, which is what I do. Types and Structure of Fats Animals and tropical plants contain saturated fats while plants outside the tropics have mostly unsaturated fats. Saturated animal fats are in milk, meat, eggs, butter, and cheese. And tropical coconut and palm oil contain a lot of saturated fat. The food industry makes trans fats. They do this by shooting hydrogen atoms into polyunsaturated vegetable oils. This straightens out the fatty acid molecules and packs them closer together, giving vegetable oil so treated a solid texture like lard. Trans fats are used to make margarine, with yellow bleach added so it looks like butter. They are also used prolong the shelf life of bakery products, snack chips, imitation cheese, and other processed foods. Fats have a string of 3 to 22 carbon atoms. The carbon atoms of saturated fats have a full complement of hydrogen atoms attached to them. Unsaturated fats lack a full complement of hydrogen atoms. Artificially created trans fats have hydrogen atoms that wind up being located on opposite sides of the carbon double bond, which straightens the molecule out and makes it mimic saturated fat. Crisco A hundred years ago less than one in one hundred Americans were obese and coronary heart disease was unknown. Pneumonia, diarrhea and enteritis, and tuberculosis were the most common causes of death. Now, a century later, the two most common causes of death are coronary heart disease and cancer, which account for 75 percent of all deaths in this country. There were 500 cardiologists practicing in the U.S. in 1950. There are 30,000 of them now – a 60-fold increase for a population that has only doubled since 1950. In 1911, Procter and Gamble started marketing Crisco as a new kind of food. The name Crisco is derived from CRYStalized Cottonseed Oil. It was the first commercially marketed trans fat. Crisco was used to make candles and soap, but with electrification causing a decline in candle sales, Procter and Gamble decided to promote this new type of fat as an all-vegetable-derived shortening, which the company marketed as a "healthier alternative to cooking with animal fats." At the time Americans cooked and baked food with lard (pork fat), tallow (beef and lamb fat), and butter. Procter and Gamble published a free cookbook with 615 recipes, from pound cake to lobster bisque, all of which required Crisco. The company succeeded in demonizing lard, and during the 20th century Crisco and other trans fat vegetable oils gradually replaced saturated animal fats and tropical oils in the American diet. Evidence Supporting the Lipid Hypothesis Rabbits, Cholesterol, and Atherosclerosis In 1913 a Russian physiologist fed high doses of cholesterol to rabbits and showed that cholesterol caused atherosclerotic changes in the rabbit’s arterial intima like that seen with human atherosclerosis. Over the ensuing decades other investigators did atherosclerosis research on cholesterol-fed rabbits, which they cited in support of the diet-cholesterol theory of heart disease. Framingham Heart Study In 1948, government-funded investigators began following some 5,000 men and women in Framingham, Massachusetts to see who developed coronary heart disease. They found that people with elevated cholesterol were more likely to be diagnosed with CHD and die from it. Six years later the American Heart Association began promoting what it called the Prudent Diet, where "corn oil, margarine, chicken, and cold cereal replaced butter, lard, beef, and eggs." Ancel Keys Six-Country and Seven-Country Studies Ancel Keys, the father of K-rations for the military, published a study in 1953 that correlated deaths from heart disease with the percentage of calories from fat in the diet. He found that fat consumption was associated with an increased rate of death from heart disease in the six countries that he studied. He followed this up with a more detailed Seven Country Study published in 1970, using three of the countries that were in the original six-country study – Italy, Japan, and the U.S. – and four other countries – Finland, Greece, The Netherlands, and Yugoslavia. This study further cemented the association of fat consumption and death from heart disease, which led to the McGovern Report. McGovern Report The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, chaired by Senator George McGovern, released, in 1977, its "Dietary Goals for the United States," designed to reduce fat intake and avoid cholesterol-rich foods. These dietary goals became become official government policy. 
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#2. To: christine (#0)
This is all too complicated & confusing. Just tell me what I'm supposed to eat this week, I trust your judgement Chrissy.
There is really nothing difficult about it. You can break fats down into their types and know which ones are good for you and which are not. If you just remember that "hydrogenated" = heart disease and death, and animal protein and some vegetable oils are good then you're home free. Readily available good oils: Olive, Grape Seed, and ORGANIC Palm Oils are good oils. Also a lot of Nut Oils such as Macadamia Nut Oil are good as well. Some people are allergic to Walnut but it is another one that, if expeller pressed, is good. If, until you learn more, you eliminate every other you're on the right track. Grape Seed oil is a good one to know about for cooking since unlike Olive Oil it does not smoke at higher temperatures. Most commercial supermarket oils are produced chemically or with heat. Other considerations aside this reduces their food value as it damages the long chain fat molecules and can break them down into dangerous compounds. That is why you want to look for "Cold Pressed"(meaning not heated) and/or "Expeller Pressed" (produced by pressure not heat) oils as they retain more of the good stuff. They are however more expensive. Also watch the "Sell By" dates as oils do have a shelf life before they go rancid (that was the original reason for hydrogenization which was to slow down the process and extend the shelf life).
I knew a guy back in Illinois who died of a massive heart attack. Lots of good that Canola oil did him, eh? I'll bet they are still fighting over his estate. He owned a big towing outfit.
Too bad for your friend. Canola has been over sold as healthy. It is too high in ureic acid and is mostly extracted using harsh and toxic chemicals. I avoid it.
#11. To: Original_Intent (#10)
He was no friend. I worked for him at a bar doing security. I never use canola either.
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#4. To: Esso, christine, abraxas, CadetD, farmfriend, all (#2)
#9. To: Original_Intent (#4)
animal protein and some vegetable oils are good then you're home free.
#10. To: BTP Holdings (#9)
Replies to Comment # 10. Too bad for your friend. Canola has been over sold as healthy. It is too high in ureic acid and is mostly extracted using harsh and toxic chemicals. I avoid it.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 10.