In the past year or so, there has been a growing debate questioning the consumption of saturated fat and the alleged ill effects of doing so. There are more studies being done focusing on highly refined carbohydrates and the effects they may have on diseases such as heart disease, cancer, etc.
If you look at the history behind the studies of eating saturated fat as it pertains to heart disease, we were all duped by a man named Ancel Keys.
Back in the 1950s, heart disease was on the rise, and the U.S. Government wanted to know why. Insert Mr. Keys. He came up with a highly flawed study that showed a correlation between consuming saturated fat and heart disease. However, his study only chose six countries to study: the United States, Canada, Australia, England & Wales, Italy, and Japan. It was shown that when other countries were added, the correlation was proved false.
The sugar industry also was involved in studies to show this correlation to prove that consuming high amounts of sugar couldn’t be the cause of heart disease.
So that is why in the 1980s, you saw a plethora of low-fat foods because we were told that saturated fat was the culprit of heart disease.
You have probably heard that fat = flavor when it comes to food. So what did the food industry do? They got rid of the fat, but they loaded the foods with sugar.
And now we have an obesity and metabolic disorder epidemic.
Now, this isn’t advocating that we all go out and eat bacon by the bucket load or that we all start following the Atkins diet (which has the word “diet” in there so it’s automatically bunk). Eating loads of saturated fat isn’t going to help.
This is about what we have been led to believe when it comes to our nutrition. You cannot overlook the influence that our whole industrial food complex has had on our nation’s food supply. And when you really do the research, it is very, very scary.
Just some food for thought for sure. I’ll be discussing this further as this becomes more and more of a hot-button issue.