There was no way to keep the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun a secret forever. There is no authority that is so permanent that it can forever retard the march of knowledge. Even though people have died all through history for promoting radical new ideas, the fact that one side is promoting reality and the other side is promoting conventional wisdom permanently stacks the deck on the side of reality.

Decades ago “They” decided that saturated fats caused heart disease and heart attacks. “They” decided to warn us all away from eating saturated fats. Eating less fat lead to eating more sweets and starches, since there are only three dietary nutrients, fat, carbohydrate and protein.

The recommendation to eat less saturated fat caused the food industry to formulate polyunsaturated fats (shortening) that we could use in the place of lard in our pastry cooking, pan frying, and other solid fat needs. This man-made fat turned out to cause heart disease and heart damage.

I bring all of this up again because, once again, saturated fats are in the news. This time the truth is coming out.

The headline in today’s Washington Post:

This study 40 years ago could have reshaped the American diet. But it was never fully published.

The gist of the article is this, a study was being conducted to prove that saturated fats caused heart disease and heart attack. The Minnesota Coronary Experiment was conducted  40 years ago. The full reading of the data show that if you eat a diet that lowers your blood cholesterol you chances of dying of heart problems actually goes up, not down.

…the idea that spurning saturated fat will, by itself, make people healthier has never been fully proved, and in recent years repeated clinical trials and large-scale observational studies have produced evidence to the contrary.

The new research adds to the previous findings calling into question the health benefits of diets that reduce consumption of saturated fats in favor of other foods.

Evidence to the contrary would mean that spurning saturated fat can make you sicker. In fact, if you look at the health statistics of this nation it hasn’t mattered at all that our food supply has gotten ‘healthier.’ We have gotten fatter and sicker even though we are eating low-fat and low-cal and every other tweak. We are now learning that our flirtation with reducing our intake of saturated fats (butter, lard, tallow) has reduced our health.

In the end if a theory is wrong the evidence is everywhere.

If you want to read how we got the wrong advice to begin with, read this book: “The Big Fat Surprise” by Nina Teicholz.

If you want to read why eating less fat makes you sick and FAT, read this book: “Why We Get Fat:And what we can do about it” by Gary Taubes.

I recommend both of these books. They will shake your BELIEF that you should be eating less fat. “Why We Get Fat” will show you why your kids shouldn’t be drinking fruit juice as a ‘healthy’ alternative to milk in the morning. In short, you should start eating foods that your grandma and grandpa ate when they were kids. The only thing that will take off the weight you have put on is to stop eating the ‘healthy’ foods of today and go back 100 years to the everyday foods of yesteryear.