Catalyz Nutrition

Attending a speech by prominent nutrition journalist Michael Pollan at Tufts University several months back, I was happy to hear him utter a prediction:   "I think that saturated fats are undergoing a re-evaluation that will be a shock to many people.    The public perception of saturated fat and the science of saturated fat have fallen way out-of-sync.    Some people are kind of embarrassed to admit that what we were told about saturated fats.... may not be true."   

I could almost hear nutrition fanatics in the lecture hall (at least, those who rely on the popular press for nutrition news) collectively gasp.

In 1977, despite vehement protests from the American Medical Association and much of the scientific establishment, our government published its first "anti-fat" recommendations to the American public.    Alarmed at our steadily rising rates of heart disease, the government seemed desperate to show it was doing something to help our health.    So it hung its hat on what was then regarded by many to be an unproven hypothesis:  that dietary fat and cholesterol harm our cardiovascular health (also called "the diet-heart hypothesis").

Over $1 billion of research on fats has since been conducted -- and the vast majority of the largest studies have vindicated healthy fats such as those found in butter, meat, fish, lard, cream, olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil.    In fact, many studies have highlighted how those fats support human health and help prevent obesity, cancer, and heart disease.  

Which makes sense, given healthy fats have been a sought-after part of the human diet for all but 40 of the last -- oh -- 3 million years.    Ancestors born with genetic mutations that made them react badly to, say, saturated fats would have had far shorter lives and far fewer offspring that humans who were strengthened by those same fats.   

In this way, evolution has optimized humans to the foods the earth has offered up over much of human history.    Which is the only reason apples and healthfully-raised beef are better for us than Twinkies -- or other brand new foods to which we haven't had thousands of years to adapt.

For some reason, the media (and many doctors) have not yet picked up on many of the real outcomes of the big studies on fats.      They continue to push a lowfat agenda, even for children and pregnant women, who are proven to have the greatest need for healthy fats.

But, like Michael Pollan, I'm beginning to see signs of change.   A number of articles have bravely been published by high-profile newspapers and magazines which defy the conventional wisdom that "fat makes us fat" (or worse) by citing the real research results.     Here's a small sampling:

Boston Globe, January 7, 2009:   Dieting?  Don't Fear the Fat   

"If you're watching your weight and hoping it will come down, the best thing to do is not avoid fat.   Fats actually help with weight loss because of satiety. 

So is everything we've learned about fat for the past 30 years wrong?   Well, kind of.   Sophisticated fat-analyzing technology has shown that what we once thought were heathy fats -- like margarine -- a hydrogenated trans fat made from vegetable oil -- are actually bad.   Conversely, fats we thought were "bad," namely lard, dairy fat, and palm oil -- are actually good."

Men's Health Magazine/ MSNBC, December 13, 2007:   What if Bad Fat Isn't So Bad?

"We've spent billions of our tax dollars trying to prove the diet-heart hypothesis.   Yet study after study has failed to provide definitive evidence that saturated fat intake leads to heart disease.  The most recent example is the Women's Health Initiative, the government's largest and most expensive ($725 million) diet study yet.   The results, published last year, show that a diet low in total fat and saturated fat had no impact in reducing heart-disease and stroke rates in some 20,000 women who had adhered to the regiman for an average of 8 years."

New York Times, July 7, 2002,   What If It Has All Been a Big Fat Lie?

"Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health....  is the de facto spokesman of the longest-running, most comprehensive diet and health studies ever performed, which...include data on nearly 300,000 individuals.    Those data, says Willett, clearly contradict the low-fat-is-good-health message ''and the idea that all fat is bad for you; the exclusive focus on adverse effects of fat may have contributed to the obesity epidemic.''

So stay tuned.   If Michael Pollen is correct, more of this story -- which has been waiting far too long to be told -- will soon land on a TV set, website, or doorstep near you.    Meanwhile, have NO guilt for trading in your imitation butter spread -- for the real thing.    Bon appetit!