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Low-Fat
Diets Don’t Work
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Saturated
Fats Are Necessary for Good Health
Many of us, doctors
and laypeople alike, were taught that red meat and fat, and especially
saturated fats, are to be avoided. We still hear that they cause
all sorts of problems, including high cholesterol, heart disease
and weight gain. However, if you carefully study the research, you
will see that it shows the opposite to be true. Saturated fat is
a vital nutrient and is necessary for good health.
In order for your body
to properly use fat-soluble vitamins, you need to have the fat in
your foods. Calcium, too, needs fats for proper absorption. That’s
another reason why we suggest using full-fat dairy products and
putting butter and cream on your calcium-rich leafy green and other
vegetables and eating salad with oil-based dressings. If you eat
this way, you will increase your absorption of the vitamins and
minerals contained in those salads and other vegetables.
While we Americans
have been lowering the amount of fat in our diets, especially saturated
fats like animal meats, butter, lard, coconut oil and full-fat dairy
products, not only have obesity rates skyrocketed, like previously
discussed, but heart disease rates have also increased. A wealth
of research points to vegetable oils, sugar (especially high-fructose
corn syrup), and refined grains ('bad carbs') as a major cause of
obesity, and to trans-fats, and vegetable oils and shortening as
a major cause of heart disease.
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FACT:
By 1950, butter consumption had dropped
from 18 lbs per person per year to just over 10. FACT:
Heart disease caused probably no more than 10% of
US deaths prior to the 1920’s. By the 1950’s
it had risen to 30% or more.
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According to Dr. Ron
Rosedale, iii when
you eat lots of carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar and
white flour products, your body converts them to sugar and then burns that sugar
instead of burning fat. Saturated fats act as a carrier for the 'fat soluble'
vitamins A, D, E and K. When the fat is removed from foods in our diet, many
of these vitamins are also removed, and our absorption of these vitamins also
goes way down.
Saturated fats protect
the liver from alcohol, drugs and other toxins. iiiSaturated
fats also support the immune system, which
helps keep you from getting sick. ivSaturated
fats are needed for correct bone development
and in order to prevent osteoporosis. A high
level of fat in the diet needs to be saturated
in order for the body to properly utilize calcium. vThis
means that a low-fat diet with plenty of calcium
and/or calcium supplements is not necessarily
going to prevent osteoporosis.
Saturated fatty acids
are necessary for proper functioning of all
our cell membranes. They give our cells the
firmness necessary to maintain structural integrity. All your cells
and organs, especially the brain, need saturated fats in order to
function properly.
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iii Ron
Rosedale, M.D., 'Insulin and It’s
Metobolic Effects,' p. 6. www.mercola.com
iv A.A.
Nanji, et al., Gastroenterology 109/2
(August 1995): 547-554.
v J.J.
Kabara, 'The Parmacological Effects
of Lipids,' Champain, IL: The American
Oil Chemists Society, 1978, pp 1-14.
vi Watkins,
B.A. and Seifert, M.F. 1996 'Food Lipids
and Bone Health.'
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