Enjoy the Holidays WITHOUT Trans Fats
Guest post provided by Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS aka “The Nutrition Myth Buster”.
So you’ve decided to eat healthy over the holidays. This year, you’re going to buck the trend and avoid that typical six-pound weight gain. What’s more: This year is the year to really get into shape, and take your overall health and vitality up a notch.
But now? With so much contradictory advice out there – paleo, raw foods, vegan, high protein, low fat, and my own recently published high-fat program (“Smart Fat: Eat more Fat, Lose More Weight, Get Health Now!”) – no wonder consumers are confused!
But there’s one thing every single health professional agrees on, no matter where they stand on the nutritional advice spectrum: Cut out the trans fat.
What are trans fats?
Trans fats are an artificially produced kind of “frankenfat” blamed for an estimated 20,000 heart attacks annually, and another 7,000 heart disease deaths. And they are a serious public health concern. They’re made by artificially forcing hydrogen atoms into unsaturated fat, forming a kind of mutant fat which is great for the shelf life of processed foods, but not for the life of the humans who consume it.
The ironic part is that the reason we put trans fat in our diet in the first place was an ill-conceived attempt to get saturated fat out. The irony is that the saturated fats we banished from our diet are turning out to be either neutral or beneficial, while hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats) are just plain bad news.
How can trans fats get hidden inside “zero trans fat” foods?
The FDA is now calling for the elimination of trans fats from the food supply over the next three years. But big commercial food manufacturers are a crafty bunch. Seeing the writing on the wall, Big Food began lobbying for loopholes in the regulations years ago. Sure enough, they got one. And it’s a doozy.
Saturated Fat: Do you need to limit your intake?
Dr. Bowden is a board-certified nutritionist and author of 14 books including The Great Cholesterol Myth co-authored with cardiologist Stephen Sinatra.
I was interested to know if Dr. Bowden supported diets unlimited in saturated fat. Dr. Bowden provided key clarification when answering…
The problem isn’t with the saturation of fat, but with its toxicity.
If you consume fat from feedlot raised animals, they have received hormones, antibodies, steroids and pesticides. All of this is stored in their fat. Fat you then consume. This is not a healthy fat and in no way recommended.
Let’s look at this from another angle to ensure you understand the point Dr. Bowden is making.
Inflammation promotes degenerative diseases — Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, etc. Inflammation is tied to the relationship between omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Omega 6 is inflammatory. Omega 3 is anti-inflammatory. You need both in your diet. You cannot simply eliminate all omega 6 fatty acids. You need an appropriate balance between omega 3 and omega 6. The current ratio, according to published research in the World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, Vol 100, is 16:1 for most Americans. The desired, healthy ratio is between 1:1 and 4:1.
Accordingly to Dr. Bowden, this poor balance is due to the removal of saturated fats from our diets. Saturated fat is a neutral. It’s neither inflammatory, nor anti-inflammatory….as long as it is not toxic. A very small percent of the US population consumes grass-fed beef free of toxins. If you consume the standard feedlot raised beef, then no longer restricting your intake is not wise. Yes, the saturated fat itself isn’t going to lead to heart disease, but the toxins contained in that saturated fat are a big negative for your health.
So, what are some foods containing saturated fat that Dr. Bowden considers okay to eat?
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Why do we think saturated fat causes heart disease?
I discussed heart disease in connection to saturated fat with board-certified nutrition Dr. Jonny Bowden.
Dr. Bowden is the author of 14 books including The Great Cholesterol Myth co-authored with cardiologist Stephen Sinatra. He explains that “I’m out to rehabilitate the reputation of saturated fat, a perfectly healthy fat that we collectively demonized when we wrongly believed it lead to heart disease. Recent research has shown that there’s no connection between saturated fat in the diet and the incidence of heart disease. Instead of saturated fat and cholesterol, most leading edge experts are now looking at inflammation as a prime mover in the development of heart disease.”
Today I want to cover what Dr. Bowden shared on the history of saturated fat and it’s believed connection to heart disease.
Why is there so much news lately in regards to saturated fat and its connection, or lack of connection, to heart disease? Accordingly to Dr. Bowden, the media is finally catching up with what we’ve known for 15 years. Nothing has changed. It’s just becoming more difficult to ignore the mounting evidence. It never caused heart disease.
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