Facts About Fat

   Most of us know that healthy fats are essential for our health, but many people in America still live with a "fat phobia" that has been instilled by many years of being taught that fat is bad for us.  Mantras like "If you don't eat fat, you won't get fat" or "If you remove the fat from your diet, you'll have no need to diet" or how about "It's the fat that makes you fat."

      Research in recent years has been proving that most of what we were taught is not only untrue but has caused a huge obesity epidemic in the U.S. in the past 50 years.  Since the low-fat craze began, obesity has sky-rocketed in our country.  I thought it would be insightful to share some facts about fat that you may not know.

o        There’s never been a single study that proves saturated fat causes heart disease.

o         As heart-disease rates were skyrocketing in the mid-1900s, consumption of animal fat was going down, not up. Consumption of vegetable oils, however, was going up dramatically.

o          Half of all heart-attack victims have normal or low cholesterol. Autopsies performed on heart-attack victims routinely reveal plaque-filled arteries in people whose cholesterol was low (as low as 115 in one case).

o          Asian Indians – half of whom are vegetarians – have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the entire world.

o        When Morgan Spurlock tells you that a McDonald’s salad supplies almost a day’s allowance of fat, he’s basing that statement on the FDA’s low-fat/high-carbohydrate dietary guidelines, which in turn are based on … absolutely nothing. There’s no science behind those guidelines; they were simply made up by a congressional committee.

o        Kids who were diagnosed as suffering from ADD have been successfully treated by re-introducing natural saturated fats into their diets. Your brain is made largely of fat.

o         Many epileptics have reduced or eliminated seizures by adopting a diet low in sugar and starch and high in saturated animal fats. (The Ketogenic Diet)

o        Despite everything you’ve heard about saturated fat being linked to cancer, that link is statistically weak. However, there is a strong link between sugar and cancer. In Europe, doctors tell patients, “Sugar feeds cancer.”

o         Saturated fat and cholesterol help produce testosterone. When men limit their saturated fat, their testosterone level drops. So, saturated fat does not impair sexual performance.