What comes to mind when you hear the word “fat”? For most of us, this little three-letter-word has quite a negative connotation. Perhaps it even stirs up a bit of fear inside of us. But why? Largely because this unfortunate homonym has long been villainized by many trusted organizations within the health community as being a primary culprit of the obesity epidemic our nation is facing and the chronic diseases that accompany it.
The belief that eating fat will make you fat originated from Ancel Key’s diet-heart hypothesis first presented in 1952. Despite the fact that Key’s hypothesis had very little supporting evidence at that time (and the evidence that did present in favor of his hypothesis was largely subjected to selection bias), to the fearful American population of that day Key’s idea on dietary fat and cholesterol seemed to be a tangible and applicable solution to combat the surging rates of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Although the evidence to back it up was scarce and faulty, the diet-heart hypothesis quickly became revered as dietary dogma by the major health organizations, and anyone who dared to disagree with Key’s beliefs on dietary fat was quickly dismissed, discredited and ultimately disinvited to participate within the academic health community.
Fast forward over half a century and the USDA is still advising the average American to eat no more than 10% of their daily calories from saturated fat.* But if saturated fat is so harmful, why in the world has the ketogenic, high-fat/low-carb diet become so wildly popular? Furthermore, if eating too much saturated fat supposedly makes you fat, how is it that so many people are losing weight when over half of their overall calories are consumed from sources of “bad” fat like meat, eggs, cheese, and butter?
Let me first acknowledge that I am no expert. But I am a devoted and passionate student of nutrition, so for what it’s worth I will share my humble opinion. I believe we have unduly demonized saturated fat for the past 50 years and subsequently deprived ourselves of its many health benefits and delicious qualities. However, this idea that fat may not be so bad is still very unpopular among the USDA and other government-directed health organizations who have pledged their allegiance to Key’s diet-heart hypothesis from its genesis in the mid-twentieth century. Yet, if it is true that saturated fat is not to blame for our nation’s still-rising numbers of obesity and chronic disease, what is? I look forward to exploring the many possible answers to this question together in the weeks ahead! For those of you who are eager to dive deeper into this topic yourself, I would love to share some resources that I have found most helpful in my own personal studies on health and nutrition – please don’t hesitate to reach out – crossroads2u.chiropractic@gmail.com
In Health & Peace,
Laura
https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf
*https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf