A little happy dance is in order if you fear eating butter, eggs, meat, cheese etc because of their alleged links to heart disease via increased cholesterol. For years I’ve been writing about research on the heath benefits of fats–saturated and otherwise when found naturally in foods–and it’s always heartening when some of the more conservative groups come to the same conclusions. I’m not  just a radical butter-loving-nut-promoting-beef-cheese-and-ice-cream-eating midlife crazy. Well maybe I am all of those things but damn, but you can’t accuse me of making up the science.

In the May issue of Dr. Steven Sinatra’s Heart, Health and Nutrition, he shares the findings of a recent meta-analysis on the effects of saturated fat as it relates–or doesn’t–to heart disease and stroke. A meta-analysis is a statistical review of multiple studies. According to Dr. S, “The review, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, crunched numbers from 21 previous studies involving nearly 350,000 adults.

The subjects, basically healthy to start, had all been surveyed about their dietary habits and then monitored for between 5 and 23 years. Researchers concluded there was no difference in the risk of cardiovascular disease between people with the lowest intake of sat fat and those with the highest.”

Now it gets even better:

“However, the study also revealed what dietary factors did contribute to heart disease—namely polyunsaturated vegetable oils and sugars. Canola, corn, safflower, sunflower, and similar vege oils become oxidized when heated and produce harmful trans fats that cause an inflammatory response in the body. Sugars also create dangerous inflammation when consumed in excess.”

Burger anyone? Look saturated fat raises both HDL and LDL cholesterol. The conventional wisdom held that LDL was “bad” for us and so these foods should be eliminated or kept to a minimum. The latest science points to inflammation as the culprit behind most lifestyle diseases–or at least a contributing factor–eliminating the leg to stand on for the argument that foods with saturated fat and by extension, cholesterol, must be banished.

As the veil is lifted on the marketing hype and government influence for gain that brought us to fear certain foods we will no doubt begin to reverse some of the lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. If people come back to the table that serves natural meats, fish, and organic dairy–and moves away from foods made in labs, with grains as a base, with oils more suitable for engine lube than human food, then we will see a healthier midlife and beyond.

Never mind midlife, young life, baby life, 20-something lives; all can benefit from staying away from what really makes us fat and unhealthy.

So as the weather warms up and the ice cream store beckons, have some full fat, real ingredients. A little goes a long way in terms of satiety and your heart will thank you in the long run.

Ah the lowly, lovely egg. If you know me you know I am a big fan of the egg for it’s versatility, flavor, and health attritbutes. After all it’s a perfect food, plenty of protein, low in calories, some good healthy fat and the kind of cholesterol that helps, not hurts, our over all system.

So when I got this Health Alert this morning from HSI Baltimore had to share.”Egg-Irony” – that’s how ScienceDaily referred to a new study that shows how egg consumption might alleviate a heart disease risk factor. 

If you have high blood pressure, your doctor has probably pressed you to take an ACE inhibitor drug. 

A couple of eggs each day might do just as well. 

Two researchers at Canada’s University of Alberta recently ran lab tests to determine if consumption of fried eggs or boiled eggs would produce greater amounts of ACE inhibitory peptides. 

I’ll cut to the chase: The fried eggs won. 

In a recent issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry the authors write: “Our results showed that in vitro digestion of cooked eggs could generate a number of potent ACE inhibitory peptides which may have implications for cardiovascular disease prevention, including hypertension.” 

One of the physicians on the board of the HSI panel is Dr. Allan Spreen M.D. He’s got what some consider controversial views but he always has mainstream science to back them up so let’s see what he had to say about this egg irony.

The author of the Health Alert newsletter introduced him this way: “HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., kindly sent me the info about the Alberta egg study. But even more valuable was his commentary. Stand back and give him some swinging room. Dr. Spreen takes no prisoners in this one. ”

Dr. Spreen: “Actually, neither egg nor cholesterol ingestion has ever had anything to do with either hypertension or hypercholesterolemia [high cholesterol]. There is no correlation between oral intake of cholesterol and serum levels (I also firmly believe there’s no connection between serum levels and heart disease, but that’s an argument for another time).

“If you never eat cholesterol your body will manufacture it (or you die), and the ‘manufactured’ variety is more readily deposited in vessel walls. 

“Eggs are wonderful food, always have been, and that includes the yolk (rare good source of sulfur). 

Well there you have it. More good news on one of nature’s perfect, portable, frickin’ wonderfully delicious foods. Of course human trials will have to be done to prove that the heart disease protection extends to us as well as the lucky test tube organisms that had eggs for breakfast each day. But this study should at least lend some credence to the idea that eggs are not going to kill you!

What’s on your breakfast plate?