A long crawl from NYC back to the Hamptons yesterday on the Hampton Jitney allowed plenty of time to continue learning from Gary Taube, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories. I mentioned this scientific look at the history of current dietary recommendations and how most of them are not based on facts but rather on biased interpretations of the truth even in the face of new evidence, last month.

My point is not to slag anyone whose job it is to make health recommendations who chooses to stick with the status quo–people need their jobs after all and in this day and age it takes massive effort to effect change among the largest health organizations. Change is going to come though and I want to be a part of it. Speaking out about outdated science is my way of helping usher in the changes we so badly need in order to reverse the rates of heart disease and diabetes.

I’ve reported, as recently as yesterday, that there is no provable link between consumption of saturated fat and heart disease. A leading journal published the results of a meta-analysis supporting this claim. The same groups that advocate lowering saturated fat, increasing carbs and vegetable oils, claim that monounsaturated fat is the healthiest because they lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL.

Here’s a twist you would not have expected. As quoted from Taube’s book on page 168, “The majority of fat found in red meat, eggs and bacon is not saturated fat but the very same monounsaturated fat as in olive oil.” This information can be found by anyone at the USDA’s Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. (And you can get weekly audio emails with this kind of myth busting information by signing up for my Midlife Myth Busting Audio Postcards.)

Let’s stick with Taube as he dissects a porterhouse steak nutritionally–it’s compelling. “Consider a porterhouse steak with a quarter-inch layer of fat. After broiling, this steak will reduce to almost equal parts fat and protein. Fifty-one percent of the fat is monounsaturated, of which 90% is oleic acid. Saturated fat constitutes 45% of the total fat, but a third of that is stearic acid, which will increase HDL cholesterol while having no effect on LDL. The remaining 4% of the fat is polyunsaturated which lowers LDL but has no meaningful effect on HDL.” (HDL in case you’ve forgotten is the measure of total cholesterol we are encouraged to raise because it is health protective.)

“In sum,” Gary continues, “perhaps as much as 70% of the fat content of a porterhouse steak will improve the relative levels of LDL and HDL cholesterol, compared with what they would be if carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, or pasta were consumed.”

So what to do? Limit vegetable oils with the exception of olive oil, flax seed oil, coconut and avocado oils. Eat plenty of plants and include plenty of organic, farm raised meats, wild fish, cage free eggs high in Omega 3s, and limit sugar–including the foods that turn quickly into sugar in the digestive system. And keep an open mind to new discoveries and the possibility that there are mighty forces in place who rely on the status quo to please their share holders. I’ve said it before, I’m not a conspiracy theorist and the links are obvious once you start looking.

Speaking of sugar I’m going to do a series of posts on just how big a player this one, ubiquitous substance is in the creation of lifestyle diseases and how you can have a sweet life without deprivation.

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.

The more I read from some of the best researchers in the country who dare to look at things differently the more frustrated I get. One cause for concern is the conventional wisdom that a low fat diet is a panacea for all that ails us. (The cholesterol myths make me nuts too, you can read about that here.)

In Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, which one reviewer said is “Easily the most important book on diet and health to be published in the past one hundred years.” Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Bright Sided and Nickel and Dimed said, “Taubes tackles the subject with the seriousness and scientific insight it deserves, building a devastating case against the low-fat, high-carb way of life endorsed by so many nutrition experts in recent years.”

Look, I live by the idea that we are all biochemical individuals and there is no one prescription for eating that works across the board. But based on hours of research it is becoming more clear that loading our plates with grains–whole or otherwise–while at the same time lowering fat to torturous levels is having a deleterious effect on our health–and our waist line.

The seed for this idea was planted in 1976 at the “Diet and Killer Disease” hearings. By 1982 the proposition that dietary fat caused cancer was considered so likely true that a govt report encouraged Americans to lower fat consumption to 30% or less. In 1984 the American Cancer Society jumped on the band wagon and sealed the deal. Interesting though are the many observations from around the world that refuted the findings.

The National Cancer Institute and the NAS decided to make funding available to test the hypothesis. (Hypothesis is loosely used as the dietary fat/cancer link was being reported as fact)

Walter Willet, a Harvard epidemiologist, was called upon. He lead the Nurses Health Study which began tracking diet, lifestyle and disease in 89,000 nurses in 1982. The bottom line? After 4 years the nurses who reported the lowest fat intake had the highest rate of breast cancer!

The National Cancer Institute reviewed the study and said it was  good study but not the only one and continued to recommend a low fat diet. 8 months later reports Taubes, NCI researchers themselves published a study albeit from a smaller group suggesting “that eating more fat and more saturated fat correlated with less breast cancer.”

After 14 years of observation by Harvard, the research still pointed to lower fat diets resulting in higher breast cancer rates. “The data still suggested” writes Taubes, “that eating fatty foods, (even those with copious saturated fat) might protect against cancer. For every 5% of saturated fat calories that replaced carbohydrates in the diet, the risk of breast cancer decreased by 9%.”

So what do we do with this information? Sweep it under the rug so we can continue as we are with thousands of women getting breast cancer while feeling deprived, not enjoying the full spectrum of flavors and nutrition in foods? I can’t do it.

I’ll be looking for more data to support this theory and there are plenty of posts here talking about the dangers of too little fat and too many grains. I’m not talking about doing a low carb diet. I’m suggesting that having a health amount of fat and a healthy amount of beans, whole grains–not processed into chips, cereals, and bread products–and a wide range of all lean proteins and vegetables is not only the way to eat for health and weight maintenance but for disease prevention.