Why You Think Saturated Fat and Cholesterol are "Bad"

    I am going to take you all the way back to 1910, when a group of Russian scientists decided to see what happens when you feed rabbits large amounts of cholesterol to determine whether high serum cholesterol levels caused atherosclerosis (the build up of "plaque" on arterial walls). 

    They force fed rabbits cholesterol and saw an insane jump in heart attacks and atherosclerosis, well case closed, that's a slam dunk right? Cholesterol is bad for you and will kill you with a heart attack. Boom, the "lipid hypothesis" was born, this led to the demonization of saturated fats and cholesterol. 

    The only problem is RABBITS DO NOT EAT ANY FOODS THAT CONTAIN CHOLESTEROL, like, at all. Rabbits do not make the proper enzymes to digest and assimilate these fatty acids properly. The ONLY thing this study proved is that if you ingest a diet that is not appropriate for your species (looking at you veganism), bad things happen. 

    Today, study after study is pointing more towards the opposite conclusion: that cholesterol may actually be protective to your heart and longevity. Almost like we, as humans, are supposed to eat the fat and flesh of animals. 

    Now let's jump to 1953 with a bona fide scientist that goes by the name of Ancel Keys. Heart attacks were on the rise, and the public was terrified. When the president of the United States has a heart attack, people pay attention, or at least they used to when the office of the presidency meant something. 

    Ancel Keys, through a generous grant of $200,000 a year from the US government, started his 21 country study to figure out what caused heart disease. He started with the HYPOTHESIS (unproven theory) that saturated fat, which may lead to elevated cholesterol, was to blame. 

    When the studies findings didn't show the results Ancel was looking for, he cherry picked 7 out of the 21 countries to support his hypothesis. If you are saying to yourself: "That is not how science works" you are absolutely correct. From this we got the infamous "blue zones" and eventually the Mediterranean diet, which focused on lean meat (fish and chicken), wine, and olive oil for fats. This despite the fact that populations in the blue zones also ate plenty of butter, red meat, and cheese. 

    You see, when you are given almost limitless government funding and set out with an AGENDA as opposed to a theory that will be properly tested, you can make any claims you would like, manipulate the data to suit your theory, and call it a day. I am not saying Ancel Keys set out to mislead anyone. He probably had the public's best interests at heart. BUT he may have been pressured by the guys giving him the generous grant money to find something to blame, and find it FAST. 

    He couldn't blame sugar, because sugar is HUGE business for big pharma and big government. So he decided to blame saturated fat and cholesterol and cherry picked his data and manipulated results to point the finger directly at these "dangerous" fat sources. His completely worthless findings were taken as gospel, and eventually led to the "food pyramid" and even the "My Plate" of today.

    You also have to ask yourself: who is funding these diet recommendations? It is usually the government and huge corporations, which are heavily subsidized by the government. If a study finds that you should stop eating sugar and grains, that is big hit to the pocket book for these titans of industry. So studies often conclude that you should eat more grains and less "fatty" meat. 

    How many times have you been told to eat 6-10 servings of grains per day? How about 3 one cup servings of dairy? Or how about the fact that I was told, as a grown man over 200 lbs, to eat 6.5 ounces of protein? Sounds like a great way to get a ton of gluten, lectins, oxalates, insoluble fiber, gas, and an animal protein and saturated fat deficiency.

    Most of these recommendations started with the pretty much debunked "lipid hypothesis" and Ancel Keys' 7 (but really 21) countries study. 

    Always remember that EVERY cell in your body is constructed using cholesterol, it is a building block of the human body that essentially makes you who you are. Pharmacological efforts to artificially lower your cholesterol will wreck your way of life, and even worse will NOT decrease your risk of heart disease one iota. 

    So the next time someone tells you to eat more "heart healthy" grains and to stop eating saturated fat and cholesterol, just know that while their heart in the right place, they are using faulty data to support their erroneous claims. Gently correct them and point them to some helpful links, like my blog. Oh, and don't take statins, if your doctor tries to put you or someone you love on statins, get a new doctor, he or she is using the same bad data. 

    In conclusion, there is no such thing as "bad cholesterol". Elevated cholesterol levels (HDL or LDL) are not a good indicator for heart disease, they are simply a sign of out of control inflammation. Stop eating carbs, take daily walks, and hit the weights 3 times a week and I can guarantee that your cholesterol levels will "normalize" without a pharmacological intervention. Remember, we do NOT want LOW cholesterol levels, we want under control blood sugar to bring us back to our natural cholesterol levels.