Nutrition advice has performed some pretty spectacular flip-flops over the past few decades. First nuts were thought to cause heart disease, then eggs were banished from the breakfast table only to be welcomed back later. Margarine was first deemed healthier than butter—until researchers determined that the trans fats were much harder on the arteries.
Saturated Fat De-Villainized
Scientists universally accept that trans fats—found in many fast foods, bakery products, and margarines—increase the risk of cardiovascular disease through inflammatory processes. But “saturated fat” is another story. The mantra that saturated fat must be removed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease has dominated dietary advice and guidelines for almost four decades. Yet scientific evidence shows that this advice has, paradoxically, increased our cardiovascular risks. Furthermore, the obsession with levels of total cholesterol, which has led to the overmedication of millions of people with statins, has diverted our attention from the more egregious risk factor of atherogenic dyslipidemia.
Saturated fats, like butter, provide essential nutrients
Recent studies have not supported any significant association between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular risk. Instead, it has been found to be protective. The source of the saturated fat may be important. Organic butter is a great provider of vitamins A and D and there is a link between vitamin D deficiency and a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.
Butter is a key source of the most easily utilized form of Vitamin A, required for support of skin and organs, including endocrine glands, the immune system and the brain. And butter is loaded with antioxidants! It contains vitamin E, good cholesterol (the type that is not oxidized) and is important for brain function. It is a natural source of conjugated linoleic acids (CLA), which show promise in research for holding weight to a normal range and preventing diabetes.
Processed meats, not organic, pasture-raised dairy and beef, are dangerous…
Carbohydrates, especially processed ones may be a bigger risk factor for inflammation & heart disease.
Saturated fat may raise LDL cholesterol. But compared to carbohydrates, it also raises HDL cholesterol and lowers triglycerides. If we looked just at LDL, we would predict that saturated fat raises heart disease risk. If we looked at the effect of saturated fat on HDL and triglycerides, we would suppose that saturated fat lowers that risk. If we looked at the combination, we would predict that saturated fat is relatively neutral for heart disease risk compared to carbohydrates.
Dr. Malhotra’s editorial suggests the following:
- Low-saturated-fat diets cut levels of lower-risk large, buoyant LDL particles rather than the small, dense LDL particles thought to worsen cardiovascular disease.
- Dietary saturated fat may actually protect against cardiovascular risk.
- Low-fat diets promote an atherogenic pattern of blood lipids and worsen insulin resistance.
- Low total-cholesterol levels are “associated with cardiovascular death, indicating that high total cholesterol is not a risk factor in a healthy population.”
- Even in secondary prevention, no cholesterol-lowering drug besides statins has shown survival benefit, supporting the hypothesis that the benefits of statins are independent of their effects on cholesterol.
- The “Mediterranean diet” confers three times the survival benefit in secondary prevention, compared with statins; it led to a 30% improvement compared with a “low-fat” diet in the PREDIMED study.
So here’s my list of the Top Ten Saturated Fats you can enjoy guilt-free!
- Coconut oil
- Egg yolks
- Avocado
- Organic pastured, cultured butter or Ghee
- Organic dark chocolate
- Sardines
- Raw organic cheese
- Brazil nuts
- Macademia nuts
- Cashews
Hear, hear!
Thanks Jill,ben praching that butter’s better for ears. so mch love your way,Dad C.
There’s a book on the use (misuse) of statins that should blow the lid off this whole subject. It’s by John and Hannah Yoseph, but the full title escapes me at the moment. Zoe Harcombe did an excellent review of the book that should be read by anyone who is on a statin or knows someone who is. I know I will never take one. Full stop!
I am a huge fan of Ghee – for ingesting and it is a wonderful eye moisturizer (plain version in micro-mini drop dosage). Thanks for introducing me to this company – I just placed a big order so that I can sample a variety of their goods. And I have been looking for mini sized glass jars w/o plastic lids for years!
Charlene
Hey Jill. Question for you. When incorporating these fats into our diet, what is the % of this type of fat that should make up our total calories and the grams that you recommend that we stay under. Obviously, anything can be taken to the extreme and I was wondering what those thresholds should look like. Thanks.
Also, what would you recommend for % of daily calories for healthy carbs, protein, and fat?
Hi Corey, I personalize recommendations to the individual but healthy fats are essential to a healthy gut and healthy brain function and there are certain situations where a particular individual may be 60-80% of calories in diet from fat, believe it or not!? Minimum amounts of proteins if you’re healthy weight and you don’t lift weights or do extensive exercise are around 0.36 to 0.6 grams per pound (0.8 to 1.3 gram per kg). This amounts to: 55-90 grams per day for the average male and 45-75 grams per day for the average female. I recommend 25-30 grams of fructose or less per day as well.
What is the most healthy diet?
Hi Mires,
It’s all individualized based on your genetics, overall health, etc.. There is no one-size fits all. However, I do recommend clean, unprocessed, organic food diet of real whole food for everyone. Get rid of anything packaged, processed or with a label of more than 3-5 ingredients. Most people feel better avoiding gluten. And it’s also helpful to avoid corn and soy in foods as most is processed and genetically modified. Certainly get rid of all sugar and alcohol in general, eat organic protein sources, lots of healthy fat and get your carbs from fruits and abundance of veggies.
What’s your take on the ketogenic diet? Particularly for those not interested in losing weight? I’ve been trying to eat high fat, low carb, and moderate protein but I’m still probably averaging 120g for carbs and 90g for protein. Is there harm in high fat if you’re not keto adapted? -Jer
Huge fan of the ketogenic diet! Highly recommend Keto Clarity by Jimmy Moore to get you started. It’s amazing for pre-diabetes, seizures, toxicity, weight loss and more… They key is that you cannot have both fat and carbs. The ketogenic diet really only works when the carbs are low enough to induce fat burning for fuel (ketosis) instead of glucose metabolism. Everyone is different and some enter ketosis with 120 carbs and others need to go < 50.