If it's not animal fat, don't eat it!

Granted, that headline is a bit sensational…smacks of tabloid stories. But it’s not quite as tongue-in-cheek as it might at first seem. I recently attended a nutrition and metabolism symposium with the title: “Saturated Fat and Heart Disease: What’s the Evidence?” and believe me, according to the international experts assembled for this meeting, the evidence is simply not there. In fact, these researchers came out four-square behind a low-carbohydrate, higher-fat diet not just for weight loss/control, but for many other health reasons as well. A lot of the focus was on the metabolic syndrome, so-called because of the combination of symptoms it entails: high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low HDL levels (the good cholesterol), insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

The first speaker addressed the issue of what medical students are being taught and the inconsistency between biochemical facts and commonly accepted recommendations of various health agencies. In other words, what science has shown to be factual, doesn’t seem to have yet, trickled down to the medical profession. We’ve known for a long time that low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets will lower the bad (LDL) cholesterol, but they also lower HDLs and raise triglycerides…not a good thing. He stated that saturated fat is not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, or even by the preponderance of evidence to the contrary. An awful lot of research evidence was shown to support his theory; the problem is, however, that the average person doesn’t see that evidence and popular newspapers seem to report only the studies that support popularly held opinion.

The next speaker gave a full-blown review of all the evidence around saturated fat and heart disease. And here I’m about to introduce a concept that might be foreign to some of you, but remember: thirty years ago most people couldn’t say the word ‘cholesterol’ let alone understand its alleged implication for heart disease. The concept is simply this: Yes, LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is the ‘bad’ cholesterol, but it turns out that there is ‘bad’ LDL (sort of the bad, bad cholesterol), and good LDL. To be more specific, LDL comes in different types. There is what’s known as small, dense LDL particles (bad), and then there are larger, buoyant (less dense, or fluffy) LDL particles (good). Still with me? You might want to read that sentence again…small, dense is bad; large, ‘fluffy’ is good. And guess what: Saturated fats will increase your level of LDLs, but it’s mostly with the large, buoyant type that doesn’t lead to heart disease. This becomes especially relevant when people are encouraged to replace the animal fats in their diet with carbohydrates. An excess of carbohydrate in the diet has been associated with increased risk for heart disease, especially in women. Just remember you read it here first!

Another presenter focused on the way in which carbohydrate, directly or indirectly through the effect of insulin, controls how we handle excess calories. The carbs that we eat actually regulate the breakdown of fat and affect the relation between the intake of saturated fat and what ends up circulating in the blood stream. Essentially, research is suggesting that some form of carbohydrate restriction is a candidate to be the preferred dietary strategy for cardiovascular health over and above keeping a healthy weight. I strongly suspect that in the future your dietitian will recommend a specific diet plan based on your genetic profile. In the meantime, there’s little doubt that avoiding refined carbohydrates is a good idea. I remember my Dad going on a diet about fifty years ago called the “DEAMOF” diet: Don’t Eat Anything Made of Flour. This was before I was particularly interested in nutrition, (my interest then was mostly boys), but did notice that he lost a bunch of weight. He basically followed that plan the rest of his life and lived into his eighties.

I think we’ve all to a greater or lesser degree fallen prey to the notion “you are what you eat”. Taking the concept further, we believe that if we consume more cholesterol, the levels in our blood will rise; if we consume more fat, we’ll be fatter; and if we eat less saturated fat, then the amount of ‘bad’ fats roaming around in our blood stream will go down. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work that way. A decade or so ago an endocrinologist by the name of Diana Schwarzbein came out with a book called “The Schwarzbein Principle” in which she reconsidered the treatment of persons with type 2 diabetes. She had encouraged them, as was the accepted treatment, to stick to a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet rich in grains, pasta, rice, vegetables and fruit, and very little fat. After monitoring their progress and noting that they weren’t doing very well, she came to the conclusion that since all carbs are recognized as sugar by the body, she was basically giving sugar to diabetics. So she changed her patients diet, strictly reducing their intake of carbohydrates, increasing the amount of protein they consumed, and allowing some fat…even animal fat. Their blood sugar levels began to stabilize, and when more fat was added, their blood sugar levels improved even more. Applying her methods to a wider study group, Schwarzbein found that when people cut down on carbs and increased protein (from meat, poultry and fish, especially fatty fish like salmon and mackerel) and fat their overall health, including weight control, improved. In a variation on “Don’t try this at home”, I hasten to point out that any diabetics reading this should not change their diet until they’ve consulted with their dietitian or doctor.

I realize that this all sounds a bit Atkins-ish, but in my view the Atkins diet got a bit of a bum rap…especially regarding vegetable intake. Many who have followed it have told me that their intake of veggies actually increased. High-water vegetables like cauliflower, wax and green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, asparagus, spinach, Swiss chard, fennel, broccoli and turnip are actually encouraged, as are blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. It’s tough to believe that dietary advice to eat less fat and more carbs has been wrong; it must be right since so many health authorities have insisted on it. Yet, when you listen to those with an opposite opinion, and look at the scientific evidence that it was the high carb intake and not the fat that has led to heart attacks and other diseases, it pretty much makes sense.We all know that current wisdom always seems to be unimpeachable, even as those thoughts are being turned on their ear. But we also know that many of the accepted truths of earlier times have turned out to be incorrect…why should our beliefs be any different?