All those people telling you to eat low fat may be killing you. Leading US cardiovascular research scientist Dr James DiNicolantonio said a “compelling argument can be made for the general lack of evidence in support of a low-fat diet”.
Diets low in saturated fat do not prevent heart disease or improve health and instead public health warnings need to be issued over sugar he believes.
“The public fear that saturated fat raises cholesterol is completely unfounded as the low-density lipoprotein particle size distribution is worsened when fat is replaced with carbohydrate,” he said.
Dr DiNicolantonio said the idea that fat causes heart disease was based on a flawed 1950’s study which selectively used data from six countries but excluded data from another 16.
This study led us down the wrong ‘dietary road’ for decades, by introducing mainstream guidelines increasing carbohydrates and decreasing saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet.
Maybe our ancestors who used to eat whatever they caught might have been smarter than us. It’s funny but sometimes the more we know science-wise the further we get from being body-wise. It’s hard to imagine a few cavemen sitting around a recent kill, tearing meat off and gulping it down when a hand slowly raises and a caveman asks in a whiny voice, “have we got anything lower in fat, won’t this raise my cholesterol?”
We really need to reconnect to our own instincts on what we should be eating. If you’re not feeling great or energetic after eating certain foods maybe you shouldn’t be eating them despite whatever you have heard about it. One of the problems is that people often don’t feel great at all any more, so it’s hard to isolate any particular meals.
Try this for one weekend; do your shopping at the produce store. Go crazy, whatever you think will be nice. Lots of vegies, fruit, any cuts of meat you like – try to have no packets and definitely no processed food. Forget about limiting calories or fat. Eat as much good food as you feel like. I think the instincts that have worked to keep us alive for a couple million years might be able to get you through a weekend without some bogus government guidelines.
