OK, I’ve had it up to the gills!
I want to put to rest the belief that fat (especially saturated fat) and dietary cholesterol are bad for us.
I will also show proof that aside from being the best diet for stripping fat, low-carb nutrition actually improves health markers more than a low-fat diet.
Let the games begin…
Where Did All This Nonsense Begin?
Surely if so many people believe something, it must be based on solid evidence right?
Wrong!
If a hypothesis is put forward and believed without being adequately tested, you have a shaky foundation. If this hypothesis is built upon for decades with no further questioning or testing, you have a house of cards. This house is ready to topple, in fact, it should have fell a long time ago.
Ancel Keys
It all started with a physiologist named Ancel Keys, Ph.D., back in the 1950’s. I’m not going to bash the guy because I feel that although he was mistaken, he was well-meaning. In 1953 he published a paper titled “Atherosclerosis, a Problem in Newer Public Health.” It seems that from here, our dietary fate was sealed.
Keys compared fat intake and deaths from heart disease in 7 countries:
- Italy
- Greece
- Former Yugoslavia
- Netherlands
- Finland
- U.S.A.
- Japan
The implications for dietary fat were dire!
As fat intake increases in these countries, heart disease mortality rates increases, oh dear! The US had the highest fat intake and also had the highest number of deaths due to heart disease, Japan ate the least fat and had the lowest number of deaths.
There was, however, one big problem with what became known as the ‘Diet-Heart Hypothesis.’ Data was available for a total of 22 countries, not 7. When ALL the statistics are analyzed, the ‘fat-heart disease’ correlation ceases to exist.
Check out the following 2min 30 sec clip from a soon-to-be-released documentary before you read further…
Unfortunately, despite the flawed conclusions of Keys, the media and the American Heart Association jumped on board the diet-heart hypothesis bandwagon.
In the 1970’s Keys bolstered his hypothesis by publishing a study suggesting that saturated fat (from animal sources) leads to high cholesterol which, in turn, leads to heart disease. This is still the conventional wisdom today. Again, out of the 7 countries selected, the correlation between saturated fat and heart disease was not seen but hey, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Saturated Fat In The Human Diet
Almost all the saturated fat in our diet comes in 3 forms:
- Stearic acid
- Palmitic acid
- Lauric acid
Before we get into looking at each acid, let’s discuss the differences between LDL and HDL cholesterol.
- LDL is the bad guy (specifically the small, dense LDL particles)
- HDL is the good guy
Increasing LDL levels while HDL levels remain constant is bad news. The opposite is good news. Raising HDL cholesterol in proportion to LDL is very beneficial for your health. Raising both by equal amounts has no effect.
Now let’s have a little fun 😉
Firstly, it’s well established today that stearic acid has no effect on cholesterol levels. In fact, stearic acid, found in abundance in animal fat, is converted to monounsaturated fat in your liver. This is obviously healthy and raises good cholesterol and therefore lowers risk of heart disease. Hmm, not much wrong there, is there? The result of consumption of this acid is either nil or even beneficial to your health. Let’s move on…
Both Palmitic and Lauric acid raise total cholesterol. This obviously has no real effect with respect to coronary heart disease risk factor.
Now, let’s add the three forms of saturated fat together and see what happens:
1 x beneficial + 2 x benign = Beneficial net effect
Wow! You mean ‘artery-clogging saturated fat‘ doesn’t clog arteries?
Yes, and it’s important to remember that a diet high in fat will also be high in unsaturated fats so the net result of high fat intake, coupled with lower carb intake, is a reduced risk of heart disease.
This is the story of surprised researchers as they see the startling results of studies involving groups consuming low fat/high carb diets Vs groups consuming high fat/low carb diets i.e. more fat loss and improved lipid profiles in the high fat/low carb camp. However, even though the science is staring them in the face, they fall short of recommending it as a way of eating.
The Proof’s In The Low-Fat Pudding
50 years of the ‘diet-heart hypothesis’ and it turns out to be a dud. So many wasted years and so much money wasted on studies trying to prove the unprovable.
Let’s take the latest one for example (as at 7th May 2008). At a cost of $415 million, The Women’s Health Initiative monitored 49,000 subjects over an average period of 8 years – a HUGE study. They were advised to eat more vegetables, fruits and grains and less fat (20% of daily calories – only 44 grams of total fat per day on a 2000 calorie-per-day diet), especially saturated fat.
The results finally came in, the media waited with bated breath – guess what effect this low fat diet had on heart disease……
None! Zero! Zilch!
Here’s a great commentary on the study by the lovely Nina Planck, author of ‘Real Food: What to Eat and Why.’
So If Low-Fat Doesn’t Lower Cholesterol & Prevent Heart Disease, What Does?
I thought you’d never ask. A low carb/high fat does of course. It may seem counter-intuitive but heart disease, a new problem, is not caused by old, traditional foods. It’s caused by newer foods that we have introduced into our diets – carb-laden foods. Let’s have a look at some studies…
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that participants who followed a low-carbohydrate diet for six months raised their good cholesterol and lowered their triglycerides (fat in the blood).
The low-fat group also had positive results in this study. They ate a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie diet. They lowered total cholesterol levels (lowering good cholesterol which is not so great) and triglycerides. It is important to note that the triglyceride levels fell more significantly for the low carb group i.e. 74.2 points for the low-carb group and 27.9 points for the low-fat group.
Also, the low-carb group lost more weight even though their calories were unrestricted whereas the low-fat group consumed 500 – 1000 calories below their maintenance calorie-requirement.
Could This Be Due To Weight Loss?
Some people may think that the improvements in blood lipid profiles are simply due to the weight-loss and not carb-restriction, not so it seems.
Ronald Krauss at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute tested this and found that the lipid profiles (cholesterol and triglycerides) improve even when there is no weight loss on a low-carbohydrate diet. You can check the study out for yourself here:
Krauss, Ronald, et al. “Carbohydrate, Weight Loss, and Atherogenic Dyslipidemia.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2006 May;83(5):1025-31.
Dietary Cholesterol May Be Beneficial To Muscle Hackers
The cholesterol in our foods may be beneficial to anyone wanting to build muscle. I personally take in a lot of dietary cholesterol (though I’m not sure what the exact amount is).
Researchers at Texas A&M University have discovered that lower cholesterol levels can actually reduce muscle gain when weight-training.
3 days a week for 12 weeks, 55 men and women, aged 60-69, (healthy non-smokers able to perform exercise testing and training) performed several exercises, including stretching, stationary bike riding and vigorous weight lifting. The results showed that there was a significant association between dietary cholesterol and change in strength i.e. the higher the cholesterol intake, the more muscle strength gain.
One of the researchers, Steven Riechman, said,
“We were not expecting to get these kind of results,we need further research in this area, but what we found could really make us look differently at cholesterol, especially as it relates to a vigorous workout…Our findings show that the restricting of cholesterol – while in the process of exercising – appears to affect building muscle mass in a negative manner. If it’s true, as our findings suggest, that cholesterol may play a key role in muscle repair, we need to know exactly how that happens.”
(information provided by Texas A&M University.)
So, if you want to keep your heart healthy and build muscle at the same time, you’d better opt for some bacon and eggs in the morning 😉
Now, lest you think I’m just one guy with these opinions on saturated fat and cholesterol, check out the list (not exhaustive) below of professionals who are also in the know:
- Dr. Eric Westman from Duke University
- Dr. Mary C. Vernon from the University of Kansas
- Dr. Jeff Volek from the Univeristy of Connecticut
- Dr. Richard Feinman from SUNY Downstate
- Dr. Steven Phinney from the University of California-Davis
- Dr. Jay Wortman from Canada
- Dr. Annika Dahlqvist from Sweden (who succeeded in changing government dietary guidelines)
- Drs. Mike & Mary Dan Eades from Protein Power
- Gary Taubes – Science Journalist, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories
- Dr. John Briffa in the UK
- Adam Campbell at Men’s Health magazine
- Cassandra Forsythe at the University of Connecticut
- Dr. Larry McCleary, a brain surgeon who wrote The Brain Trust Program
- Dr. Barry Groves in the UK
- Dr. Richard Bernstein working with diabetics
- Dr. Gil Wilshire, reproductive endocrinologist in Missouri
- Dr. Donald Layman from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Dr. Keith Berkowitz in New York City
- Dr. Fred Pescatore from the Hampton’s Diet
- Dr. Barry Sears from The Zone Diet
- Dr. Jonny Bowden from California
(Thanks to Jimmy Moore for the list 😉 )
Just before I leave you, I’d like to show you the alternative food pyramid. You all know the one the government recommends with all the starches at the bottom and fat at the top, well check this out…
Beautiful isn’t it?
Now that’s healthy eating!
I hope this article has dispelled the saturated fat/cholesterol rubbish for you once and for all. If you’re someone who has problems with cholesterol, you can always try this way of eating and get your blood work done periodically. I’ll be only too happy to receive your email regarding your much improved lipid profile and shrinking waistline!
Your ol’ buddy & pal,
Mark McManus
Wow Mark, another amazing, in-depth article!
Most of this stuff is new to me but recently I had seen some research into what you call the alternative or carbohydrate hypothesis, in opposition to the lipid hypothesis.
Great to see all the research as proof.
Can’t wait for the forums by the way.
Paul
Thanks Paul,
Glad I could help bro,
stay tuned for the forums.
Mark
Gidday, great stuff Mark. Your testamonials thread is a good idea, as example is a good way of motivating.
But, I understand your frustration as the media, conditioning, advertising are powerful tools. I mean look, people actually buy the dribble sold in those infomercials. Well, look, even worse example are everywhere. People actually believed for years that ‘Ribena’ was a super food, dripping with vitamin c. Well meaning mothers poured it down their kids throats! Heroin used to be in baby elixars! Asbestos was the new, greatest thing around!
So, for me, I like things uncomplicated, simple. Personally I use one tool above all else, actual real life example. For me, its simple. Bodybuilding champion X, get a heap of skinny or overweight people, use your systems, no drugs, lets see the results. Easy. Silence is bliss. Better still, bodybuilding champion X , no drugs, show us your ‘drug like’ results. Ever seen a truly natural Mr whatever, who looks remotely like Mr drugs Olympia. Yet people still swallow the dribble those guys pedal. Supplements…same deal. Get skinny or overweight people, no drugs, give them Nitrodribble with the steroid like effects, lets see it. Instead, we get a picture of Mr Drugs, holding a tin of Nitrodribble, claiming, ‘Look, look what Nitrodribble did for me! I swear by it (unless TestoglumpX is willing to pay me more)! Sylvestor Stallone swears by his super supplements, then gets busted with, guess what, bodybuilding drugs.
I hate seeing people ripped off! But I understand your frustraration Mark. Once, years ago, I trained along side a top sprinter, and a top cyclist, when the ‘Sports Science Clinic’ opened in Adelaide. At the time, I was eating virtually identically to what you espouse. I trained there because they had Adelaide’s first Nautilus machines. I am pretty passionate and driven by nature, had been interested in Nautilus for years, and had written to Arthur Jones, Ellington Darden etc, and had all of their material.
So, as recommended I was doing the 20-30 minute super intense workouts. Combined with your style of eating, I was powering. The other two guys mentioned, under the supervision of the ‘sports scientists’ were doing up to 2 hour workouts, on top of training load, daily! And shrinking, muscle wasting away before our eyes. We talked about it heaps, as they were dumbfounded how I was hardly there, growing, yet they…’Better do 3 hours, we aren’t working enough’!
I showed the head of the facility (now a top AFL coach) the books and info I had, and he was dumbfounded. ‘Where did you get that’ ? They bought the machines, they just forgot to find out about Jones’ whole reason for inventing them… how to actually make use of them! Yet even then, I saw the difficulty they had in letting go of something long believed, that was causing athletes to waste away.
People would say things to me like, ‘shit we are exhausted, flat, losing weight, you are looking so strong, performing so well, looking super fit and healthy, so cut and lean, but you hardly train… you must train heaps at home then’. I would do my best to convince them ‘no’, invariably to no avail. Then, the best bit, ‘What are you eating, what do you eat’?
‘Oh, 20-30 eggs, meat, pints of cream, butter, fish, milk, yoghurt, tons of cheese, a few green bananas, a tiny bit of veg and nuts, thats about it’.
‘#### ###! You’ll die!!!!! You must be really sick… what about your cholesterol’!!!!!
‘Its low. But, hang on, you just said I’m doing and looking amasing?
I’m 52 now and absolutely powering. And, still get the same scenarios! I was stoked when I saw your website Mark, but absolutely, completely stoked with your example. The actual, honest walk, demonstrating the talk!!! A total refreshing revelation in the unfortunately seedy world of, ‘fitness and health’.
Again, I’m writing this, because I hate seeing people ripped off, mislead. But it is frustrating when people allow themselves to be walking targets. Anyone out there interested in health and fitness, do yourselves a favour, have an honest look at this information available here. Honestly, look at the guy and his results. try it, thats the only way you’ll really know. Give it an honest go. I know what it did/does for me, so my views strong.
‘But Mr drugs international said he only used a little bit of drugs…well hardly any, once…years ago. And he swears by AnrdocarbupfactorX too, 14 scoops, ten times daily, for only $352.97 a bucket, combined synergystically with Gooprocarbtesto3, on sale for only $200.00 a packet…quick its selling out fast’!!!
Sorry for ranting, but I hate seeing people ripped off. I’m glad you’ve got big gills Mark.
Absolutely brilliant. Keep speaking truth, friend!
@ Spiky Haired Girl. Good to see you here Cameo.
Don’t worry, I’ll keep telling it like it is!
Mark
@ Uplift. Great story my friend. I get that stuff all the time too. They say “How many eggs do you eat?!?!” and “You need to get your cholesterol checked!” – I usually just laugh but it gets frustrating to be honest.
As far as supplements are concerned, you’re spot on! Steroid guys advertising supplements and we’re supposed to believe that ‘MuscleFactorTripleStrengthX’ was the secret to their success, yeah right. Save your money and use it to buy books and get a real education on the matter. Then use this info and use it consistently – that’s the real secret to success.
Mark
Yes, cholesterol is required for testosterone synthesis.
Mark,
Can you provide a key to the “new” food pyramid?
Thanks,
David
great article! do you have a larger version of that alternative food pyramid? i want a poster!
You should check out the Weston A. Price Foundation website! It’s probably the best (in my opinion) site about the subject and contains tons of well and mostly scientifically written articles about saturated fat, cholesterol myths and all other stuff about healthy, natural eating. A lot of articles on the subject were written by Mary Enig, PhD, who is a renowned nutritionist and biochemist, and should also be included on the “in the know” list of professionals.
Visit: http://www.westonaprice.org
P.S. There is also a very interesting (and long) article about the history of bodybuilding: https://www.westonaprice.org/men/splendidspecimens.html
Thanks for the great links Ronnie,
Mark
Actually, it is primarily myristic acid, palmitic acid to a much lesser degree, that raises both HDL and LDL, thusly total cholesterol. The rest of the saturated fatty acids have negligible effect. Myristic is relatively high in palm kernel oil, coconut oil and butterfat. Palmitic is relatively high in palm oil, palm olein, butterfat, beef tallow, cocoa butter, lard and cottonseed oil.
There is no difference in markers or fat loss after a year between low fat/high carb and high fat/low carb diets. But note that one year is short term from a health standpoint. Long term, a high carb diet may result in elevated triglycerides, insulin resistance and excess of small, dense LDL that definitely accelerates plaque formation. Small, dense LDL can be measured indirectly by the TG/HDL ratio. It is vastly a better market for heart disease risk than total cholesterol, HDL or LDL. But still not as good as CRP or AA/EPA.
Great article, not only is the saturated fat theory incorrect the whole cholesterol causing heart disease theory is incorrect. A study just published in the American Heart Journal measuring the cholesterol levels of over 100,000 patients admitted to the hospital with a heart attack shows that 75% had normal cholesterol levels! Do you think and the researchers would question the cholesterol theory, no they called for guidelines saying the cholesterol should be even lower. Sometimes I think the madness will never stop, keep speaking truth on your site.
Great post Mark! One more name should be added to your article. Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, author of The Great Cholesterol Con, gives a searing attack on the status quo and reminds us not to be afraid of fats.
This story is very good, not complete but way better than all bs what has been told lately. The piramid is pretty good too. A bit more fruits and nuts and less dairy products could be even more beneficial. Is that corn in the upper right corner? Don’t even think about it, same for soy products. Most are gene manipulated and soy blocks absorption of calcium. For the rest, very good!!!
Hey, this article is very interesting and you’ve made some great points. But I’m a runner and a strength trainer, which requires protein and carbs. How and where do I fit fats into this equation? I know the benefits of fat include the ability to absorb nutrients.
How do you feel about fat free milk? My opinion is, because it is lower calorie, you can drink a little more every day, which would give you more protein, and it tastes great.
Great summary. I will share the article. I have eaten a low carb diet for about 8 years. The numbers speak for themselves.
55 Years old
139 #
127/80 BP
LDL low
HDL Normal range
Now I want to work on muscle building and the coach says, “Add some more carbs.” His comment caused me to do some research. I have come to see carbs as the “fat” of the 50’s (that can be the decade and the age at which the fat really comes on – your choice.)
Thanks again
Allan