Authors: Mike Sheridan
Eat Meat And Stop Jogging: 'Common' Advice On How To Get Fit Is Keeping You Fat And Making You Sick (5 page)
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hose taking a statin with the lowest LDL cholesterol levels had the highest mortality and those with the highest LDL cholesterol had the lowest.
A senior research scientist at MIT, Dr. Stephanie Seneff, has b
ecome world renowned for her work connecting statin use with Alzheimer’s. She believes statins handicap the liver’s ability to make cholesterol, prevent cells from making important antioxidants (coenzyme Q10), inhibit the transport of fatty acids and antioxidants (via LDL cholesterol,) and cause vitamin D and hormone deficiencies.
Monitor Triglycerides NOT Total Cholesterol
John Gofman, a University of California Medical Student, discovered in 1950 that there were circulating fat-like substances in the blood, called Triglycerides. He concluded that Total Cholesterol was a dangerously poor predictor for heart disease. Triglycerides that circulate in blood are created in the liver from excess carbohydrates. The majority of us have never been informed that our carbohydrate intake determines our triglyceride levels. Furthermore, that this marker is a much better predictor for heart disease than Total Cholesterol. As researchers from Harvard Medical School found:
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hose with High Triglycerides and Low HDL Cholesterol have a 6 times greater risk of heart attack, than those with Low Triglycerides and High HDL Cholesterol.
Ironically,
our attempts to lower fat intake to prevent heart disease have contributed to increases in carbohydrate food sources, which has increased triglycerides and put us at a higher risk of heart disease.
The best markers of heart health appear to be the Triglyceride-to-HDL ratio, and the composition of LDL cholesterol particles. Although it’s often referred to as ‘bad’ cholesterol, many are unaware that an adequate amount of LDL cholesterol is absolutely necessary, as it’s primary role is to transport cholesterol to the brain. LDL cholesterol particles are benign when they’re big and fluffy, but become dangerous when small and dense. The second slice of irony is that the consumption of plant and vegetable oils (canola, corn, soybean, safflower) are what morphs your LDL cholesterol particles into the small dense variety. Meaning the saturated fats that we were instructed to replace were substituted with vegetable source fats and oils that raise the 2nd critical biomarker for heart disease!
The high carbohydrate and low-fat recommendations over the last 50 years have raised triglycerides, lowered HDL cholesterol, and converted big fluffy benign LDL cholesterol particles into small dense harmful ones. This has increased heart disease, obesity, and other diseases of degeneration and it all stems from the avoidance of animal protein and fat.
“Man is a food dependent creature. If you do not feed him he will die. Feed him improperly and parts of him will die.”
― Emanuel Cheraskin (1916-2001)
Choosing The Wrong Fats
When you think about it, calorie restriction and low-fat eating go hand in hand. Fat has 9 calories per gram, while protein and carbohydrates only have 4. Reduce the food with the most calories, and you will lose weight. At least that’s how most believe it’s supposed to work.
Lowering our intake of saturated fat to prevent heart di
sease and restrict calories nearly tripled obesity over the last 40 years! Less fat meant more carbohydrates overall, and less animal source fats meant an increase in polyunsaturated plant source fats (PUFAs). Butter became margarine, coconut oil became canola oil, and sugar was added to replace the flavor lost in the fat. This adjustment was a dream for food producers, as they could now use cheaper oils and get support from the government to do so. Additionally, they could slap a ‘low-fat’ or ‘fat-free’ sticker on a bag of chips or box of cookies to give consumers the illusion that their product is healthy.
PUFAs = Heart Disease
Replacing saturated fat with plant oils leads to heart disease by reducing the size of LDL cholesterol particles and decreasing HDL (Good) cholesterol. The high-incidence of heart disease in India we spoke about earlier, is largely because of a switch from saturated fats like coconut oil and ghee (clarified butter) to PUFA alternatives like peanut, safflower, sesame, and soybean oils. Add the excessive carbohydrates from ‘low-calorie’ whole grains and you’ve now added elevated Triglycerides to the mix. As we learned in Mistake #4, Triglycerides and small dense LDL particles are the biggest risk factors for heart disease.
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n an attempt to eliminate the one-thing we were misled to believe was causing heart disease (saturated fat) we introduced a detrimental alternative.
A 2004
study from the Harvard School of Public Health studied fat intake and it’s impact on atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries). The researchers concluded that:
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hose who ate the most PUFAs experienced the worst progression, while those eating the highest amount of saturated fat reversed the atherosclerosis!
Likewise, a 1993 study in the Lancet showed that a switch from Butter to Margarine increases heart disease:
Fats from animal sources are better for our health and body composition, and should be recommended not avoided or replaced. These are the same fats we’ve relied on for over a million years to support our body and brain with the essentials.
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UFAs = Oxidation & Inflammation
Canola oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, sa
fflower oil, peanut oil, and corn oil, are all polyunsaturated fatty acids (or PUFA’s). They’re used regularly in restaurants and in the preparation of pre-packaged products because of their affordability. The biggest problem with PUFAs is that they’re very unstable and especially susceptible to heat, light, and oxygen. Even though polyunsaturated fats are commonly used for cooking, this is potentially the worst use for them as they oxidize under heat and form free radicals. Essentially, a free radical is a molecule with an unpaired electron that grabs an electron from another molecule. This not only inflicts damage on the cell where the electron was taken from, but it creates a chain reaction of unpaired molecules.
The process continues until an electron is taken from a molecule that either 1) changes the cell it’s in, or 2) destroys it. This is esp
ecially harmful, if that altered molecule is an LDL cholesterol particle (causing heart disease), or a DNA strand (causing aging and cancer). Without getting too scienc-y, the ‘free radical theory of aging’ that cells age because of oxidative stress brought on by having more free radicals present in our body than antioxidants. Basically, PUFAs cause the problem that antioxidants are supposed to reduce. Saturated fats, on the other hand, are more stable because they have no un-paired electrons. This makes them more resistant to oxidation when exposed to heat, light, and oxygen, and therefore less likely to cause free radical damage.
If that wasn’t enough, the 2nd problem with PUFAs is that they’re high in Omega-6 fatty acids. As you’ll discover in
Live It, NOT Diet!
, maintaining a favorable ratio of omega-6:omega-3 is extremely important to your health and longevity as it determines your level of inflammation. Omega-6’s fats are pro-inflammatory, which means they cause inflammation, while omega-3 PUFAs like fish oil are anti-inflammatory. Essentially, more omega-6s than omega-3s leads to inflammation in the body. There is a healthy intake of omega-6 fats, but unfortunately the replacement of saturated fats with plant and seed oils has created a severely imbalanced ratio. If experienced chronically, this imbalance raises your risk of developing a degenerative disease. Here’s a look at the increase in our omega 6:3 ratio since 1930, predominantly because of an increase in omega-6 PUFAs:
- 8:1 from 1930-1935
- 10:1 from 1935-1985
- 12:1 in 1985 alone
- 25:1 in 2009!
Notably, the 6:3 ratio remained relatively consistent for 55 years, until it more than doubled in 25. We’ve increased our consumption of omega-6 fatty acids largely because of the low-fat guidelines. These numbers may not seem like such a big deal, until you learn that:
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ur hunter-gatherer ancestors maintained a 6:3 ratio of 1:1!
We’ll talk more on the importance of controlling inflamm
ation and how to balance your omega 6:3 ratio in
Live It, NOT Diet!
, but for now it’s critical that you recognize the detrimental effect of replacing saturated fats with plant oils. By consuming excess omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, which promote oxidation and inflammation, you increase your risk of nearly every degenerative disease – Parkinson’s, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, etc.
Trans-Fats = Hydrogenated PUFAs
The government’s support to replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats has given marketing agencies the ability to say things like:
‘Margarine has 80% less saturated fat than butter, which helps lower your risk of heart disease.
’
As I hope you now understand:
- Less saturated fat is not a benefit
- This does not l
ower your risk of heart disease (it raises it!)
In fact, margarine and other vegetable oils that have been hydrogenated (like shortening) are the worst type of fat. You likely recognize these synthetic fats by their more common name, Trans-Fats. The hydrogenation process to make plant and seed oils solid at room temperature is what morphs them into trans-fats. Ironically, the reason this process was created was to give these oils the same consistency as butter.
Trans-fats are associated with causing severe health issues, specifically an increase in inflammation and elevated risk of heart disease.
A review of the Nurses Healthy Study determined that just four te
aspoons of margarine per day increases cardiovascular disease by 66%!
Unlike saturated fats, which are beneficial to our heart health by raising good (HDL) cholesterol and decreasing small dense (LDL) cholesterol particles, trans-fats do the opposite. Well-respected Harvard researcher, Walter Wi
llet, believes that because of their effect on stroke and heart disease risk, trans-fats could be responsible for nearly 30,000 premature deaths. Most, if not all, of the studies showing a correlation with fat and heart disease use trans fats, not saturated fat. Unfortunately, the general public is rarely informed of this VERY important distinction.
Other than heart-disease, a small amount of daily trans-fat intake (<2g/day) has been linked to insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity, depression, brain deterioration, oxidative stress, poor cognition, cancer, and increased body pain. Trans-fats have even been linked to aggression and mental decline, which researchers believe is due to inflammation impeding the brain from experiencing the protective and anti-inflammatory effects from omega-3’s. Shockingly, most North Americans are unknowingly consuming 3-4g of trans-fats per day as:
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he FDA allows companies to include a ‘trans-fat free’ statement on their product if there’s less than 0.5g of trans-fats in it.
Animal Trans-Fats Are Not
The Problem
Despite everything you’ve just learned, I know what you’re thin
king:
“I’m seeing current research that still blames Red Meat for heart disease, and cancer. What gives?”
Despite the continued practice of citing flawed research, analyzing insignificant biomarkers, and assuming that eating animal foods means cheeseburgers and pizza, there’s commonly no clear distinction between animal trans-fat and vegetable source trans-fat. There is an unfair assumption that trans-fatty acids in animal foods are the same as those produced by the hydrogenation of vegetable oils. One is manufactured in a laboratory and the other is naturally occurring, but researchers regularly perform experiments treating the 2 very different substances as equal. The reality is:
H
eart disease is only linked to trans-fat from hydrogenated vegetable oils, NOT from naturally occurring trans fats in meat and dairy products.
Similar
unwarranted advice comes from research that makes no clear division between linoleic acid from plant source fats, and linoleic acid from animal fats. The consumption of linoleic acid from vegetable oils (LA) is linked to tumor growth, specifically in the breast. Conversely, the linoleic acid found in the fat of animals, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), has been proven effective at preventing cancer, specifically reducing the risk of breast, colon, and skin cancer. I repeat:
The
linoleic acid (LA) in vegetable oils promotes cancer, while conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) prevents cancer.