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Fat is where it's at
For decades, fat has been blamed for everything from heart disease to obesity to cancer. But new research shows that fat can be good for you.
Dutch pediatricians were so alarmed by the low-fat trend that they urged parents to ensure that their children receive the essential nutrients only fat can bring. "Children under the age of 6 need fat," said Elise Buiting, president of the Dutch Youth Service Medical Association, in an interview with a Dutch newspaper this year. "We recommend full-fat margarine with unsaturated fatty acids, for example. Children who are given the same ‘light’ products as their parents do not get enough."
As for the connection between fatty foods and weight, it’s controversial as well. Obesity was never the target of Congress’ efforts, although the low-fat recommendations were instituted to help people manage their weight. They haven’t. Since the guidelines were adopted, Americans have indisputably gotten fatter. "In the early 1990s, we ate low-fat everything and we didn’t get thinner," says Alice Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. "There’s your proof."
In the 1960s and ’70s, roughly 14 percent of Americans was obese. Today, more than 30 percent is, with another 30 percent classified as "overweight." Same goes in Europe, where consumption of fat has dropped and obesity rates have risen. In the U.K., obesity rates have tripled since 1980. In the Netherlands, the percentage of moderately overweight adults increased from 28 in 1981 to almost 36 in 2008, according to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics. The percentage of obese people more than doubled, from 5.1 percent to 11.2 percent, in the same period. According to the Society for the Study of Obesity, roughly half the population of the European Union is overweight or obese.
In three decades, while scientists have learned more about what eating fat will and won’t do, consumers have wholeheartedly embraced the "low-fat" doctrine. In the 1990s, more than 1,000 reduced- or low-fat foods were introduced each year, according to the AHA. By the end of the decade, more than 90 percent of the population reported consuming low-fat products. According to one survey, two out of three adults believed "a need exists for food ingredients that can replace the fat in food products," and one out of every two saw the appeal in food advertised as "reduced in both fat and calories." In other words, given the chance to replace fat with something else, we opened wide.
So given the blanket condemnation of fat, what did we eat instead? If we cut fat out of our diets, we have to get calories from somewhere. When food companies offer reduced-fat versions of cookies, salad dressings and sauces, sugar and carbohydrates generally make up the difference. When we consciously reduce the fat in our diets, we don’t typically eat fewer calories; we eat more rice and pasta, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And low-fat products have their own problems. "If you reduce the fat, you have to replace it with something," says Samuel Klein, a professor of medicine and nutrition in the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. "So it’s sugar." It’s true: Either for taste, or to replace fat’s richness and moistness, the food industry began using sugar.
But as researchers studied fat and weight, they learned more about the effects of sugar, which as it turns out may inspire more weight gain than fat does. When we eat sugar—or refined carbohydrates, which break down into sugar—the body produces insulin to transport the sugar to the muscles and organs that burn it as fuel. Insulin, though, also regulates fat metabolism, and when insulin levels are high, the body stores fat rather than burning it. The issues and consequences of producing too much insulin are still open to debate, but many researchers believe that replacing fats with sugars and carbohydrates has the potential to wreak havoc on your metabolism. And ironically, even sugar substitutes, like aspartame, the sweetener in NutraSweet and Equal, have been linked to weight gain. Scientists aren’t sure why, but they seem to encourage people to eat more, or disrupt energy expenditures.
Sugar substitutes work well for baked goods, salad dressings and processed meats. But they can’t be fried, making them useless in potato chips, which account for 35 percent of the $46 billion global market for savory snacks, according to the research firm Datamonitor. So food scientists developed an indigestible fat, sucrose polyester—more commonly known by its brand name, Olestra. Researchers found Olestra inhibits the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and other important nutrients.
Overall, as Americans replaced regular foods with low-fat products, nutrition sometimes suffered. One study found that women who used fat-modified products weren’t getting enough vitamin E or zinc, prompting the authors to recommend "additional dietary guidance."
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This isn't new information. It's new MAINSTREAM information. But more information can be found at WestonAPrice.org, among other websites. Thank you very, very much for putting this on the cover. Saturated fat is GOOD for us! Tribal diets all over the world prove this. Eat whole foods, not non-fat foods. I'm writing for work, or I'd write longer praises about your article. Suffice it to say, thank you for sharing!
posted by JessicaLeah on 6/17/2009 6:53 pm