(22-09-12) Is saturated fat really a deadly nutrient?

by Ben Hirshberg

(NaturalNews) Many doctors and health experts vilify dietary fat, urging
everyone to cut down on the macronutrient in favor of low fat alternatives.
Even more common is for health experts to talk about good fats and bad fats.
More often than not, saturated fat is at the top of the fat naughty list. It is
worth examining how saturated fat got its reputation for being a deadly
nutrient and seeing if the reputation is deserved or not.

Saturated fat and Ancel Keys
Those who abhor saturated fat point to the work of Dr. Ancel Keys, who
popularized the notion that saturated fat causes heart disease. In 1953, Keys
wrote a paper with the key finding of a correlation between fat intake and
heart disease deaths in six countries around the world. Data was actually
available for 22 countries around the world, and the association between fat
intake and heart disease was not present in several of the countries.

17 years later, Keys published a study looking at seven countries that found a
correlation between animal fats and heart disease rates, as well as total
cholesterol numbers and heart disease rates. Keys concluded that saturated fats
in animal foods led to high cholesterol levels which led to higher incidences
of heart disease. The problem with Keys' 1970 study of the seven countries was
that three of the seven countries examined actually had no correlation between
animal fat consumption and heart disease prevalence.

Saturated fat and cholesterol
As far as the connection between saturated fat and cholesterol goes, Keys got
it wrong as well. Saturated fat does increase LDL cholesterol, which builds up
plaque on artery walls. Saturated fat also increases HDL cholesterol, as much
or possibly more than it increases LDL cholesterol. HDL cholesterol removes
plaque from artery walls, which means that any damage saturated fat does to bad
cholesterol is undone by its effect on good cholesterol levels.

Furthermore, it appears saturated fat doesn't affect LDL cholesterol levels as
negatively as previously thought. LDL cholesterol comes in two varieties: small
and dense particles or large and fluffy particles. The large and fluffy LDL
particles have no association with clogged arteries, whereas the small and
dense LDL particles had a strong association with clogged arteries. It turns
out that replacing carbohydrates with saturated or unsaturated fats decreases
the levels of small, dense LDL particles.

Saturated fat - A vital nutrient?
So is saturated fat the demonic nutrient conventional wisdom makes it out to
be? It appears that the answer is no, and that saturated fat is not only safe
but actually quite beneficial to human physiology. Saturated fat improves
cardiovascular risk factors, increases bone strength, improves liver health, is
essential to lung and brain health, influences insulin release and metabolic
rate, and helps the immune system function. Ancel Keys got it wrong, and
unfortunately his condemnation of saturated fat has contributed to a widespread
dietary fat phobia.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.menshealth.com/health/saturated-fat
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/06/saturated-fat/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/#axzz24uV2KtXB

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