Popular Belief About Saturated Fats Lacks Scientific Basis
Strict regulations against saturated fats, which have made up the government policy in the United States of America for more than 3 decades, are deeply embedded in the consciousness of the nation. But a recent medical journal article is questioning such policies and their merits.
The journal Annals of Internal Medicine published a meta-analysis in March of 76 scientific studies on effects of different fats on heart diseases, association of supplement, circulation and dietary fatty acids with coronary risk. The conclusion that the researchers drew after the review of the studies was that the evidence that is currently available doesn’t support the cardiovascular guidelines clearly and especially those that promote high consumption of fatty acids that are polyunsaturated and low consumption of fats that are totally saturated.
Federal policy forbids butter and whole milk in school lunches. Finding whole milk products or butter in an airport, nursing home or chain restaurant in the United States is difficult. Lawmakers are continuously weighing new laws that have been set in opposition of these fats that are allegedly bad.
For instance the legislature for the state of Connecticut is currently reviewing a law that has been proposed and it bans whole milk in daycare centers. The Weston A. Price Foundation is doing the contrary and is pushing for the restoration of foods like eggs, butter, lard, coconut oil and whole milk based on the 1930 nutritional research of Dr. Weston A. Price. They aim to grant these foods their rightful places in the human diet and modern research is finally keeping up.
Chris Masterjohn, PHD says that had the medical and nutritional establishments taken the same approach as that of Weston Price in the first place and had they strived to unravel the real causes of heart diseases through the study of population lifestyles and diets which had grown immune to the disease, then this diet-heart hypothesis would never have emerged. It is unlikely that it would have ever come into existence.
Nutrition scientist, Masterjohn, who is currently working together with Dr. Fred Kummerow at the Burnsides Research Laboratory which is found at the University of Illinois. He focuses his research on vitamins that are fat soluble and the role of saturated fats in heart disease prevention.
Dr. Weston A. Price carried out research on the foods that were consumed by healthy people whose diets were made up of animal fats and were packed with them for example the Australian aborigines and Seminoles who come from the Florida Everglades. Price discovered that fats from animal foods and products are good sources of vitamins that are indeed very beneficial to good human health and these include true vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin K. The current version of the USDA dietary guidelines says that fats which are saturated are only empty calories and this is completely different from what Price discovered and placed emphasis on. Dr. Price placed emphasis on the roles played by these vitamins that are fat soluble in increasing of the absorption of nutrients and it is because of these properties that he dubbed them as activators. These vitamins which are fat soluble are needed for the production of hormones, normal growth levels, neurological functions and protection from chronic disease like heart disease and cancer. These researches, opinions and laws are all contrasting but it is also impossible to survive without animal fats since they are beneficial to the body in their own way and they can be limited or reduced but not prohibited completely.
Sally Fallon Morell who is the president of the Weston A. Price Foundation says that the new research suggests that eating butter and other products is fine every once in a while but in truth foods such as egg yolks, cheese, butter and whole milk are in fact needed in our daily diets for overall body development and good health. They are critical for good body functioning and general health and most Americans who avoid these traditional sources of fats that are saturated show a decline in their health since they are denying the body what it needs.
To learn more about the health benefits of coconut oil, grass-fed butter and other various traditional fats, CLICK HERE to download The Skinny on Fats report from Weston A. Price Foundation.
