Heart disease - at one time little was known on the topic. What we did know was that it was almost nonexistent at the turn of the last century. By the 1950s, it had become an epidemic with some 100,000 Americans dying of the disease each year. When the American Heart Association made its 1960s declaration that fat and cholesterol were among the leading causes of heart disease, those notions immediately villainized any foods that contained fat or cholesterol . . . including butter, meat and cheese."Saturated fat does not cause heart disease," Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise, told those attending INTL FCStone's 12th Annual Dairy Outlook Conference in downtown Chicago, Ill. "It's not fat that is making us fat. It's carbohydrates," Teicholz went on to explain, noting that carbohydrates may also be at the heart of the heart issue.
She added, "Fat and protein is what makes you feel full. A diet of carbohydrates doesn't lead to satiety or the feeling of being full."
Winding the clock back in time, the 1950s and '60s were a different area. Not much was truly known about nutritional science. It was in that time slot of history that Ancel Keys, who was a charismatic and forceful personality, stepped into the picture with the theory that saturated fats were killing Americans. Unfortunately, what we are learning nearly 50 years after Keys was featured on the cover of Time magazine, making his declaration, is that his saturated fat theory was flawed.
"Ancel Keys stepped into a void with advice on heart disease and against saturated fats," said Teicholz. "Unfortunately, Keys cherry-picked data for the saturated fat hypothesis," as the author talked about data sources he avoided gathering.
"Early on, no one refuted it in the nutritional space," said Teicholz, noting that eventually some scientists did raise questions but their grant funding magically went away in the face of a rising tide against saturated fats.
"As I dug deeper into the topic in recent years, I knew there was a bigger story there when nutritional scientists kept hanging up on me," Nina Teicholz. That is what gave the author further conviction to study the entire situation.
What we are beginning to learn is that . . . "Saturated fat does not cause heart disease," said the New York Times best seller.
To read more about Teicholz's discoveries, go to our bookstore to order The Big Fat Surprise. Next to milking machines and tractors, it may be the most important breakthrough in dairy circles in the past 150 years.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel
