This article was previously published on July 11, 2020 and has been updated with new information.
In the video podcast above, Dr. Paul Saladino and science journalist and author Nina Teicholz – and executive director of The Nutrition Coalition – examine the evidence against chicken, and why saturated fat is actually qualifies as a healthy food.
Teicholz’s book, “The Big Fat Surprise,” challenged conventional wisdom about dietary fat, especially saturated fat. Saladino, meanwhile, released the second edition of her book, “The Predator Code,” in August 2020.
Why conventional chicken may contribute to poor health
As noted by Saladino, while red meat consumption is declining, due to the decline in red meat and saturated fat, people are eating more and more chicken.
Long considered a healthy meat, mainly because it’s leaner than red meat, the problem with conventional chickens is that they’re fed corn – typically glyphosate-fed GMO varieties.
Increasingly, we’re finding that trans fats and polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils are much worse for your health and a greater cause of chronic disease than added sugars. . And what happens when chickens are fed corn? Meat is high in omega-6 linoleic acid, as corn is high in fat.first
As Saladino pointed out, consuming more chicken actually increases your vegetable oil consumption. While you do need some omega-6, the amounts obtained from the standard American diet high in processed foods are far too high for health. High intake of omega-6 also skews your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, ideally closer to one to one.
As noted by Saladino and Teicholz, 60% of the US population has a chronic illness, nearly 70% are overweight or obese, and recent NHANES data2 revealed 87.8% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy, based on five parameters. That data is now over 4 years old, so the number is clearly greater than 90% of the population today.
That means virtually everyone is at risk for Type 2 diabetes and all chronic diseases associated with insulin resistance, leading to risks ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s. Simply assuming you are one in 12.2% (from data of 4-year-olds) that are metabolically healthy would be a risky business.
Will the saturated fat myth soon be debunked?
Part of the reason why the chronic condition is so widespread is because of the persistent belief that saturated animal fats are unhealthy and should be replaced with industrial vegetable oils.3
On the positive side, Teicholz reviews a 2020 paper4 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, which actually acknowledged the age-old nutritional guidelines for limiting saturated fat were incorrect. This is quite an impressive admission and a huge step forward. As noted in the summary:
“Recommendations to limit dietary intake of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) persist despite extensive evidence to the contrary. Most recent meta-analysis of randomized trials and observational studies exists.” did not find a beneficial effect of reducing SFA intake on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and total mortality, and instead found a protective effect against stroke.
Although SFAs increase low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, in most people this is not due to increased levels of small, dense LDL particles, but rather that larger LDL is less strongly associated with risk CVD.
It is clear that the health effects of foods cannot be predicted by their content in any given group of nutrients, without considering the overall distribution of macronutrients.
Full-fat dairy, unprocessed meat, eggs, and dark chocolate are all SFA-rich foods with a complex matrix that have not been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The full range of available evidence does not support further restriction of the consumption of such foods. “
How did we go so wrong?
In the podcast, Saladino and Teicholz review the history of the demonization of saturated fats and cholesterol, starting with Ancel Keys’ flawed hypothesis.5 that saturated fat causes heart disease in 1960-1961, and the introduction of the First Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1980 (recommendations to limit saturated fat and cholesterol) concurrently with the rapid increase of obesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease.
They also discuss why this myth is still allowed to exist, despite the scientific evidence against it. In short, the low-fat, low-cholesterol myths propounded by Keys in the ’60s quickly led to dramatic changes in the food and pharmaceutical industries, and these giants were extremely reluctant to give up. abandon what have become highly profitable businesses.
Acknowledging that saturated animal fats are healthy, and that vegetable oils and industrially processed grains are not, would destroy the processed food industry, as it depends on vegetable oils and grains. glass. The healthy alternative is real food and no big industry profits are made from it.
Vegetable oils affect your health
Saladino and Knobbe both believe that the large increase in linoleic acid (an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat found in industrial vegetable oils) is the main metabolic driver of obesity, heart disease, cancer, and obesity. cancer and other chronic diseases. They looked at several studies6,7,8,9,ten,11,twelfth prove the truth of this.
Historically, humans were estimated to get about 2% of polyunsaturated fats from their diets. Today, that percentage is between 10% and 20% – and traditional poultry is also a hidden source of harmful polyunsaturated fats.
More importantly, they also revisited the incorrect belief that high LDL is a risk factor for heart disease and that by lowering LDL you reduce your risk of heart attack. Science simply cannot explain this, and the reason for this is because not all LDL particles are the same.
By cutting back on red meat and saturated fats and eating more vegetable oils and chicken (which, for example, will count towards your vegetable oil or polyunsaturated fat intake), your LDL can be reduced. down, but those LDLs will now be oxidized, and no one is checking for oxidation. Saladino explains that oxidized LDL triggers insulin resistance and related problems, including heart disease.
On the other hand, eating saturated fat may raise your LDL, but those LDL particles will be large and “bloated” and won’t cause any damage to the arteries. Many studies have proven that high LDL has nothing to do with heart disease. High LDL does not increase the risk of heart disease, but oxidized LDL does.
Teicholz also makes another important point, that the saturated fat myth was once one of the most comprehensive and thorough theories in the history of nutritional science, and it failed miserably.
She also details how avoiding animal saturated fats leaves you with nutritional deficiencies, as animal foods and fats are also rich in micronutrients. Industrially processed vegetable oils are not. As noted by Teicholz, “foods high in saturated fat are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet.” These nutrients also have a high biological value.
Meanwhile, the diets suggested by our Dietary Guidelines for Americans don’t actually meet nutritional goals. As a result, the most disadvantaged among us – impoverished children who depend on school meals, for example hospital patients and the elderly in long-term care facilities – are being harmed. disproportionately, since they have very few options if any. Make healthier food choices.
Benefits of Carnosine
In addition to saturated fat and the vitamins and minerals it contains, red meat is also an important source of carnosine, a dipeptide (two amino acids joined together) made up of beta-alanine and histidine. Carnosine is found only in animal products. It acts as a collector or determiner of reactive carbonyl groups – intermediates that further form the end products of advanced lipoxide oxidation.
If you can get these carbonyls before they attack proteins and fats, you can essentially stop the vicious cycle that leads to severe peroxidation. A diet that excludes animal products and meat will lower your carnosine levels, and carnosine is a really important nutrient for limiting damage caused by oxidation products. It is also important for mitochondrial function.
Summary of why saturated fat is so important
At the end of his podcast, about an hour and 44 minutes, Saladino gives a comprehensive summary of the entire discussion. Here’s a quick review of his key takeaways:
- The insulin sensitivity of fat cells in the body is in contrast to the rest of the body. In other words, you want your fat cells to be insulin resistant, because this makes the rest of your body insulin sensitive (i.e. not insulin resistant). If your fat cells are sensitive to insulin, the rest of your body will be insulin resistant. What determines the insulin sensitivity of fat cells is the fat you eat.
- Linoleic acid “disrupts insulin sensitivity at the level of your fat cells” – it makes them more sensitive to insulin – and, since your fat cells control the insulin sensitivity of the rest of your body, By releasing free fatty acids, you will become insulin resistant.
- In contrast, when you eat saturated fat, due to the way it is beta-oxidized in your mitochondria, your fat cells become resistant to insulin. As a result, they do not grow and do not release free fatty acids. As a result, insulin sensitivity in the rest of your body improves and insulin resistance decreases.
Toxic vegetable oils
As discussed in an interview with Dr. Chris Knobbe, polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils, nut oils and trans fats are mainly stored in your fat cells (as opposed to used as fuel) and has a half-life of 600 to 680 days.13
They are also incorporated into tissues, including your heart and brain. Who in their mind would want a highly oxidizing oil that saturates their organs for years? One result of this could be memory impairment and an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, which is exactly what they found with canola oil.14 As reported in a 2017 study:15
“Our findings do not support a beneficial effect of chronic canola oil consumption on two important aspects of AD pathophysiology, including memory impairment as well as synaptic integrity. with canola oil.”
In the interview, Knobbe explained the harmful effects of vegetable oils and, like Saladino and Teicholz, examined why they are the root cause behind virtually all chronic diseases.
