Butter is Back

Do you remember back in 1977 when, in an attempt to reduce cholesterol and deter heart disease, the government released their “Dietary Goal for the United States?”  As a result, eggs were replaced with egg beaters, whole milk with skim milk, butter with margarine, and we entered the era of low fat yogurt, oatmeal, cheese, hot dogs, salad dressing, crackers, cookies, and just about anything you could think of.  Well, I remember and it made sense because fat was bad and the government spent $150 million on a study to prove it to us.  However, if you saw the recent article in Time magazine, you know that after nearly four decades, this experiment was a failure.  Americans are fatter and sicker than ever and still 1 in every 2 of us will die of heart disease.  The biggest difference since the no-fat agenda was introduced is that type 2 diabetes has risen 166%.

The thinking on fat started to turn in the 1990’s with people looking at the Mediterranean diet and recognizing that fats from vegetables like olives, and in fish like salmon, or even the fats from nuts and seeds could actually be protective against heart disease.  This began the era of good fats versus bad fats and the perception that the saturated fats were the enemy.  Unfortunately, a study of all the research on this published in 2010 concluded that “There was no significant evidence that saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.”  Modern research shows that because the saturated fat found in red meat raises both the bad, LDL cholesterol and the good, HDL cholesterol in essentially equal amounts this makes the saturated variety of fat a “cardiovascular wash.”  The same research shows that there are two kinds of LDL particles.  There are large fluffy ones found in most forms of fat that seem to have little effect on cardiovascular disease.  But there are also smaller, dense LDL particles that seem to stick to the arteries and cause cardiovascular disease.  These small, sticky LDL particles are found largely in processed carbohydrates such as breads, pastas, chips, crackers, cereals, and white rice.  All the war on fat seemed to do was decrease our saturated fat intake from milk, beef, eggs, and butter moderately while increasing our calorie intake from corn products by 198% and increase our intake of high-fructose corn syrup by a whopping 8,853%!

My take on all of this is the same it’s always been.  When you replace real food with fake food you will always pay the price and disease will be the result.  While the recent article from Time is advocating a movement back to butter, red meat, and whole milk in place of all the fake oils and low fat processed carbs, the only question I have is where is that butter, red meat, and milk coming from?  You are what you eat is just as true from the rest of the animal kingdom.  If we’re eating the fat from animals that were fattened up on grains and hormones, this is not the same as animals that were permitted to graze in the fields and mature naturally.  It costs a little more, but try to find eggs and meat products that are organic and free range.  Likewise, try to find fish that is ocean-caught and not farm-raised.  You do this while at the same time reducing your intake of processed carbohydrates and increasing your fruit and vegetable intake and your cardiovascular risk factor will go down as they intended way back in 1977.