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The Saturated Fat Myth Debunked in Two Minutes and Thirty Five Seconds

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From the documentary Fat Head

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Chris Kresser in kitchen

45 Comments

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  1. The problem is that we have been force fed incorrect information based on erroneous research for 40 years by doctors, nutritionists and health organisations – and I don’t think it is going to be easy for them to look at the new evidence to find out how wrong they are. In Australia the Australian Heart Foundation is still recommending that we eat margarine and vegetable oils and low fat.

    I did a short health course through work and the nurse running it told us about an 85 year old farmer who dropped dead suddenly – her comment was it was probably from eating all that fat and cholesterol! At 85 years old I don’t think so!!

  2. My question isn’t so much which way of dieting lowerers or raises, LDL, HDL, Tris, small particle vs big particle, etc…. my question is which way of eating ADDS plaque and which way of eating REDUCES plaque. As I posted elsewhere, I find both Dr. Davis and Dr. Esselsteyn quite persuasive and convincing , though the only thing I think they overlap in common with is cut refined sugars and eat a lot of veggies and fruit (Davis says up to but no more than 4 pieces of fruit).

    How hard is it to isolate sat fat proponents and scope/cat scan their arteries for plaque, and isolate low fat proponents and do the same? Wouldn’t that settle this argument once and for all?

  3. Chris – thanks so much for your blog and podcasts. I’ve learned a lot from you, but best of all, I can feel confident passing your articles along to friends, family, and colleagues as it’s always well-written, well-researched, and backed up by published studies.

  4. I hope you might look at the photo from Dr. Esselstyn’s site http://www.heartattackproof.com/cardio1.jpg
    “Figure 1 — Coronary angiograms of the distal left anterior descending artery before (left) and after (right) 32 months of a plant-based diet without cholesterol-lowering medication, showing profound improvement.”

    • Did he exercise? Did he change his lifestyle? How plant-based was his diet? Did he use real food from a SAD of processed crap (and recall, that “real” grass fed meat and eggs contain the omega 3 and vitamin B that he had to supplement)? For that matter, was he locked into a room with all of his meals provided to him (See, for example, the A TO Z study(Gardner, et.al. published in JAMA): Sure Ornish seems to work, but the diet is so dull and boring that most people fall off of it rather quickly)?

      And did he develop the pedantic attitude and irritability that so many vegans have?

      Too, I still haven’t seen any conclusive proof in any study that “mortality” is a bad thing, and it arguably could be a good thing…

  5. This isn’t entirely fair to Keys (as much as I love Fathead). Keys didn’t actually think there was a link between cholesterol and heart disease, and the chart we’re so used to seeing associated with him was from a completely different study. His research was actually better than most of us think, it was just innately flawed because of the conventional wisdom.

    The real enemy here is the Pr spin of hiss work. The media and other agencies took it and ran with it in a direction he never intended (sound familiar?) and now we all “know” that Keys created the lipid hypothesis as it exists today just like most people all “know” that fat makes you fat and sick.

  6. HI Chris..I just love your work and I try to eat pretty Paleo and low carb.
    My doctor was singing the praises of Caldwell Esselstyn’s diet which Bill Clinton follows.
    Ugh..no oil at all (olive or coconut), no fish, no meat, no dairy..basically it’s premise is 180 degrees of what we believe.
    It’s so hard to know if the studies are correct.

    I would love for you to see these videos and follow these vegan people and some of their videos.
    They push grains, beans, veggies and fruits..all carbs with plenty of fructose.
    Yes, it’s the vegan agenda. They are 180 degrees from Mercola and the Paleo crowd that I follow.

    What do you think is going on here? Can any of this be true?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbMToQCFHg&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbMToQCFHg&feature=related

    The second one takes some time, but all of this just baffles me. Who can we really trust or believe anymore?

    Sharon

  7. Chris,

    Thanks for posting this great video and for the plethora of information you provide here for people who really need and want it.

    I feel for you — having to constantly defend yourself to dissenters like you have in this post. Most of them just want to pick fights, feel important and spread negativity. Their agenda is not for clarity or truth. I see them on comment threads in the paleo world all the time. Seems like if they really believed they were right, they’d just live their lives that way and not come to forums like these and fight experts on the subject matter with nothing more than, “I asked my teacher about it, and he said …” It really comes across as a bit, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

    Keep up the fantastic work. Your kind spirit and positivity easily outshine the cynicism and negativity of dissenters. (Not to mention that your work is actually restoring health to so many people.)

    Namaste.

    • These people who post their nonsense tend to be vegans or veggies who care more about protecting animals than what is best for human health.

      • I stumbled on this. I am neither animal-loving nor a lifelong vegetarian. I am a 44 yr old female physician with newly diagnosed heart disease who did my reading and research and the results for Esselstyn and Ornish are overwhelmingly positive. So literally the day before my diagnosis I was eating everything – animal, fish egg dairy and the next day I dropped it. Funny how easy it was once I knew I was facing premature sudden death like many of my relatives. Would never go back- felt younger and fitter instantly.

        My BMII was 23 before and now it’s below 21. Lost 14lb as a side effect even after eating as much as I want of healthful plant based food.

        It’s important to know the dramatic results of the wholefoods plant based diet before discounting it as vegan mumbo jumbo. I’m still not doing this to save animals or the planet, I am selfish enough to want to save myself and for my child not to lose his mother young from heart disease, as I did. I value the health-giving that the Esselstyn plan gives and I value public health and the health of our children. Esselstyn’s plan has no calorie counting, no nutrieny counting (eg no balancing carbs, protein etc). It is simply wholefoods plant-based (WFPB). I find it a lot simpler than when I did used to try eating more protein. My BP is normal again after about 10 years of high BP. If you are a candidate for heart disease or you have it already, and if you keep an open mind and give it a chance, then WFPB eating will pay dividends. It is so simple in fact that I can’t believe most doctors (myself included a few months ago) don’t know about it.

        • Well said – I’m in the same boat as you Jen – just diagnosed with heart disease and was feeling unbelievably bad. Very few options for me and I knew nothing about Esselstyn, Ornish, McDougall etc until now. I want to be around for my kids so I’m doing what I can to survive and so far it is working. I have lost more than 14lb in a few weeks, my blood pressure is coming down and I suspect my next cholesterol test will be much better also. Most (not all) of my angina has receded after a couple of weeks and I now have days where I feel just fine. People can make their own choices about what they eat or don’t eat but I can’t see why anyone would get defensive about people being on a plant-based diet because they want to improve their life. Even if I end up having to have bypass surgery – I know I will be in better condition to meet that challenge as well. Esselstyn and Co are true doctors trying to spread a simple truth that for some reason many people find too hard to accept – they should be honored – not ridiculed.