The demonization of saturated fats is unscientific and has had an extremely detrimental effect on the health of the whole nation, particularly on growing children. The human body contains high levels of saturated fat in the cell membranes and in protective fat around the organs. When saturated fat is not available in the diet, the body very efficiently turns refined carbohydrates into saturated fat;1 thus restriction of saturated fat can often lead to cravings for refined carbohydrates.
Saturated fatty acids are said to cause cancer, heart disease and obesity. Yet these diseases were rare at the turn of the century when consumption of saturated fats was much higher than it is today. The likely culprits for these conditions are polyunsaturated fatty acids and trans fats, which came into widespread use after WWII.2
Saturated fats play many important roles in the body chemistry:
• As saturated fats are stable, they do not become rancid easily, do not call upon the body’s reserves of antioxidants, do not initiate cancer and do not irritate the artery walls.3
• Vitamins A and D, which are vital for proper growth and for protein and mineral assimilation, are found only in mostly saturated animal fats.
• Saturated fats enhance the immune system, thereby protecting us against infection and cancer.4
• Saturated fats help the body lay down calcium in the bones and help prevent osteoporosis.5
• Saturated fats provide energy and structural integrity to the cells.6 At least 50 percent of many, if not most, of the cell membrane must be saturated fat for the cells to work properly.
• Saturated fats protect the liver from alcohol, drugs, pesticides and other poisons.7
• Saturated fats enhance the body’s use of essential fatty acids, which the body needs in small amounts and obtains from whole foods.8
• Stearic acid, found in beef tallow and butter, has cholesterol-lowering properties and is a preferred food for the heart.9
• Saturated fats are needed for the kidneys to work properly.10
• The lung surfactants are composed of saturated fatty acids.11 The lungs cannot work without adequate amounts of saturated fats.
Warnings against dietary saturated fats are predicated on the assumption that saturated fats contribute to atherosclerosis and therefore to heart disease; yet, as saturated fat consumption has declined in the U.S. over the last one hundred years, heart disease has increased. Recent epidemiological evidence from Europe does not support a correlation of saturated fat with heart disease, as shown in the charts below. To view these charts please go to the link below.
http://www.westonaprice.org/abcs-of-nutrition/1950-comments-on-the-usda-dietary-guidelines.html
What happens when children are put on lower fat diets? When researchers prominently associated with the American Heart Association fed children lower fat diets and measured some of the markers they consider important predictors of heart disease, they found that these lower fat diets were causing the very problems they wanted to prevent. The children whose genes would normally have been producing the desirable light and fluffy form of LDL started to make the dangerous small and dense form of LDL.13 Thus the US dietary recommendations are likely to be causing heart disease, not preventing it.
