Go Ahead, EAT Meat, Butter and Eggs

Dietary fat, particularly saturated fat, has gotten a horribly negative, yet completely undeserved, reputation.  We have all heard eating foods high in fat makes you fat and that foods high in cholesterol raise your blood cholesterol, clogs your arteries, and causes heart disease. Just look at all the low-fat/non-fat options that have flooded our supermarkets for decades and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s food pyramid and MyPlate which emphasizes a low-fat, high grain diet. These recommendations have been pushed by the American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, the media, and our medical providers, and, naturally, we assume them to be true. These are sources we trust.

Meat began to emerge as the villain in our country’s dietary narrative during the 1960s, when the American Heart Association published their first set of dietary guidelines recommending Americans limit consumption of saturated fat, including foods like meat, butter, and eggs. Heart disease had emerged as the nation’s leading killer and concerned politicians, physicians, and the public wanted answers. There was urgency to find the cause of the alarming rise in rates of heart disease amongst the American population.

And turns out, someone by the name of Ancel Keys, felt he had the answer. He was convinced consumption of fat, specifically saturated fat, was the leading contributor to heart disease. He published a study called the Seven Countries Study to prove his point. And at the time, the medical community, including the American Heart Association, took his theory to be fact.

Never mind that this theory was just that, a theory. It wasn’t backed by rigorous evidence or replicated by any other studies. It was based off the opinion of a single person and a faulty study. Ancel Keys published only the results that fit his hypothesis. For example, while called the Seven Countries Study, there were many more than seven countries researched. But if a country didn’t fit his theory, they weren’t included in the results.

This resulted in dietary recommendations for an entire country that were based on opinion, theory, incomplete data, and biased analysis. And it has had dangerous public health consequences. In an attempt to trying to solve one public health crisis, heart disease, another was created. When Americans turned away from high fat foods, they were replaced with processed foods lower in fat and high in sugar. Because if you take away the fat, something has to replace it, and that something was sugar. People started substituting their morning eggs, (a nutrient-dense breakfast) for “heart healthy” Cheerios,  (one devoid of nutrients and full of sugar). The result: an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and chronic disease.

For a detailed history of dietary fat, including evidence supporting why high-fat foods, including meat, butter, eggs, and cheese (for those who tolerate dairy), should be part of our diet, check out the New York Times Bestseller, “The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet” by Nina Teicholz, at your local library.

For more details on how we’ve come to villainize saturated fat, as well as links to research studies disproving the fat-cholesterol-heart disease myth, and why sugar is the real villain in our dietary history, check out this article by Dr. Hyman, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.

This 7-minute video by Dr. Hyman, explains why consuming fat will not make you fat.

We’ve been sold this simplistic narrative, that dietary fat is bad for our health, over decades, but research has proved this to be untrue. Dietary fat is an essential as part of a healthy diet. Plus, these high-fat foods — olive oil, meat, fish, butter, and eggs — are foods we all love. They taste delicious, satiate us, and are filled with essential nutrients including Vitamin A, D, E, and, K. These are nutrients that are required for our bodies to function and thrive.

It will take time for dietary fat’s reputation to change, but it will happen. In the meantime, enjoy that grilled steak on the BBQ, relish your morning eggs with bacon, and slather those veggies in butter and olive oil. Your body will thank you.