Free Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig Page B

participate, ‘I believe you are right, that the Diet/Heart hypothesis is wrong, but I cannot join you because that would jeopardize my perks and funding.’ For me, that kind of hypocritical response separates the scientists from the operators—the men from the boys.”
    By the 1990s, the United States had been transformed from a healthy nation consuming real foods, including traditional animal fats and tropical oils, into a decidedly unhealthy nation that ate mostly imitation foods based on vegetable oils. Consumption of butter was at an all-time low; use of lard and tallow was down by two-thirds. Prosperous Americans now consumed the same type of diet that Dr. Price observed in his Depression-era patients—and suffered from the same health problems he warned against.
    Margarine consumption has changed little since 1960, perhaps because knowledge of margarine’s dangers has been so slowly seeping into the public consciousness. However, most of the trans fats in the current American diet come not from margarine but from shortening used in fried and processed foods. And since the 1940s, the content of that shortening has gradually changed from mostly lard, tallow, and coconut oil to partially hydrogenated soybean oil. At the same time, shortening consumption shot up. By 1993, it had tripled to over 30 grams per person per day.
    But the most dramatic overall change in the American diet was a 15-fold increase in the consumption of liquid vegetable oils, from slightly less than 2 grams per person per day in 1909 to over 30 in 1993.
    In our view, the largely unrecognized power of the vegetable oil industry explains why myths about the “dangers” of saturated fat and cholesterol have dominated popular thinking about what constitutes a healthy diet. Fortunately, the wind of opinion has begun to shift. Even some old-line adherents of the lipid hypothesis may be tacking in a new direction.

    The Evolution of Ideas
    In 1998, a symposium titled “Evolution of Ideas About the Nutritional Value of Dietary Fat” reviewed the many flaws in the lipid hypothesis. One participant was David Kritchevsky, the same researcher whose early work helped launch the lipid hypothesis. He noted that the use of low-fat diets in a number of experiments “did not affect overall CHD mortality.” And he concluded, “Research continues apace and, as new findings appear, it may be necessary to reevaluate our conclusions and preventive medicine policies.”
    Finally, it seems, scientists are waking up from their long infatuation with the lipid hypothesis. Eventually our government and medical experts will be forced to issue revised policies on saturated fat, just as they finally have had to admit that trans fats are dangerous. But there’s no reason for you to wait for official government pronouncements to begin enjoying the health and weight-loss benefits of saturated fats. To learn more about why these fats are good for you, and more about the harmful effects of vegetable oils and trans fats, turn to Chapter 3.

Chapter Three
Know Your Fats—and Your Nutrients
    In this chapter, you’ll learn why you need the healthy fats you will consume on this diet. Second, we’ll show you why eating unhealthy fats and low-fat products can sabotage your health and weight-loss goals. And finally, we’ll explain the facts about your need for vital nutrients that you may not be getting if you’re only consuming the USDA Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) of vitamins and minerals.

    Why You Need the Right Kinds of Fat
    In all three of the Eat Fat, Lose Fat programs, you will be consuming not only coconut oil, but also cod-liver oil supplements (which work in combination with coconut), as well as other healthy traditional fats such as butter, egg yolks, meat fats, and even lard. These fats provide key nutrients you need to maintain both optimal health and your desired weight.

    Fats and Your Brain
    Sixty percent of the brain is composed of fat. Phospholipids