How scientists justified the fats and whether to lean on them
We live at a time when our ideas about the world and what is good and what is bad are daily corrected. Questions of health and proper nutrition are not only not an exception, but, on the contrary, are more often questioned. What we are talking about is well understood by those who once a day consumed tuna every day ("not at all fatty, 22% protein, vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B9, E, PP; calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium , iodine, iron, zinc ... "), once to choke on a fish sandwich, reading a study that tuna, like other perennial inhabitants of the ocean, accumulates mercury in its tissues, therefore it is recommended to eat it more than a couple of times a month.
Nevertheless, over the past decades, a healthy lifestyle has formed an official list of "permanent enemies", where tobacco, alcohol, sugar and saturated fats are among the most dangerous (for natural unsaturated fats, the adherents of strict weight loss methods had claims, while the rest recognized olive oil and nuts). If the therapist recommended us to eat fat cottage cheese, and the yoga instructor advised to add ghee to the oatmeal, we noted that these are only exceptions to the general rule. And when next to the notes on how to replace the creamy filling in profiteroles with skim milk cream, began to justify "bad cholesterol", we, perhaps, stopped feeling guilty for another omelet, but for ourselves could only justify the eggs - no way not butter. News of another study proving that "a diet rich in fats reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases" was still equated with the spread of extremist statements directed against the order that has developed over the years. Indeed, over the past years, even non-interested persons were informed that fat is cholesterol, cholesterol is “plaque”, plaque is “heart disease”, and heart disease, according to WHO, is the most common cause of death on earth.
All last year, both popular sites and specialized medical resources have written about the end of the “war against fat”. However, the voices of bacon defenders reached the general public only last week. Their mouthpiece was the cover story of the authoritative TIME publication with an unequivocal removal of "Eat butter. Scientists declared fat to be the enemy. Why were they mistaken." The material explains how all these decades natural fatty products were replaced with industrial analogues with a lot of harmful components: if the butter was originally made only from cream, then the composition of any margarine takes up a few lines on the package. Due to the established "harmfulness" of animal fats, they were replaced year after year by artificial trans fats or other industrial additives, which in practice turned out to be much worse than the original components. Initially it was assumed that thanks to the criticism of fatty people will stop eating pork ribs and will switch to carrot sticks. Romantic food theory broke on a mountain of cookies and chocolate, which were used to “underwrite” the lack of taste sensations. Today TIMEs admit that they do not expect a quick change in attitudes towards the fats of the medical community. The reason is in the lobby of the pharmaceutical community, which is interested in selling cholesterol lowering drugs. They are immediately declared the main legalized drugs of our time.
Through the efforts of active Kisa, the theory that fats are the main cause of excess weight and health problems has become an axiom
There is a certain irony in this "exposure" of TIME, since it was they who in 1961 placed on the cover of Encel Keys - the very doctor whose erroneous conclusions sent the fats into a half-century exile. The reason for this was a study conducted after the Second World War and showed that in countries with high fat consumption are more common death from heart attacks. However, critics of Kish assured that he simply picked up regions that fit his theory, since there are many states (among them Germany, Sweden, Holland) where this connection is not traceable. As proof of the harmlessness of fats, it is also appropriate to cite one of the thinnest and most long-lived nationalities - the French: their recipes are easily recognized among all the others, since one and all start with the words "take a pound of butter."
Through the efforts of active Kisa, the theory that fats are the main cause of excess weight and health problems has become an axiom. After the publication in 1972 of the book "Diet Revolution" and the accusations of quackery Dr. Atkins for their recommendations to those who want to lose weight to eat unlimited fatty meat, cheese and bacon had to be justified in the US Congress. Of course, the Atkins diet is something to criticize today, but this is primarily due to the consumption of excess protein. A decade later, nothing has changed. In 1984, Time did it again - posted a cover story about the dangers of cholesterol. Only in the 90s, critics of low-fat products began to speak in the press in a confident voice, and with the advent of the 2000s they switched to an accusatory shout. In 2002, the landmark text "What if All That Was a Big Fat Lying?" Appeared in The New York Times. On the pages of the authoritative publication, Gehry Tobes blames the “low-fat diet” of the obesity epidemic - the lack of taste of low-fat foods is replaced by sugar and foods with a high starch content, which, in his opinion, is much more dangerous for health.
In the 2010s, even the popularity and effectiveness of the Dukan diet, which limits fats, but excludes carbohydrates, did not change the official position of the medical community - doctors still offer the good old diet, based on 60% of carbohydrates, and fats are minimized. And this year everyone finally waited for the results of a serious large-scale study. In March 2014, Annals of Internal Medicine published the results of the Cambridge University project, in which 32 studies were conducted with more than half a million participants. Conclusion: the data obtained do not indicate the effectiveness of reducing the consumption of saturated fats for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
Let's be honest with ourselves, until a certain - not the most fun - time, we are very concerned about health issues, and the question on how to get into jeans two sizes smaller is much sharper on the agenda. Because of these circumstances, many began to learn about changing strategies for fat, not through medical sites, but through weight loss programs. In Russia, film producer Sam Klebanov became a popularist for diets high in fat but low in carbohydrates. A week ago on the website of his project lchf.ru (Low Carbs High Fat) he published the text that became popular on social networks: “How I refused to eat sweet, fell in love with fat — and got rid of 14 kg.”
Fat! - from this single word, everyone by all means turned pale and settled on the floor, and now look out the window!
In the form of a diary with popular science notes Klebanov tells about the taste advantages of coffee with cream and the indisputable advantage of the most fat sour cream. In addition to the many enthusiastic cheers, followed by stinging statuses. Among them, Tatiana Tolstoy’s text describing the metamorphosis in the moods of a healthy lifestyle-concerned friends is quite accurate: “Fat!” From this single word everyone was pale and settled on the floor, and now look out the window! - everyone is interested in how to eat more fat - fat, butter, white frills from ham, which was previously cut off and pushed to the edge of the plate with fear. six percent ?! then sour cream at 30 percent, no, the lean won't go. "
It is obvious that after all these "revelations" we will be skeptical of any new theories about proper nutrition, even if they allow us to overeat cream cheese. In the end, if for 50 years everyone was mistaken about fat, who knows, maybe tomorrow we will be told about the benefits of sugar - after all, we have already been told about the “harm” of fruits. What remains for those who want to choose for themselves the ideal approach to the choice of products? Do not go to extremes. Learn to listen to your body and its reactions, not to look for ready-made universal recipes, but to take responsibility for your diet, weight, and health. True, now in anticipation of these wonderful decisions are allowed to eat omelet with cheese in butter.
PHOTO: 1, 2 via Shutterstock