Nutrition Myth: Fats Are Bad
The traditional way to lose weight for many years was to subject oneself to a low-fat diet. Yet, current evidence suggests that low-fat and low-carb diets produce similar effects given the same caloric deficit and protein intake.
Also, while low-fat diets are not exactly unhealthy, removing ALL fat from your diet can be dangerous because your body needs to consume at least SOME omega fatty acids.
As far as saturated fat being a driver of cardiovascular disease, a high saturated fat diet CAN increase LDL-C, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
But, saturated fatty acids are a heterogeneous group of fatty acids, and not all foods rich in saturated fat increase LDL, including cheese and chocolate.
Essentially, not all saturated fats are bad, they’re only one piece of the “fats” puzzle, and it’s essential to consider the overall dietary pattern. Trans fat is the only type of fat that is categorically dangerous to health.
The trans fat you need to stay away from is a side-effect of partially hydrogenated oils.
This kind of trans fat was once a standard ingredient in processed foods, so common that trans fat consumption was linked to more than half a million coronary heart disease deaths worldwide in 2010 alone.
Partially hydrogenated fats, the chief source of industrially produced trans fat, were banned in our country in 2015, and all products were phased out by June 2018.
