{"id":36470,"date":"2013-05-27T08:46:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T07:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/paranoia-about-fats-is-driven-by-junk-science\/36470\/"},"modified":"2013-05-27T08:46:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T07:46:11","slug":"paranoia-about-fats-is-driven-by-junk-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/paranoia-about-fats-is-driven-by-junk-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Paranoia About Fats Is Driven by Junk Science"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Kritchanut\/ Shutterstock.com<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

May 23, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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You\u2019ve heard about omega-3s. You probably know you need to eat them. You\u2019ve likely heard that they\u2019re found in fish. But odds are, there\u2019s a lot more you need to know about this family of healthy fats. <\/p>\n

Over the last century, Americans have become increasingly confused about fats. Travel back to the Little House on the Prairie, and you\u2019d find Americans happily adding lard, cream and butter to their food. In the 20th century, these saturated animal fats went out of vogue, and \u201chealthier\u201d products like margarine graced American tables instead. Today, no healthy eater would touch the trans-fats in margarine \u2014 although they might opt for a trans-fat-free margarine made with palm oil instead. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the right answer? And where do omega-3s fit in? As you\u2019ll see, while we need omega-3 rich foods in our diet, the bottom line is that we must eat less of another kind of fat, omega-6s, to get the benefit of the omega-3s. <\/p>\n

We Don\u2019t Need Fat\u2026Do We?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To understand Americans\u2019 troubled relationship with fat, one must begin when scientists first identified that food was made from protein, carbohydrates and fat. Our bodies can turn carbs into fat, they figured, so we don\u2019t actually need fat to survive. Wrong! But it wasn\u2019t easy to prove this, at least until modern medicine perfected intravenous feeding (total parenteral nutrition, in hospital-speak). <\/p>\n

After scientist Ralph Holman\u2019s mother fell ill and ultimately died after a long period receiving fat-free intravenous nutrition, Holman researched<\/a> the role of fat in human nutrition. He was convinced that certain fats \u2014 essential fatty acids \u2014 are needed for humans to survive. But he had not been able to prove it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHolman watched helplessly as [his mother] died of the very deficiency that he was working to prevent,\u201d wrote Susan Allport in The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed From the Western Diet and What We Can Do To Replace Them<\/em>. Holman lost his mother, but with her death, he proved humans must eat certain fats to survive. <\/p>\n

Bad Science Gets Popularized<\/strong><\/p>\n

Careful scientists often assume that there is still plenty we do not know, refraining from making public recommendations until all of the facts are in. (For an example of this, see the recent Michael Pollan article<\/a> about microbes\u2019 role in human health; he emphasizes that the science is so new there aren\u2019t many concrete recommendations yet.) But every now and again, a charismatic and arrogant scientist will popularize a current working theory, right or wrong. <\/p>\n

Such was the case with Ancel Keys, nicknamed \u201cMonsieur Cholesterol\u201d for popularizing the term and pontificating against it. President Eisenhower had a heart attack in 1955, and suddenly the entire nation was interested in cardiovascular health. Keys had the answer: don\u2019t eat fat. He later amended this to an also overly simplified mantra of \u201csaturated fat, bad; unsaturated fat, good.\u201d <\/p>\n

An obedient nation swapped out butter and lard for unsaturated vegetable oils, especially soybean oil. (Soybean oil is often labeled \u201cvegetable oil\u201d at the store.) But unsaturated vegetable oils are not all equal. They might be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Within the polyunsaturated fats, there are omega-6s and omega-3s. And even within those categories, there are different fats with different properties. (You may have heard of the highly sought-after omega-3s EPA and DHA.) <\/p>\n

Fat Chemistry 101<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fats are easier to understand once you have a very basic idea of their chemical structure. To grossly oversimplify, fats are basically long chains of carbons connected mostly by single bonds. Scientists classify fats by the number of carbons in the chain, the number of double bonds between the carbons, and the placement of these double bonds. <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Kritchanut\/ Shutterstock.com May 23, 2013 \u00a0| Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. You\u2019ve heard about omega-3s. You probably know you need to eat them. You\u2019ve likely heard that they\u2019re found in fish. But odds are, there\u2019s a lot more you need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}