Any reasonably aware person knows that it’s important to maintain a healthy diet. High on the list of what “healthy eating” means is limiting the amount of saturated fat in your diet. This impacts all the meat and dairy products you consume. You should only drink reduced-fat milk for example. If you must eat meat, make sure it’s lean, and never eat something obviously fatty like bacon. This isn’t just something experts say at their conferences. It’s the official recommendation of all government bodies, and brought to the attention of ordinary people by nutrition labels on food products. Warning: there are contrarian views on this subject.
Cheese
Here’s a nice goat cheese I bought:
When you turn it over, here’s most of the nutrition label:
Wow, calories must be important – they’re first and in big type. Right after calories comes Fat. It must be really important, because I’m told not just how much fat there is, but how much of the fat I’m allowed to eat a day is in each serving.
This is interesting. There’s 6 grams of Total Fat, which is only 8% of my daily allowance, but 4 grams of the Fat is Saturated Fat, 2/3 of the total, and that’s 20% of my daily allowance. Couldn’t be clearer: I can eat a fair amount of fat, but I’d better make sure that only a tiny part of it is Saturated. Doing the arithmetic, they only want me to eat 20 grams of Saturated fat, while I’m allowed 76 grams of Total Fat.
I wonder if I’m getting this right, because some of those labels seem like things you should get lots of, like vitamins and potassium. I’d better check.
FDA
Oh, good, the FDA’s food label page links right to a whole initiative they sponsor, the Healthy People initiative! How great is that, they’re concentrating on the big picture, keeping us all healthy. What a great government we have!
Here’s what they have to say about diet at a high level:
Pretty clear, huh? Just like I said above: eat only lean meat, and low fat dairy. Saturated fats are bad for you. Everyone knows it. The importance is so great, it’s on the label of nearly every food product.
American Heart Association (AHA)
Let’s admit it, though, sometimes the government lags behind the latest science. Let’s make sure that’s not the case here.
What about the major medical organization that concentrates on heart, the American Heart Association? Their position seems very clear:
They sound pretty sure about themselves. Why are they so certain? Here's what they say as of November 2021: "Decades of sound science has proven it can raise your 'bad' cholesterol and put you at higher risk of heart disease."
OK, there are decades of science backing them up. Still, it's pretty broad, talking about not eating "too much" saturated fat. Do they have something more specific to say? Here it is:
Hmm, how does that relate to the FDA's food label? On the cheese label above, the Saturated Fat was 4g, which is 20% of the recommended total. Arithmetic: if 4g is 20%, then 20g is the limit imposed by the FDA, which is almost 50% more than the professional organization of medical cardiologists recommends! I thought our government was looking out for our health -- the FDA should get with it!
Harvard
Hold on here, let's not jump to conclusions. Let's check in with that incredibly prestigious medical school, Harvard Medical School?
Here’s what they have to say in an article from November 2021:
Isn't it wonderful that they make it clear that it isn't just bacon and fatty cheese we need to be careful about? Reading a bit further,
Higher than the AHA, but lower than the FDA. I guess they don't all read the same scientific studies, or something. But at least they all agree that Saturated Fat is bad for you. Reading a bit farther in the article, they say plainly that eating too much Saturated Fat "can raise the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol in your blood. That, in turn, promotes the buildup of fatty plaque inside arteries — the process that underlies most heart disease."
Couldn’t be clearer.
Mayo Clinic
Just to be absolutely, double-plus positive, maybe it's worth checking one of the best hospital medical systems in the world, the Mayo Clinic. They're doctors, after all, not researchers or institutional employees. Let's see what they say. OMG! Look at what I found in the section on nutrition myths!
Eating fat will make you fat. The fat-free and low-fat diet trend is a thing of the past (80s and 90s, to be exact). Yet, some individuals are still scared of fat.
Isn't that what all this focus on fat avoidance is all about? Let's read on:
Be aware that fats aren’t created equal. Choose heart-healthy unsaturated fats, such as olive and canola oil, nuts, nut butters and avocados over those that are high in saturated and trans fats, including fatty meats and high-fat dairy products.
Now I get it. The FDA nutrition food label had a high limit for fats in general (which are OK), but a low limit for saturated fats, the bad kind. So the Mayo Clinic is on board too. All the experts agree!
Conclusion
There are crazy people out there who ignore the clear message of the government, the Experts and leading authorities in the field of health and nutrition. Some of these crazy people even write books, the obvious intent of which is to make more of the population lead crappier lives and die sooner. Here's a brief summary. Why the FDA, the agency supposedly charged with keeping us healthy, permits these health-destroying, misinformation-filled books to be published, I have no idea.
Regardless of the distractions: government and the big authorities in the field are united in the effort to keep us all more healthy by encouraging us all to strictly limit the amount of Saturated Fat we eat.
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