Five Fat Lies: Why You Need Fat in Your Food.

“Seems like a lot of fat,” she commented dubiously.

My sister is afraid of fat.


Raise your hand if you are, too.

  • That little bit of fat floating in your canned beans.
  • The fat on the edge of your steak.
  • The fat in the sizzling bacon, in the chicken skin, in the ground beef.
  • The fat in real whipped cream.


For decades, we’ve been told that fat is the enemy.

Eat fat, get fat, right? Wrong.


We pass on butter and choose oily, bland margarine. We add skim milk or non-dairy “creamers” to our coffee. We breed and buy leaner and leaner meat. We throw away the chicken skin. We carve the fat off the steak. We buy 90% lean ground beef, then mop and toss the rendered fat.


As advised by the experts in our government and in the health industry, we have been eating less and less animal fat. Instead, we have been filling our plates with the rainbow: with fruit, veggies, and heart-healthy carbs.


And we are fatter and sicker than any generation in history.


  • 70% of Americans are overweight. 40% are obese. Over my lifetime, 60 years, obesity rates have tripled.



According to cardiologist and author Dr. William Davis, “…a low-fat diet is the diet you follow to create heart disease.”


The undeniable truth is that weight gain and poor health are not caused by consuming natural fat but instead are instead the result of eating refined carbohydrates and seed oils.


  • Maybe you know sugar is “bad,” and too many carbs cause weight gain.


  • Maybe you’ve learned to cook with avocado oil and olive oil instead of canola and other vegetable oils.


  • But have you made friends with fat?


Real health follows real nutrition. It is not sufficient to avoid the harmful foods; we must eat the healthy foods. That includes fat.

Our bodies are not designed to live on lettuce. Fats are essential! Avoid them at your peril.


Let’s look at a few of the dishonest claims demonizing this vital macronutrient.


False Claim 1: Eating Fat Makes You Fat

Truth: Good fats help you lose weight.


Eating fat does not make you fat.


Eating sugar and refined carbohydrates causes weight gain.


Worse, industrial seed oils marketed as “healthy” trigger hunger and cause chronic inflammation, the root of chronic disease.

Natural fats do the opposite! Natural fat conquers hunger and boosts metabolism.


So, which fats are good and which are bad?


Bad fats: The ones hailed as healthy —the industrial seed oils — are the bad fats. These include:

  • Corn oil
  • Canola oil (also known as rapeseed oil)
  • Cottonseed oil
  • Grapeseed oil
  • Soybean oil
  • Safflower oil
  • Sunflower oil
  • Vegetable oil


These seed oils are heavily processed, high in omega-6 fatty acids, and prone to oxidation, which can cause inflammation in the body.


Good fats: Natural fats that nourish your body and help you lose weight:


  • Animal-based fats: Lard, tallow, butter, cream, and fat from eggs


  • Fruit-based oils: olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil


Notice that while few will argue against olive oil, conventional wisdom is that animal-based fats are to be avoided. This is a lie of obscene magnitude.


Physician Dr. Mark Hyman, author of Eat Fat, Get Thin, argues that eating natural fats helps you lose weight by keeping you full longer, increasing fat burning, and reducing fat storage.

Want to lose weight? Eat fat.


False Claim 2: Fat is Bad for You

Truth: We need fat for good health.


Not only is fat crucial to human health, but it also plays essential roles in everything from brain function to organ protection. As Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Georgia Ede explains, “Fat is vital to human life and health.”


Consider these facts:

  • Our brains are 60% fat.


  • The heart prefers energy from fat.


  • Fat keeps our joints lubricated and cushions vital organs.


  • Many essential vitamins, like A, D, E, and K, cannot be absorbed without fat.


Natural fats are good for you. They are essential for health. In fact, eating natural fats protects against chronic conditions like Type 2 diabetes, dementia, and cancer.


Want health? Eat fat.


False Claim 3: Saturated Fat Causes Heart Disease

Truth: There is no evidence connecting saturated fat and heart disease.


What exactly is saturated fat? It’s the fat found in meat, eggs, dairy, and some fruit oils, like coconut oil. Despite decades of being demonized, there’s no reliable evidence linking saturated fat to heart disease.


This misconception originated with physiologist Ansel Keys, who conducted the infamous Seven Countries Study. His work was flawed, to put it kindly. Keys initially studied 22 countries but only used data from the seven that supported his hypothesis.


By the way, Keys’ data did reveal a link between smoking and heart disease. According to Dr. Cate Shanahan,

Keys was the first person to collect large amounts of data on the relationship between smoking and heart attacks. But Keys never talked about the smoking data he collected, and what was a very clear and very strong correlation between cigarette smoking and heart attacks wasn’t published until many years after the initial data was collected.


Instead of sounding the alarm on tobacco, Keys demonized fat. Both the government and the American Heart Association (AHA) promoted his novel low-fat diet.


Keys was not the only voice in the health space. Contemporary British physiologist John Yudkin challenged Keys. He asserted that sugar — not fat — was the primary driver of heart disease and other health problems like obesity and diabetes.


Unfortunately, Yudkin’s work was dismissed for decades. Why? Perhaps due to pressure from the sugar lobby that funded studies that discredited Yudkin’s findings and supported Keys’ conclusions.


Modern research supports Yudkin’s claims. A 2019 analysis by the NutriRECS Consortium reported that the dangers of red and processed meat are overstated. Previous studies were based on flawed observational data. Their conclusion?


Eating meat and saturated fat does not cause heart disease.


False Claim 4: Fat-free Plants Are Health Food

Truth: Plants are far less nutritious than meat.


Everyone “knows” that eating a healthy diet means loading up on fruits, vegetables, and grains, right?


Wrong.


While switching to a plant-based diet from a diet high in ultra-processed foods will improve health, there is little evidence that eating plants is optimal for human health. In fact, plant-based diets have many drawbacks.


  • Plant-based diets are typically deficient in key nutrients like vitamin B12, iron, zinc, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin D. This deficiency can lead to serious health issues, such as anemia, bone fractures, and cognitive problems.


  • Many plants contain anti-nutrients. Anti-nutrients are compounds that interfere with the absorption of essential minerals. You might be consuming your minimum daily requirements, but your cells don’t receive the benefit.



  • Many vegetables contain harmful lectins. Dr. Gundry explains that to dissuade animals, including humans, from pulling off leaves and digging up roots, many plants contain lectins. Eating lectins can trigger weight gain, inflammation, and illness.



Why do we persist in thinking a salad topped with (likely) seed-oil-based dressing is healthy? Is it even possible to get complete nutrition for humans from a plant-based diet?


The answer appears to be no.


While a plant-based diet is an improvement over a diet full of ultra-processed foods, plants are not a good source of nutrition for humans.


False Claim 5: Humans Don’t Need Meat

Truth: Meat is the ultimate superfood.


Humans are biologically designed to eat meat. Think about it: How do populations living in harsh, cold environments like the Arctic survive? Thrive, even?


They eat meat, rich in protein and fat.


Dr. Georgia Ede: Meat is the original superfood.


Meat is always available. Lettuce is not.


Meat is easy to digest, contains all essential amino acids, and offers nutrients that are difficult or impossible to get from plants in sufficient quantities, such as EPA and DHA (omega-3s vital for brain function).


Dr. Ede highlights that animal fats support brain health. Some essential nutrients found in animal fats are either less bioavailable or completely absent in plant sources. Importantly, she has seen significant improvements in her patients’ mental health after they adopt low-carb, animal-based diets.


Dr. Elizabeth Bright emphasizes that animal fats are essential for all, but especially for women. In her book Good Fat is Good for Women, she discusses how fats are crucial for hormone production, menopause support, nutrient absorption, mood and energy stability, and thyroid function.


To sum up the benefits of eating meat, Dr. Ede writes:


Animal foods (particularly when organ meats are included) contain all of the protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals that humans need to function.They contain absolutely everything we need in just the right proportions.


It is difficult to gain complete human nutrition from plants alone.

Conversely, meat delivers complete nutrition, is easily digested, and has no detrimental side effects.


Conclusion

My sister is afraid of fat.


It’s not her fault.


We are all fat and sick because we have been lied to. For generations.


The true culprits behind weight gain and chronic disease are refined carbs and industrial seed oils. Not fat.


Natural fats, fats from animal sources, play critical roles in metabolic health and brain function.


Eating fat can make you thin.


And eating fat can make you healthy.


It’s time to reprogram our minds and unlearn everything we’ve been told about fat. It’s time to embrace the foods that have nourished humanity for centuries: protein and natural fats.


They’re not just good for you — they’re essential to living a healthy, vibrant life.


So eat the fat. Get healthy. Be the hero of your life!


And as always,

Stay strong, wise, kind, and good.



Note: This story was first published October 31, 2024 in Long. Sweet. Valuable. on Medium: 5 Big Fat Lies About Fat.


Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, not a scientist, not a nutritionist. I am just a late boomer sharing what I’ve learned on my journey to good health through good food.


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I am a late boomer spreading the gospel of good health through good food. My bona fides? Beating back Alzheimer's by eating clean low-carb. And dropping weight effortlessly as a bonus.


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