Sugar is the problem -- not fat. Years of advice to choose low-fat and fat-free foods does not appear to have been based on sound research…
New Canadian research found no significant association between eating more than the recommended amount of fat (30% of total calories) and developing heart disease or having a stroke. In fact, they found that those who got 35% of their energy from fat had a lower overall risk of dying than those who ate less than the recommended 30%!
In addition, they found that the low-fat diets recommended to us for many years have resulted in many people overeating carbohydrates, resulting in a higher risk of dying when their carbohydrate intake exceeded 60% of their total calories. Replacement of dietary fat with sugary carbohydrate is also being suggested as a cause of the current increased rates of obesity.
Scientists lead by nutritional epidemiology expert, Mahshid Dehghan at McMaster University in Hamiltion, Ontario, studied diets of 135,000 people in 18 countries for an average of 7 years. She observed “When you recommend lowering fat, by default, people increase their carbohydrate consumption, and increasing consumption of carbohydrates results in higher risk of mortality.”
Study in Japan
This Canadian finding agrees with another article I recently read describing how the stroke rate in Japan dramatically fell almost 6-fold from 1,334 to 226 per 100,000 between 1958 and 1999, after the government encouraged the population to increase their intake of fat. Cholesterol levels rose from an average of 3.9mm/l to 4.9mmol/l due to dietary fat rising from 5% to 20% of total calories. Heart disease rates, interestingly, also decreased although not as dramatically. This is a stark contrast to our current recommendations to lower cholesterol in the blood as much as possible to reduce the risk of heart disease…but more about that in a future blog!
Population studies
Studies of diets from diverse healthy populations suggest that there is not one single “best” diet. The high-fat diets of the Innuit of the north, the Maasai tribes of Africa and the French in France seem as healthy for their populations as the low-fat Mediterranean diet of Italy.
This has lead some to speculate that it is not so much what we eat (as long as the diet is a traditional balanced one) but how much we eat and how we eat. Avoiding overeating and enjoying food in a relaxed environment with family or friends (rather than eating on the run or in your car!) seem to be positive factors for overall health too!
Canada Food Guide 2018
Even our Canada Food Guide is being revised…and I hear the meat and dairy industries are not happy with the plans. Although the new finalized guide will only be released in two stages over 2018 -19, Health Canada says less emphasis will be placed on individual nutrients and more will be placed on:
avoiding processed foods (that commonly have added sugar, trans fats, salt and other ingredients),
reducing consumption of sugary drinks, and
limiting portion sizes.
This seems to agree with other experts like University of Toronto’s nutritional scientist, Richard Bazinet who advises “Moderation is the solution. Don’t eat too much of any single thing” and Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: “Eat food (real food, not processed). Mostly plants. And not too much.” Check out my previous blog on his Food Rules here.
It seems difficult to understand why low-fat diets have been recommended for so long – some suggest that influence from the sugar and grain industries may have been a factor. Currently, news outlets have reported meat and dairy industry lobbyists are “up in arms” against the suggestion that the new Canada Food Guide may decrease emphasis on consumption of these food groups.
However, the purpose of any food guide or advice is to improve the health of a population, not to support food industries. Health Canada has stated that it will not be consulting with food producers, although they are permitted to engage in open public consultations.
Trans fats
When it comes to fats, however, there seems no question that trans fats should be avoided. Trans fats, also known as hydrogenated oils, are stable artificially created fats that have been used to extend the shelf-life of processed foods...good for food, but not good for our health! Trans fat content appears on food labels so you can avoid buying foods containing these fats, and some governments are moving to ban these completely from food!
Trans fats often occur in foods that also contain saturated fats and may be responsible for the bad reputation assigned to saturated fat. Wikipedia has an interesting summary of studies comparing the effect of saturated fat (SFA) with unsaturated fat (PUFA). At the very least, one could say there is conflicting evidence when it comes to the dangers of saturated fat, with newer studies being less likely to find that fat in the diet has any effect on heart disease. It will be interesting to see what the new Food Guide recommends as an ideal amount of fat in the diet, considering the results of new studies!
Have you been cutting fat out of your diet? Leave a comment below!
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