The Man Who Screwed Up the Research on Fat for Decades

If you ever wonder, "what fats are healthy for me to eat", that's because one man heavily influenced the scienrific study of lipids (fats). And he did so in a way that caused most of the world to become preoccupied with and fearful of dietary fat, especially saturated fat ...

... while being inappropriately enamored with industrial seed oils.

Starting in the middle of the 20th century, Ancel Keyes created and pushed his "diet heart hypothesis" that blamed a high fat diet and saturated fat for causing heart disease. His ideas have dominated science, public policy, media, medicine, and public mindshare when it comes to nutrition for more than half a century.

At this point, Keyes' scientific flaws (selection bias in study designs) and frauds (throwing away data that didn't support his hypothesis) have been exposed and his ideas thoroughly disproven. But not all scientists, policy makers, doctors, other health practitioners, or health space influencers know this.

Bio-Individual Response to Fats

And it never even made sense to look for a single dietary villain or think about the health effects of dietary fat outside of the context of bio-individuality because different people respond differently to different fats.

In fact, a researcher that was a contemporary of Ancel Keyes found "heterogeneity" among responses of people to various types of fats. In other words, he found that different people respond differently to different fats.

Saturated vs Polyunsaturated Fat

But the research community ignored that and fixated on the general pattern that saturated fats increase cholesterol, and polyunsaturated fats lower it. And although the cholesterol-raising effect of saturated fat might seem like a bad thing, and the cholesterol-lowering effect of polyunsaturated fats might seem like a good thing, this is actually not the case. 

HDL vs LDL

First, saturated fats elevate HDL more than LDL, creating a cholesterol profile that research now suggests is healthier. That's because HDL is in general the "good" cholesterol while LDL is in general the "bad" cholesterol.

The level of HDL has been determined to be far more important than the level of LDL when it comes to cardiovascular health. In other words, an increase in HDL is generally more beneficial than an increase in LDL might be detrimental.

Furthermore, a study showed that low HDL (<35 mg/dl) created an eight times higher risk of heart disease than high HDL (>65 mg/dl). So there is far more reason to be concerned about low HDL than high HDL.

And because HDL is far more important than LDL, we should be more concerned about low HDL than high LDL. We should be more focused on raising HDL than on lowering LDL. And saturated fat is one of the only foods known to reliably increase HDL while a low-fat diet reduces HDL.

But if you're still worried about raising your total cholesterol, please know that low cholesterol is linked to more maladies than high cholesterol. For example, a study showed that men with cholesterol lower than 190 had three times the risk of colon cancer as men with cholesterol above 220.

Polunsaturated Fats from Seed Oils

While polyunsaturated fats (from seed oils) lower cholesterol, they increase mortality from heart attacks, cancer, and stroke! More on that later, but the great irony is that the increased mortality from heart attacks from higher consumption of polyunsaturated fats was shown in at least one study attempting to show the benefit of reducing saturated fat and increasing polyunsaturated fats. The study demonstrated the exact opposite of what the researchers expected!

But did the world ever hear about that? Nope. Because it didn't fit the hypothesis that everybody was so sure had to be true, evidence be damned.

Can Saturated Fat Make You Harder to Kill?

In a study where animals were made "EFA deficient", meaning deficient in omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), the animals were remarkably resilient to all kinds of assault. They were able to tolerate 7x the lethal dose of radiation and withstand 20 times the LD50 of endotoxin / lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The LD50 is the dose that would normally kill half of the animals.

And carbon tetrachloride could not create liver cancer in these animals. They were also very resilient to neuodegenerative disease. Clearly, they gained superior health and resilience in many ways by reducing polyunsaturated fats.

Although the study pertained to animals, not people, and the study did not compare restriction of high-quality PUFAs (EPA, DHA, and arachidonic acid) to restriction of low-quality PUFAs (linoleic acid from seed oils)., the study demonstrates something profound that should be further investigated.

So what does this have to do with saturated fat? 

The animals were made "EFA deficient" via either a very high-carb low-fat diet, or a diet that only provided saturated fats. When a mammal consumes more carbohydrate than it needs for immediate energy needs, and it has maximized its capacity to store the extra carbohydrate as glycogen, it turns the rest of the extra carbohydrate into saturated fat (palmitic and stearic acid) and can then convert some of these saturated fat into monounsaturated fat (oleic acid, the monunsaturated fat prevalent in olive oil). 

So either way, via a high-carb low-fat diet, or a diet that only supplies saturated fat, the bottom line is that that the fat in the bodies of the "harder to kill" animals in the study contained less polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) and more saturated fat and monounsaturated fat. 

But why would having more saturated fat in their bodies make the animals in the study so hard to kill?

Cardiolipin in the Mitochondria

Cardiolipin is a key phospholipid in the inner mitochondrial membranes that stabilizes the all-important energy-producing complexes in mitochondrial membranes. One of the main causes of oxidative damage to lipids like cardiolipin is the lipid peroxidation byproducts of oxidized PUFAs, including compounds like malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4hydroxynonenol (HNE) that proliferate under conditions of excess PUFA content in cell membranes.

By decreasing PUFAs and increasing SFAs (saturated fats) and MUFAs (monunsaturated fats) in the bodies of the study animals, cardiolipin was probably exposed to less oxidative stress and damage. If this research translates to humans, and it probably does, then reducing PUFAs and oxidative stress in the membranes of your mitochondria could make you harder to kill.

And it appears that you can get there with either a high-carb, low-fat diet or a diet that only delivers saturated fat (or probably also a diet that delivers a lot of saturated fat but not exclusively saturated fat). And your bio-individuality would determine which dietary approach would be best for you.

In case you're wondering, "Doesn't the research show that saturated fat causes inflammation and all kinds of disease?" Part of the answer is that much of the research that suggested that saturated fat is problematic was done on rodents, and the diets high in "saturated fat" given to the rodents delivered "saturated fat" from hydrogenated oils (full of trans fats) or from pork lard that contained a lot of PUFAs and not exclusively saturated fat.

Furthermore, the diets given to the rodents also included sugar. In other words, these diets were the rat chow version of processed junk food. These studies did not test a diet high in saturated fat from grass fed animals that avoided pairing saturated fat with sugar. If the rodents had been fed natural saturated fat, without sugar, the outcomes would probablyy have been quite different.

If you're still concerned about saturated fat, do on an online search for "saturated fat no longer a nutrient of concern". You will find many articles calling for an end to limits on dietary saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. That said, in certain situations you may have an unhealthy response to saturated fat.

Situations Requiring Restrictions on Saturated Fat

When a person has intestinal hyperpermeability or certain genetics. In the presence of intestinal hyperpermeability, saturated fat can transport more endotoxin / lipopolysaccharide into the body, and endotoxin promotes inflammation. On the other hand, saturated fat largely neutralizes the proinflammatory influence of endotoxin and delivers it to the place in the body most equiped to further neutralize endotoxin, the liver.

Certain variants of the PPARGC1A can promote a hyperglycemic, pro-inflammatory response to long-chain saturated fats and carbohydrates in the presencde of long-chain saturated fats. This problem can potentially be avoided by not consuming saturated fat at the same time with sugar or starch. Or people with this genetic variant may in fact need to avoid long-chain saturated fats (from animal foods) but can probably do fine with short-chain saturated fats (e.g. from coconut oil).

From Bulletproof to Radiation Proof?

Incidentally, biohacker and author Dave Asprey has delved deeply into the science on mitochondria, and in his new book, Smarter, Not Harder, he recommends that the fat in your diet consist of 75% saturated and 25% monounsaturated, with only a small amount of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). He didn't say whether this recommendation is based on his knowledge of mitochondria, but I suspect that it is. 

I guess it's not enough for Dave to be Bulletproof. He also wants to be radiation proof. Recalling the fact that rodents made "EFA-deficient" via diets devoid of PUFAs were able to tolerate 7x the lethal dose of radiation, perhaps Dave's dietary recommendations are designed to prepare the body to be more resilient to radiation. After all, he was living on the West Coast of the United States of America, which receives a heavy dose of radiation from the failed nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan. And he has more recently moved inland to Texas..

On the other hand, who needs a specific rationale for becoming harder to kill, especially if your publicly-stated health goal is to live to 180, as Dave aspires to do?

Do Seed Oil PUFAs Cause Heart Attacks, Stroke, Cancer, and Diabetes?

In addition to the fact that research has repeatedly shown that increasing dietary PUFAs (specifically omega-6 fats from industrial seed oils) increases heart attacks, other research in Japan has shown that it increases stroke and cerebral hemorrhage. So clearly it has a negative effect on the lining of blood vessels. 

The reason for this is most likely the fact that some of the oxidized products of PUFAs are aldehydes, and these aldehydes comprise much of the substance in atherosclerotic plaques. These aldehydes are a key driver of cardiovascular disease.

In addition, these aldehydes have a strong anti-metabolic effect that raises blood sugar, contributing to the risk of diabetes.

Furthermore, omega-6 PUFAs mimic estrogen, which increases lipolysis, the process of burning fat for energy. When too much lipolysis is going on, glucose cannot be burned and accumulates as high blood sugar, which over time can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. In contrast, saturated fatty acids (SFAs) inhibit lipolysis.

In addition, the inflammatory effects of omega-6 PUFAs increase cortisol, which causes the release of more free fatty acids, leading to more lipolysis and less metabolism of glucose. Free fatty acids and cortisol also interfere with the insulin receptor, thereby promoting insulin resistance and diabetes.  

Elevated intake of omega-6 PUFAs also increases the incidence of liver conditions like gallstones, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and cirrhosis. And mice showed greater tumor growth when consuming corn oil, a very PUFA-rich oil.

Seed Oil PUFAs Are Everywhere, Even at Whole Foods Market

Omega-6 PUFAs in seed oils like canola, soy, corn, safflower, and cottonseed are in all processed foods, including almost all prepared food at Whole Foods. Whole Foods puts canola oil in nearly everything.

Meat from animals raised conventionally instead of on pastures is also high in omega-6 PUFAs. Animals raised conventionally are fed omega-6-PUFA-rich, gyphosate-laden GMO grains, GMO soy,, and GMO seed oils. 

Healthy PUFAs

Keep in mind that I'm mainly referring to vegetable / seed oils rich in omega-6 PUFAs like linoleic acid. Because of how these oil are processed, they are typically already oxidized before you even eat them. And they also contain other processing byproducts like esterified polyunsaturated fatty acids.

On the other hand, foods rich in omega-3 PUFAs like EPA and DHA (e.g. fish) are some of the healthiest foods you can eat. And a moderate quantity of eggs, nuts, and seeds can be healthy despite the fact that most are high in the omega-6 fat linoleic acid. So go easy on them until you have a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 PUFAs of 4:1 or less. And most people would do well to consume more saturated fat than these polyunsaturated fats if they don't have the contraindications for consuming saturated fat discussed earlier in this post.

Again, I'm also not saying to not consume any omega-6 PUFAs. You need an appropriate amount of omega-6 PUFAs in a safe form. But most people have been getting far too much omega-6 PUFA and getting it from unsafe forms. Even people who eat "healthy" are often loading up on too much omega-6 PUFAs, usually from seeds, seed oils, and foods containing seed oils. 

The safest and most healthy way to obtain omega-6 PUFA is from whole animal foods like eggs. And some people don't have the genetics to convert the plant omega-6 PUFAs (e.g. linoleic acid) to the omega-6 PUFAs the body can use (e.g. arachidonic acid). So they must get their omega-6 fats from animal foods.

Your Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio

If you have chronic illness involving inflammation, there is a strong chance that your ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 PUFAs is too high and that your excess of omega-6 PUFAs came from seed oils and animals fed seeds and seed oils. These PUFAs from seed oils are easily oxidized in your body (or were already oxidized when you eat them), and this generates aldehydes that damage your arteries and promote diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease. 

The bottom line is that you need to test your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio and your genetics and eat according. If your ratio is too high,  you must cut way back on sources of omega-6 fatty acids and increase sources of omega-3 fatty acids. 

Can Some of the Fats Made By Your Body Kill You?

For decades, scientists' focus on dietary fats completely obscurred more important factors, such as fats produced in our own bodies in response to high carbohydrate consumption. They are called triglycerides. 

One researcher that focused on triglycerides found a greater association between triglycerides and coronary illness. He also showed how triglycerides cloud blood plasma, whereas people on a high fat diet in most cases showed clear plasma. And when people who had blood plasma cloudy with triglycerides reduced their intake of dietary carbohydrates. their blood plasma cleared up.

Triglycerides are not inherently bad. The body needs them. They only become problematic when their level in blood gets too high. The main modifiable causes of high blood triglycerides include diets high in sugar, smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and being overweight. These factors increase the production of triglycerides or slow down the body's constructive use of triglycerides, or both.

Can Olive Oil Ever Be Bad for You?

Olive oil is widely considered a very healthy oil. And it does appear to provide health benefits, many of them stemming from the polyphenols in it. However, some people cannot process phenols well and could have challenges with the polyphenols in olive oil.

Thie issue is that the body processes phenols via the process of sulfation. And this requires sulfate. But some people are sulfate deficient, possibly due to an inefficient version of an enzyme called sulfite oxidase that creates sulfate from sulfite. The cofactor for this enzyme is the mineral molybdenum. So a deficiency of molybdenum could also slow down the function of this enzyme.

And if phenols are not efficiently processed via sulfation and accumulate in the body, they can cause various problems. One problem that phenol accumulation can cause is an imbalance in the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine, which can cause a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms from anxiety to schizophrenia.

So although olive oil is generally a health oil to consume, the polyphenols in olive oil can be problematic for some people.

Another potential issue with olive oil that everybody needs to be aware of is the fact that oil marketed as olive oil is not always actually olive oil. There is a whole industry based on creating fake olive oil. They either dilute olive oil with a less expensive oil like soybean oil and add flavoring to keep it tasting like olive oil, or the oil is entirely fake.

So you need to determine whether the olive oil you want to consume is authentic. This is not always easy to do., but you can typically rely on the reputation of a brand that is well-known. And olive oils will in general congeal in a refrigerator because it is composed largely of monounsaturated fat, which congeals at refrigerator temperatures.

On the other hand, polyunsaturated oils will typically not congeal in a refrigerator. But this is not a perfect test because it depens on the temperature of the refrigerator and other characteristics of the oil, like how much of the natural olive waxes the oil contains. So sometimes olive oil may not congeal in a refrigerator.

Fats as Functional Foods

You have probably been programmed to think of fats as a dense source of calories, but fats are so much more than that. Fats are functional foods. They are not always burned as fat. In fact, the higher quality PUFA fats like EPA, DHA, and arachidonic acid are probably almost never metabolized for energy because they are too valuable to not put them to use in roles such as functional components of cell membranes.

Even fats that can be involved in inflammatory processes are absolutely essential to health. For example, arachidonic acid, is an omega-6 fatty acid that is involved in inflammatory processes and is very important to immunity for that very reason. Acute inflammation is essential to health and survival, so we need arachidonic acid. 

But what many people do not realize is that arachidonic acid is also essential in the process of resolving inflammation. In other words, it does not have only pro-inflammatory roles. It also has an anti-inflammatory role.

Arachidonic acid is also an important constituent of phospholipids like phosphatidylcholine and is essential to neurological health. 

Some people have genetic variants that impair their ability to make arachidonic acid from the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid found in plants, so these peope must get arachidonic acid from animal foods. 

Anybody with a chronic health challenge needs to test their essential fatty acid levels tested and have their DNA analyzed in order to determine whether or not their current diet is supplying them the right fatty acids in the right ratios to thrive.

The Bio-Individuality of Fat Nutrition

The great flaw of most nutritional science is that it seeks "one-size-fits-all" answers for everything, even though there have been many clues along the way that different people have different requirements and different responses to different foods. 

And differences in requirements and response to foods among people plays out as different health outcomes in response to nutritional inputs.

We all can benefit greatly from "looking under the hood" at our actual nutritional status, rather than assuming that the "healthy diet" we are following and the supplements we are taking are actually sufficient for our unique requirements and responses. 

Genetic factors can affect things like how well you utilize plant-derived fats and how fats affect your glycemic response to carbohydrates. So analyzing your genetics is also a key step in making your nutrition compatible with your bio-individuality.

Moreover, your metabolic type affects how much fat you should consume overall. For example, people with a fast oxidizer metabolic type need to eat far more fat in their diet than those with a slow oxidizer metabolic type.

If all of this sounds complicated, well, it is. And it's only one aspect of what might need to be addressed in order for you to recover from a chronic condition that has not yet been solved by all of your practitioners and DIY efforts. 

This is where the Bio-Individual Blueprint may be able to help. It's a system I created to look systematically at many factors that contribute to dysfunction in the body and guide you back to full health. To learn more about the system, download it here and watch the walkthrough video.