Saturated fat causes heart disease, eh? I wonder who told us that?

[Warpy]

37. Well, it sort of does, but all saturated fats aren't alike

Once they started to investigate why heavy meat eaters who avoided processed food like bakery goods and snack foods generally didn't develop the same degree of arterial plaque they were seeing even in children, they realized the devastating effect that trans fats (used to prolong shelf life and not found in nature) were having on the human body. So yes, saturated fats are implicated but not the natural ones like lard and butter.

As to the effect the grants from the Sugar Association had on research, it was rather like the effect the grants from Big Tobacco had on tobacco research, biased "studies" were done but the erroneous conclusion that animal fats were the sole culprit was well on its way long before they came through. Only when diabetes research (which the Sugar Association didn't have a prayer of affecting) and cardiovascular research met in the middle as metabolic syndrome was defined did they know that saturated fats weren't working alone.

So what's the solution? I like Pollan's advice: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. You can't go wrong doing that.

Also realize that science is a process. A hundred years from now, people will wonder why we were silly enough to focus on carbs as the demons in our diets.