Fat Chance
Health commentator James Brunton discusses the Health commentator James Brunton discusses ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ fat.
A recent Government health announcement – yes, another blanket statement – was about removing saturated fat from the diet to lower cholesterol and improve cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.
Let’s begin with the idea that saturated fat causes heart attacks. Over the past hundred years consumption of animal fat and butter has decreased drastically – some say by as much as 80 per cent. Therefore you might expect a similar reduction in heart attacks. Not so. Heart attack numbers just keep increasing.
What has gone up is the consumption of refined poly-unsaturated oils, trans-fatty acids and refined sugars. Perhaps there is a link there? And then there’s stress, smoking, over-eating - a whole host of other things which can affect your health.
What if you go along with the edict that saturated fat causes heart attacks and decide to cut your fat intake? Chefs tell us fat is what gives food its flavour. Take out the fat – no flavour. As you peruse the shelves for ‘low fat’ versions of your favourite foods, do you wonder what they put in to get the flavour back once they’ve taken the fat out? Salt? Sugar? Extra carbohydrate? MSG? Check the labels first.
The fact is, we all need some saturated fat in our diet. It protects and improves liver function and is found in cell membranes. If you cut down too much, your health will suffer anyway. Fats should be part of a healthy diet. The key is not going to either extreme of eating too much or too little.