Is Fat Bad for You?

Is Fat Bad for You?

Finishing American Bresse Chickens adds fat to the chicken meat, and therefore it is understandable when one asks whether or not fat is bad for human health. 

Is Fat Bad for You, or is Sugar Bad for You??

Fat sure gets a bad rap these days. But the less fat we Americans eat, the fatter and sicker we seem to become. We're hungry! So we eat more, and in order to flavor the fat-free, tasteless food, we add extra sugar and salt to make the food palatable.

If fat is the problem, but Americans are eating less of it, why then does America continue to have a spreading epidemic of obesity and declining health?

Is there any dietary significance to today's sugar consumption?

Maybe. Check out the chart at right. In 300 years, sugar consumption is up by forty-five times. It doubled since 1900 alone. Science has been noting this trend along with the trend of rising inflammatory diseases. In the 1950s, scientific studies began to demonstrate a connection between carbohydrate consumption and adverse health effects, such as heart attacks and metabolic disease.

Sugar industry executives quickly saw that if the populace began to believe the studies, people would stop eating large quantities of sugar and the industry would collapse. So, huge sugary corporations such as Coca Cola began to surreptitiously pay big bucks to scientists to begin slanting their ongoing studies against fat to deflect the blame from sugar. They paid scientists to equivocate (lie), and failed to declare the massive conflicts of interest. (Always follow the money.)

This is how and why, since the mid-1960s, the American Medical Association and the American Dietetic Society allowed the Sugar Industry to turn the entire United States citizenry into guinea pigs in a hotly waged, sugar-industry-financed deadly battle of fat versus sugar.

For the record, the scientific subterfuge continues even today, suggests the Journal of AMA Internal Medicine.

The smear campaign against dietary fat has been a huge success.

Fat bad. It's all we've heard for 60 years, after all. Here's my proof: Did you not agree with the assumption that fat IS bad for you?? (Kudos if you did not... :-))

Actually, fat is not the problem. Sugar is, and here is why:

Well, well, well... That is what the Sugar Industry was trying to hide. The problem with our arteries is not due to fat, nor even with cholesterol. It is SUGAR causing widespread generalized inflammation in humans when consumed regularly and in quantities that trigger secretion of excess insulin into the bloodstream. 

Yet we keep on eating sugar at astronomical rates. The propaganda is so pervasive that sugar consumption rises even as overall health in the United States continues to circle the drain. But, "Gotta eat less FAT!"

Is there any statistical evidence that fat is bad for you?

If fat were very bad for humans, it should not be hard to find historical evidence in mortality statistics over decades or centuries. So, let's compare death stats separated by a century of time: the late 1800s, along with 1880s dietary habits, compared with the most recent available mortality stats, which at the time of writing was 2019.

United States Mortality Stats: 1890 vs. 2019

In 1890, Total US deaths were 242,168...

• 1890: 1 out of every 200 deaths was due to chest pain (no specific category for heart attacks: 1,255 deaths [0.5%]).
• 1890: 8 out of every 100 deaths was due to cancer (18,536 deaths [7.7%])
• 1890: 1 out of every 100 deaths was due to diabetes (2,407 deaths [1%])
• 1890: 18 out of every 100 deaths was due to accidents (45,149 deaths [18.6%])
• 1890: 42 out of every 100 deaths was due to consumption (TB) (102,199 deaths [42%]). TB, a serious infection, was the number one cause of death in 1890.

So how did they eat, back in the day?

From a 21st century perspective, normal fat consumption in 1890 was shockingly high.  People in the 1800s were hard working and slender. They ate heavy cream for up to three meals a day, especially in the mid-west farming communities. Trans-fat was unheard of, and mayonnaise (partially hydrogenated) did not come onto the scene until 1909. People cooked with and ate lots of animal fats (lard and butter). Check out any cookbook of the day to corroborate these assertions.

In 1890, people died of infections, accidents, and old age, but not often from chronic inflammatory disease such as diabetes, cancer, or coronary disease.

In 2019, total US deaths were 2,854,838...

• 2019: 24 out of every 100 deaths was due to heart disease (679,000 deaths [24%, or nearly 1 in 4 deaths])
• 2019: 21 out of every 100 deaths was due to cancer (599,601 deaths [21%, or more than 1 in 5 deaths])
• 2019: 3 out of every 100 deaths was due to diabetes (87,647 deaths [3.1%])
• 2019: 6 out of every 100 deaths was due to accidents (173,040 deaths [6.1%])
• 2019: 2 out of every 100 deaths was due to respiratory infections pneumonia and influenza (49,783 deaths [2%]) 

Today, sugar intake is through the roof, and fat intake is discouraged. The AMA has developed standards of practice based on the lies promulgated by the Sugar Industry, which doctors must follow or risk their medical license. Fake science fills the search engine results pages, suggesting you curtail your fat intake "for your health's sake." Sixty years ago all canned tuna was packed in oil; today the vast majority of canned fish is packed in water. 

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Mmmmm.... Please pass the gravy!

So: Is Fat Bad for You?

I sure don't think so. At least, I don't buy the "eating-fat-makes-you-fat" line. From my registered nursing perspective, the uncompromised science shows without a doubt that it is excess sugar intake that contributes to chronic inflammation. 

There are of course many more causes of death than fats vs. sugars alone. For example, it is not within the scope of this page to address the effects of genetics, nor of pesticides, fast foods, chemical additives, or soil exhaustion that deplete our food sources of nutrients. (I eat organic for those reasons, and feed my flock organic feeds.)

But in my opinion, the wild differences in death statistics between 1890 and 2019 cannot be ignored or reasoned away without some serious further analysis regarding fats and refined sugars. 

Finishing American Bresse chickens DOES add some extra fat to the meat. 

That is a GOOD thing! I'm sure the French, both then and now, agree. 

Check out our Schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) page!

References for "Is Fat Bad For You":

1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/100-years-sugar-consumption-when-did-become-too-much-sitwell
2. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat
3. https://www.nbcnews.com/better/diet-fitness/sugary-drinks-may-kill-184-000-people-each-year-says-n384026
4. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2548255

* Not medical advice. Please consult your physician.

PS: No individual or organization has paid me for my opinion;
I have given it to you freely. Sources are listed. :-)

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