SATURATED FATS: You Have Been Lied About Them All Your Life

Welcome back to Panacea, the newsletter that teach you everything about health, bio hacks and diets, so you can live longer doing what you love AND outsmart your doctor on what he/she never learnt in med school about nutrition.

Today’s topic is FATS and like in a Michelin Star restaurant we will deconstruct everything around them so you will never be confused anymore about all the choices out there, their effects on your body or what to use to stir fry or garnish your salad.

First, we need to get familiar with the lingo:

As Einstein said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." So before we crawl deep into the rabbit hole, let’s master the basics.

Remember, food is INFORMATION.

Many people are misinformed about nutrition due to misleading advertising and a lack of understanding about the nutritional value of different foods. In this newsletter I refer as food anything edible, nutritious and unprocessed. Everything else is like cinnamon sprinkle on your cappuccino: looks good, smells good, but adds 0 benefits to your coffee.

• Fatty Acids: These are the building blocks of the fat in our bodies and in the food we eat. They can be divided into two groups: saturated and unsaturated.

• Saturated Fatty Acids: These are found in animal products and some plant-based oils (like coconut and palm oil). They are usually solid at room temperature.
  

• Unsaturated Fatty Acids: These are usually liquid at room temperature and are considered healthier than saturated fats. Unsaturated fats can further be divided into monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
  

• Monounsaturated Fats (MUFA): These are found in a variety of foods and oils, such as olives, almonds, avocados, and peanuts. MUFAs are considered heart-healthy fats because they can help lower LDL cholesterol levels in your blood, decreasing the risk of heart disease.
  

• Polyunsaturated Fats (PUFA): These are essential fats, meaning your body needs them but can't produce them on its own. They help reduce LDL cholesterol levels and provide nutrients to help develop and maintain your body's cells. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are types of PUFAs.
  

• Omega-3 Fatty Acids: These are a type of PUFA that are crucial for brain function and growth. They also have anti-inflammatory properties. There are three types of omega-3 fatty acids: alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). ALA is found in plant oils such as flaxseed, soybean, and canola oils, while DHA and EPA are found in fish and other seafood.
  

• Omega-6 Fatty Acids: Another type of PUFA, omega-6 fatty acids are important for brain function and normal growth and development. They stimulate skin and hair growth, maintain bone health, regulate metabolism, and maintain the reproductive system. They are commonly found in vegetable oils such as corn, safflower, and sunflower oils.
  

• Omega-9 Fatty Acids: These are monounsaturated fats that are not considered essential because our bodies can produce them. However, they are beneficial when consumed in food. They are found in olives, almonds, avocados, and other plant sources.
  

• Trans Fats: These are a type of unsaturated fat that occur in small amounts in nature, but became widely produced industrially for use in margarine, snack food, packaged baked goods, and for frying fast food. They are associated with increased risk of heart disease.
  

• Cholesterol: A waxy substance found in your blood, needed to build cells. There are two types:

  • LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein) Cholesterol: Often referred to as "bad" cholesterol, as high levels can lead to a buildup in the arteries and result in heart disease.
    

  • HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein) Cholesterol: Often referred to as "good" cholesterol, as it carries cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver, which removes the cholesterol from your body.
    

• Lipids: A group of naturally occurring molecules that include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E, and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, and others. The main biological functions of lipids include storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes.
  

• Triglycerides: The most common type of fat in the body, they come from foods, especially butter, oils, and other fats you eat. Triglycerides also come from extra calories. These are the calories that you take in but your body does not need right away. Your body converts these extra calories into triglycerides and stores them in fat cells. Those calories are used later when your body needs energy between meals.

The types of fats consumed historically were largely dependent on geographical location.

If you look at the world’s map you will notice that the different Omegas are distributed across the planet’s longitude based on their characteristics.

Equatorial Regions - Saturated Fats: In the equatorial regions where the climate is hot, coconuts grow abundantly. Coconuts contain a high amount of saturated fats, which are heat resistant, light resistant, and oxygen resistant. This makes them perfectly designed for hot climates.

Mediterranean Regions - Omega-9 Fats: Moving away from the equator towards the Mediterranean regions, olives and almonds are commonly found. These contain omega-9 fats, which are monounsaturated fats. They are well-suited to the Mediterranean climate.

Higher Latitudes - Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fats: As you move further north or south from the equator, you find more omega-6 and omega-3 fats. These polyunsaturated fats are found in seeds and nuts, fish and seal blubber, which are common in the diets of people living in these regions.

Omega-3 are a found in fish and seal blubber and represent the primary source of food of Eskimos. Omega-3 are also great to prevent what is labelled by western medicine as depression, which is caused by a deficiency of Omega-3 in the brain.

If you compare Eskimos and North european countries, you will notice that the former are very happy, while the latter experience what is called the SAD disease, Seasonal affective disorder.

The primary reason Scandinavians experience the SAD disease is that they are not getting exposed to the sun as much as they used to and they don’t consume their native food, instead most of them follows the American diet and consumes processed food, the SAD diet, standard american diet.

THE BEST SOURCES OF FATS: 

I cook every single day and what I recommend everyone is to get your fats from whole foods, such as seeds and nuts and use oils extracted through a cold process and stored in (dark) glass (NOT plastic).

HERE’S WHY: Around 100 years ago, high-heat chemical equipment was developed that could extract oils from hard seeds. However, this process destroys the beneficial double bonds in these oils, making them unhealthy. Also, direct sun damages these oils these oils that, unlike coconut, are not as resistant to sun light.

WHAT TO ABSOLUTELY STAY AWAY FROM: 

Margarine. And here’s why. 

Margarine does NOT go off.
Margarine is created through a process called hydrogenation.

The process starts with the extraction of oil from plants, typically soybeans, corn, sunflower, or canola. The oils are extracted by crushing the plants and then using a solvent to separate the oil.

The extracted vegetable oil is then subjected to hydrogenation. This process involves heating the oil to high temperatures and then adding hydrogen gas in the presence of a metal catalyst (usually nickel, that has been linked to neurological problems, cancers, kidney disease. It is also a common allergen).

Removal of Catalyst and Impurities: After the hydrogenation process, the catalyst is removed, and the fat is filtered to remove impurities.

Bleaching and Deodorizing: The fat is then bleached to remove any color and deodorized to remove any unpleasant smells.

Now a little story on how money influenced the information we were provided about what is healthy and what is NOT:

In the 1950s and '60s, scientists were allegedly bribed by the sugar industry to demonize saturated fat and promote sugar.

This corporate capture of medicine and public health has been going on for decades and is only now gaining broader recognition.

The rise in heart disease from the 1920s to the 1960s was a contentious issue among scientists. While American physiologist Ansel Keys blamed saturated fat, British endocrinologist John Yudkin pointed to sugar. With backing from the powerful sugar industry, Keys' view prevailed, leading to the widespread belief that saturated fat was a major contributor to heart disease.

NOW LET’S SEE THE DATA

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., with approximately 655,000 Americans dying from heart disease each year. This equates to about 1 in every 4 deaths.

In terms of the number of people living with heart disease, it was estimated that 30.3 million adults in the United States were diagnosed with heart disease in 2019. This includes conditions such as coronary artery disease, heart failure, and other conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels.

Next time you buy anything, turn to the ingredients and check the amount of sugars in the food you are buying. If the number is more than 1 to 10, put it back. It’s designed to hook you like an addict to crack.

It’s a lot of information for this release but I want to provide you with all the information for you to make a conscious decision in improving the quality of what you see as food, so…

LET ME TAKE YOU DEEPER DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Few months ago I was listening to a podcast from the Joe Rogan’s Experience (YOU CAN LISTEN HERE)

His guest was Aseem Malhotra, MD, a NHS Trained Consultant Cardiologist, and visiting Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and author of several books: "The Pioppi Diet", "The 21-day Immunity Plan", and "A Statin-free Life".

Dr. Aseem Malhotra became known to the public around 2011 after writing a front-page commentary for The Observer newspaper, in which he criticized the serving of junk food in hospitals. After meeting with Jamie Oliver (ma boi, I was working for him from 2018 to 2021) he started campaigning on issues related to obesity.

In an effort to understand the obesity epidemic, Malhotra delved deeply into the roles of cholesterol, heart disease, statin (remember this name, it’s important) over-prescription, and saturated fat.

His research culminated in a 2013 article in the British Medical Journal titled "Saturated Fat is Not the Major Issue." He argued that the focus should be on sugar instead, since the notion of saturated fat as a major problem was misguided. He also raised concerns about overmedication with statins and the overemphasis on cholesterol as a risk factor for heart disease.

His work gained mainstream attention, with coverage in several British newspapers and on international news outlets like Fox News and CNN. This marked the start of his activism against medical misinformation. He aimed to fight against biased and corrupted information stemming from major industries, including the food and pharmaceutical sectors.

Malhotra mentions a controversy from the 1950s and '60s, when scientists were allegedly bribed by the sugar industry to demonize saturated fat and promote sugar. This corporate capture of medicine and public health has been going on for decades and is only now gaining broader recognition.

The rise in heart disease from the 1920s to the 1960s was a contentious issue among scientists.

While American physiologist Ansel Keys blamed saturated fat, British endocrinologist John Yudkin pointed to sugar. With backing from the powerful sugar industry, Keys' view prevailed, leading to the widespread belief that saturated fat was a major contributor to heart disease.

Smoking was another factor, with nearly half of the decline in heart disease death rates over the last several decades attributable to smoking reduction. However, this was not fully acknowledged at the time, partly due to the tobacco industry's denialism and tactics of spreading doubt and confusion.

Upon digging into the root causes of poor health, Malhotra found the system to be increasingly corrupted by commercial entities whose primary legal responsibility is to generate profit for shareholders, not to protect public health.

When Malhotra began speaking out about diet, health, and misinformation, he faced significant pushback, particularly when he challenged the widespread prescription of statin drugs. 

It is estimated that tens of millions of people take statins.
In the United States alone, it was estimated that over 35 million people were taking statins as of 2020.

In the interview Aseem states “it took about 50 years between the first link between smoking and lung cancer that were published in the British medical journal before we had any effective regulation on Tobacco Control.”

Industries like pharma, alcohol, tobacco, sugar, dairy and meat have billion of dollars of profit a year combined and when it comes to research and case studies, it’s hard to find independent ones with transparent datas.

It usually happens when it’s time to write down a fine. Little too late usually.

Process sugar causes way more damages to any of your organs, from the brain to the heart, than any fat out there:

One particular study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2014 found that individuals getting 17-21% of their calories from added sugar had a 38% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who consumed 8% of their calories as added sugar [1].

Consuming too much sugar can impair cognitive functions and reduce proteins that are necessary for memory and responsiveness. A 2012 study on rats, conducted by researchers from UCLA, found that a diet high in fructose (a type of sugar) hinders learning and memory by literally slowing down the brain [2].

Additionally, a high sugar diet can lead to resistance to insulin (which regulates blood sugar levels), causing an influx of sugar in the brain. Insulin resistance is also a potential cause of Alzheimer's disease [3].

1. Yang Q, Zhang Z, Gregg EW, Flanders WD, Merritt R, Hu FB. (2014). Added sugar intake and cardiovascular diseases mortality among US adults. JAMA Intern Med. 174(4):516-24.

2. Agrawal R, Gomez-Pinilla F. (2012). 'Metabolic syndrome' in the brain: deficiency in omega-3 fatty acid exacerbates dysfunctions in insulin receptor signalling and cognition. J Physiol. 590(10):2485-99.

3. Steen E, Terry BM, Rivera EJ, Cannon JL, Neely TR, Tavares R, Xu XJ, Wands JR, de la Monte SM. (2005). Impaired insulin and insulin-like growth factor expression and signaling mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease--is this type 3 diabetes? J Alzheimers Dis. 7(1):63-80.

I leave it to you to draw conclusions and connect dots.
If in doubt though, buy organic and grass fed from local farmers.
If you don’t notice the difference, your body will.

P.S: I will start creating content around the topic of Health and Nutrition on my socials for easier digestion (pun intended) so if you want faster and more frequent updates, check me on instagram or tiktok (I keep youtube videos long and deep like one of those fables from the past).

Stay healthy out there and have a great week.
Talk soon, Prometheus aka Luca