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by Joseph Mercola
June 19,
2017
from
Mercola Website
In the wake of a review paper condemning coconut oil as a
bad-for-you saturated fat, news media around the world, including
ScienceAlert, have jumped on the anti-saturated fat bandwagon
led by none other than the American Heart Association (AHA).
The AHA published its statements in the journal Circulation, mostly
repeating the decades-old refrain that saturated fats like those in
coconut oil cause heart disease.
And of course, without looking beyond the press release, news media
were quick to report it.
The AHA's timing for this is interesting, considering that a man who
studied this very topic for 80 years, and who actually sued the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to stop
blaming saturated fat for heart disease, and to remove trans
fats from processed foods, died on June 2, 2017, at 102 years old.
Dr. Fred Kummerow spent most of life trying to get the
science world to accept the truth about artery-clogging trans fats.
Shortly before his death, Kummerow, a comparative biosciences
professor at the University of Illinois, succeeded in his quest,
which started with a petition to the FDA in 2009, using his own,
science-based research as his proof.
The agency's failure to respond led to his lawsuit against the
agency in 2013. Two years later, the FDA agreed to start the process
of banning all synthetic trans fats from food. The ban is set to go
into effect in 2018.
Kummerow was one of the first to suggest a possible
link between processed foods and heart disease, and in his
lawsuit, asked the FDA to simply be more responsible for the
decisions they made that could (and did) make or break the health of
consumers.
The truth is saturated fats and cholesterol were wrongly vilified as
the central culprit of heart disease and stroke, leading
manufacturers to substitute trans fats in food products, while it's
actually sugar, refined carbohydrates, trans fats and processed
vegetable oils found in many
processed foods that are the real enemy.
The science is real. Research in Denmark, the first country to
act following research demonstrating the dangerous health effects
from trans fats, found a reduction in cardiovascular disease in the
population several years after trans fats was limited in food
production. Other research concluded a mere 2 percent increase in
calories from trans fats can double your risk of heart attack.
And the vegetable oils that are being promoted by the AHA to replace
trans fats aren't really better:
When heated they may degrade to even more dangerous toxic
oxidation products, including cyclic aldehydes.
Many of the vegetable oils produced today - peanut, corn and soy -
are products of genetic engineering and are a significant source of
glyphosate exposure, too, not to mention that they are also high in
omega-6 fats, creating an imbalance in your omega-3 to omega-6
ratio, which can trigger or contribute to cardiovascular problems,
diabetes, arthritis, cognitive decline and specific cancers.
Interestingly, Kummerow - remember, he lived to 102 -
noted that his own diet included,
His book, "Cholesterol
is Not the Culprit: A Guide to Preventing Heart Disease,”
tells it all, and shows clearly why it's unconscionable that the AHA
would spew their disinformation now.
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