Fat… It’s All Behind You! by Ray Collins – The Good Life Letter

• It’s all a bit late for a festive panto…but we now know the bad guys
• Discover the truth about the bad cholesterol myth
• Here are three favourites to celebrate with – guilt free fat!

Anyone else feel like we are involved in a pantomime?

“Oh yes it is… Oh no it isn’t… Oh yes it is…!”

Over the past few weeks a big debate has been raging about saturated fats and whether or not we should be eating them.

Various foods have come in for the kind of scrutiny that a poor dancer does on ‘Strictly’ and it looks like no one can agree on how to score them.

Far be it from me to chuck my two penn’orth in but I feel we need a bit of reason here.

But before I leap up and shout “It’s behind you!” let’s have a look at the facts.

The wicked witch says that these fats are too complex for the body to deal with so end up being shunted around the bloodstream where they cause blockages.

Whilst the grinning Cheshire cat maintains that these hyper complex food sources contain untapped riches which the body needs to stay healthy and, far from being the cause of arterial congestion, can help reduce it.

A real dilemma for poor old Buttons once again then! Let’s see if we can help him out shall we children?

The bad cholesterol myth

Since the early seventies dieticians have been advising against high fat diets.

They told us that too much fat of the type found in meat, eggs, dairy produce and even chocolate was going to bring about certain heart disease.

Even I remember the stories.

Sitting in my purple Oxford bags trousers (the ones with twelve inch bottoms, a six button waistband and side pockets big enough to get my school books in) listening to the Radio 1 chart show on a Sunday teatime when Newsbeat told me to stop eating chips!

This was devastating news to a ten year old.

Not that I used to have chips often (the Friday night treat) but that my mum and dad might be at risk because they’d been eating chips for longer than me.

I was properly worried.

Over the next few years men in kipper ties appeared on the TV and started to discuss levels of cholesterol in the blood and especially the bad type.

The concept of ‘bad food’ had never occurred to me before.

As far as I was concerned my body would deal with anything I fed it and would only take out of it what I needed, the remainder went down the toilet. This was the basis on which I consumed such delights as Spangles, Spanish Gold sweet tobacco and Bazooka gum!

Now I was beginning to understand that some meals were really capable of causing harm. I found it hard to believe back in those vividly coloured days of my youth.

The baggy trousers and weird sweets have long gone but the sense that natural foods like eggs, cheese and chocolate could ever be anything other than nutritious has never left me.

In fact it is probably a major reason why I started writing the Good Life Letter in the first place.

Thankfully the scientists have caught up with common sense and these foods are now in the clear… sort of.

Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra wrote an article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) titled ‘Saturated Fat is Not the Major Issue’, in which he said the time has come to bust the myth that saturated fat consumption causes cardiovascular disease.

Commenting on a major study of over 600,000 people spread over 18 countries which showed saturated fat consumption had no effect on cardiovascular disease he said:

“This huge and important study provides even more evidence that our focus purely on saturated fat as the number one dietary villain in causing heart disease has been misplaced when we should be focusing on food groups.”

So, dear reader, which food groups do you think are most to blame for heart disease if it’s not saturated fats then?

The real villain of the piece

Standing centre stage with a dark menacing look, a big twirly moustache and an evil laugh is…

Carbohydrates!

But like all pantomime bad guys they have to have evil accomplices and in this case it is the modern day equivalent of the ugly sisters – trans fats, oil based manufactured fillers.

It is clear that to reduce the risk of heart disease we need to reduce the amounts of processed carbohydrates we eat (gluten, sugars and syrups) and cut out the enriched manufactured fats.

This all means…

…TA DA! Stop eating processed food and go back to basics!

Hardly a happy ever after ending but like most pantos the final act was obvious from the outset wasn’t it?

A return to the proper dinner table

How should we interpret these latest findings then?

Well I think it’s time we welcomed back some old favourites to our tables.

– Eggs. Long demonised for their rich, cholesterol-filled yolks they are in fact one of the most nutritious and healthy foods around. A soft boiled free range egg with a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper and toast soldiers will gladden even the hardest heart… Rather than harden its arteries.

– Butter. Where would the toast soldiers be without real dairy butter? Forget the processed low fat choices, opt for a little unsalted butter for the best in healthy spreads. The study found that a particular dairy fat called margaric acid acts to reduce the risk of developing heart disease.

– Cheese. I was enraged a few years ago when a report suggested that my cheddar treat was bad for me so I am delighted to be able to enjoy it without having to sneak off down the shed! The great thing about cheese is that the proteins it contains actually prevent your body absorbing the carbohydrates that we now know are the real problem.

So there you have it.  The players walk to the front of the stage and take their flamboyant bows – and we should all cheer.

Eggs, butter and cheese…

…time for the perfect omelette I think!

Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter

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