RED MEAT OR THE GOLDEN CALF!
By Dolev Gilmore, PhD
As long as I could remember, I've never had a problem understanding that 99% of people could be wrong. Truth is not determined by majority vote.
Beginning with US Department of Agriculture recommendations in 1961, we have been told to reduce consumption of animal fats, in order to keep our arteries from clogging and to lose weight. This idea has bombarded us our whole lives. Almost all doctors, nutritionists and naturopaths back it. The warning has been reproduced countless times and is reflected in so much nutrition labelling and advertising: "0% fat!", "Cholesterol Free!" The tendrils from this recommendation have reached into our minds, until it has become "common sense".
Guess what. A half century and two billion dollars spent on hundreds of studies failed to show supporting evidence for reducing animal fat consumption. The evidence was very poor in the first place, when top nutritionist Ancel Keys (developer of K rations) found that countries that ate more meat had more heart attacks. So what? The people in those same countries also ate more sugar, vegetable oils and hydrogenated garbage, face more pollution and stress and exercised less. What Keys did was to ignore the basic rule of population studies: "Correlation does not imply causation". Otherwise I could think that Japanese women have less breast cancer because they have slanted eyes. Keys also ignored countries whose statistics didn't fit his story.
Keys ignored another guideline of science: if you have a hypothesis, try to disprove it to see if it stands. Instead, Keys defended his idea religiously, gathering supporters and crushing opposition. He and his followers eventually got the support of government agencies, and after that, the considerable opposition was unable to get research funding, publish articles in leading journals or even speak in major conventions. Keys "won".
The tide is turning. In writing her new book, "The Big Fat Surprise", Nina Teicholz examined every relevant study and interviewed people involved in the debate from the beginning. She totally destroys the hypothesis and concludes that saturated animal fats are healthy.
So, it turns out that the red meat/heart hypothesis, around which the world of nutritional advice dances, was never more than a Golden Calf.
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Important notes:
Although past cultures ate plenty of healthy, saturated fat, we don't really know the effects of long-term consumption of modern feedlot-raised meat, not to mention modern milk products. I also respect and share the repulsion many have for industrialized treatment of animals. Meat from animals raised in pasture and treated humanely is preferred.
It is also obvious that a plant-based diet has brought health to many people.
