The term "Heart-Healthy Diet" is most associated with the American
Heart Association. It was introduced in 1956 as the "Prudent Diet"
and reflects the views of the American medical establishment - although
much of the underlying science seems questionable. It also reflects the
lobbying efforts of the powerful seed oil cartels, so it's been codified
into legislation and government diet recommendations.
The stated purpose of the AHA diet is prevention of cardiovascular disease, particularly myocardial infraction (heart attack). From its original configuration, it has needed serious modifications several times, and still needs serious re-evaluation. Today, its main points are:
For most of it's existence, the AHA enthusiastically endorsed using trans fats in place of the natural fats we evolved with, and the use of polyunsaturated "vegetable oils". Trans fats had to be removed when incontrovertible research proved them to be the most dangerous fats you could consume.
Even when New York was considering banning trans fats entirely, the AHA was still promoting them, and still claiming margarine was better for you than butter - I personally verified this on their Web site. This is not surprising, since their first financing was by Crisco, first major trans fat product, and they have been supported by the seed oil industry, makers of trans fats and polyunsaturated "vegetable oils".
When forced to remove trans fats, they replaced it with "monounsaturated fats", which to them means Canola Oil, itself a very questionable product (see Note-3). They have never come out in favor of Olive Oil, which everyone else recommends - it is not a seed oil but a fruit oil, similar to Avocado Oil.
They have always supported highly processed polyunsaturated seed oils, called "vegetable oils". These are extracted with high heat and toxic petroleum solvents, then distilled to drive off (most of) the solvents. By this time, any fragile Omega-3 fats have been converted to trans fats. The oil is rancid, discolored, and stinks. It is then bleached and deodorized. Not exactly a "natural" product.
They had to include the monounsaturated fats because excess polyunsaturated fats were increasingly suspected of causing cancer, and in any case, disrupted the natural balance of Omega-6 oils to Omega-3 oils. It is entirely Omega-6, most Omega-3 in the feed oil has been destroyed by the heat of processing.
They AHA continues to demonize saturated fats, even though their original "proof" was by a severely defective study. It was based on hydrogenated fats and also included a sharp reduction in sugar consumption. Sugar, is now known to cause heart disease, and this reduction is thought to have produced the positive results.
This demonization is not supported by history, demographics, or recent science. In fact, research has shown that a sufficient amount of saturated fats in the diet can protect the body from the ravages of polyunsaturated fats.
Also from bad science, was their shrill condemnation of eggs and shrimp, because both contain cholesterol. This had to be toned down when valid research showed that the body produces the cholesterol it needs itself, and if it does absorb some from the diet, it reduces the amount it is making. Cholesterol is absolutely needed for cell membranes, and you brain is made mostly of cholesterol.
Do-gooders following AHA guidelines hounded the fast food industry into abandoning beef tallow for deep frying. The industry found they couldn't use the recommended polyunsaturated oils (corn, soy, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, etc.) because they became unusably rancid and stinky in less than a day - beef tallow lasted a month.
Instead the fast food industry had to use more durable partially hydrogenated vegetable oils called "trans fats" which were at the time heavily endorsed by the AHA. Further scientific research proved trans fats to be more dangerous than any other form of fat. The fast food industry is now trying to move to gene-modified oils that mimic olive oil, and to fully hydrogenated oils. Fully hydrogenated oils are known as "saturated fats", what the AHA wanted to get us away from in the first place. The public would have been better served sticking with beef tallow.
Coconut oil, an AHA demonized "Tropical Oil", has the most saturated fat available (92% vs. 44% for lard). Significant populations cook everything in coconut oil, or coconut oil and lard, Thailand, for instance. These populations show no signs of the heart disease the AHA theory predicts. Many nutritionists now consider Coconut Oil to be the healthiest oil you can use.
At the kick-off for the AHA's Prudent Diet one panel member was an elderly cardiologist, Dr. Dudley White. He pointed out that when he started his career (1921) the U.S. practically lived on lard and butter, yet he didn't see a single case of myocardial infraction until 1928. His opinion: "I think that we would all benefit from the kind of diet that we had at the time when no one had ever heard the word corn oil". It should be noted that cancer was almost unknown at that time as well.
Today, Heart Disease and Cancer are the major killers, and the situation continues to get worse. It got that bad pretty much in step with the increased use of trans fats and polyunsaturated oils.
In conjunction with the Prudent Diet (1957), Dr Norman Jolliffe, Director of the Nutrition Bureau of the New York Health Department, initiated the "Anti-Coronary Club", composed of selected businessmen, ranging in age from 40 to 59 years old, who were placed on the Prudent Diet. Club members used corn oil and margarine instead of butter, cold breakfast cereals instead of eggs and chicken, and fish instead of beef.
By 1966, Club members were shown to have serum cholesterol of 220, opposed to 250 in the control group that ate meat three times a day. Problem: 8 members of the Club had died, and none in the control group had died. Dr. Jolliffe had hoped the diet would save him, but he had also died, of a blood clot.
In the period 2003 - 2004 huge numbers of Americans were on the Atkins Diet eating substantial amounts of saturated animal fats along with the large amount of animal protein called for by that diet. I suppose they all should have died, but instead they showed no particular increase in cholesterol problems or artery clogging. A couple of friends of mine were on the Atkins Diet, and closely monitored by a physician. No problems were seen.
Of course the AHA has studies to support its positions, but lets be realistic about research - it's very expensive, but doesn't generate a revenue stream to fund itself. Scientists are completely dependent on grants, directly or indirectly from people with money, who want scientific "proof" for whatever it is they make that money from. Scientists, consciously or unconsciously, are likely to frame their research and interpret their result to favor the outcome that's being paid for - their very survival depends on it.
In my admittedly non-medical opinion, demographics are definitive. "Do people who eat a whole lot of this stuff have the problems studies predict?" If not, there's something wrong with the studies.
Disclaimer: I have no medical or nutritional credentials whatever. What I've written here is gleaned from publicly available sources and is for informational purposes only, not to to be construed as medical advice of any kind.
I refer you to the Links below, where you will find articles by real, certified and degreed medical professionals. You can read them and make up your own mind.
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©Andrew Grygus
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