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We can often find low-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, and milk in the health food departments of stores. We can find low-fat cocoa, as well as many other low-fat products. Products may have 0% or 1% fat content.
Many of us are afraid of heart disease and believe in avoiding fatty foods rich in cholesterol. But a low-fat diet was based on just scientific assumptions - without any solid evidence.
Now these assumptions have been soundly refuted. And it is shown that a low-fat diet can even greatly harm our health. I suggest that the reader in this article consider the evidence of the harm of low-fat diets.
A low-fat diet encourages the consumption of harmful foods
When the recommendations for low-fat nutrition first appeared, manufacturers started selling low-fat products. They were in high demand. But low-fat foods have a problem.
They have a "faceless" taste. Manufacturers solved this problem simply. Refined sugar and wheat flour were added to food products.
The WHO recommendation to drastically reduce sugar in the diet has been sounding for a long time. But the producers who were keen on reducing fat didn't really care about that.
To avoid cholesterol, they began to extract animal fat from food and replace it with vegetable one. But vegetable oils lower total cholesterol in the short term and can cause inflammation and heart disease in the long term.
References to these facts in scientific sources:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2166702/
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/83....full.pdf+html
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16387724
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10....4684-0967-3_18
Some people are sensitive to gluten, which is found in wheat. These people experience pain, loose stools, fatigue, and heart disease due to gluten.
For such people, the addition of low-fat wheat flour products is harmful.
References to these facts in scientific sources:
http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v1...g2012236a.html
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480312
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21224837
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6111631
It turns out that, excluding animal fat in the composition, such low-fat foods make people increase their consumption of harmful products: sugar, wheat, and vegetable oils with a high content of linoleic fatty acid.
A low-fat diet can raise triglyceride levels and cause type 2 diabetes
It has long been proven that high blood triglyceride levels dramatically increase the risk of heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Usually, triglycerides increase in the blood due to a large intake of carbohydrates (especially fructose). The liver converts excess carbohydrates into fat.
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/131/10/2772S.short
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/89/6/1760.short
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12088525
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2673878
A diet low in fat but high in carbohydrates can lead to increased blood levels of triglycerides, potentially increasing the risk of heart disease.
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/6572
http://press.endocrine.org/action/cookieAbsent
The best way to lower your blood triglycerides is to reduce your carbohydrate intake but increase your fat intake. Such a diet usually leads to a decrease in blood triglycerides.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/87/3/567.long
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19082851
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892194/
A low-fat diet discourages healthy foods
Many foods that contain animal fat are very healthy. A low-fat diet discourages people from eating such foods because they contain animal fats and cholesterol.
But the paradox is that animal fats and cholesterol are harmful. Moreover, very high-fat carbohydrate-free diets can reduce blood sugar, improve cholesterol fractions in the blood, as well as lose weight, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
The fact that cholesterol in the diet of healthy people is harmful is a myth.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...99900711003145
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/ea...27725.abstract
www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8539
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19369056
In recent decades, we are increasingly talking about the epidemic of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. And fat is often blamed for this. All the diseases listed above are relatively new. And fatty foods have always been with us.
So, Eskimos consume most of their calories from animal fat, but do not suffer from cardiovascular diseases.
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...om-arctic.html
Here are 4 examples of healthy foods that were mistakenly classified as harmful due to saturated fat:
1. Boiled white meat - not fried!
http://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/...1475-2891-9-10
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16500874
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...09174003001608
2. Chicken egg
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/...products/117/2
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/70/2/247.short
3. Fermented milk foods(cheese, yogurt, sour cream, etc.) with a high fat content
www.tandfonline.com/action/cookieAbsent
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19179058
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17490954
4. Coconut
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8654328
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19437058
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15123336
A low-fat diet can lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol
High-density lipoproteins (HDL) are often referred to as “good” cholesterol. High HDL levels are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/79/1/8.short
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/111/5/e89.full
Consumption of animal fats, but not vegetable fats, can increase HDL levels. While high carbohydrate intake can lead to lower HDL. This leads to an increased risk of heart disease. This is especially true for those who eat mostly fruit!
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17209200
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1386252
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/77....full.pdf+html
www.jlr.org/content/41/3/321.abstract
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/67/3/573S.full.pdf
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC296399/
One of the few ways to increase your HDL (good cholesterol) levels is a low-carb diet that is high in animal fat and reduces carbohydrates as much as possible.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12761365
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19439458
A low-fat diet lowers testosterone levels
Testosterone is the main sex hormone in men. Women also have a little testosterone. Testosterone is produced from cholesterol. Normal testosterone levels are very important for the health of bones, heart, blood vessels, and muscle mass.
A decrease in testosterone leads to a decrease in muscle mass, diseases of the cardiovascular system, bone osteoporosis, depression, decreased libido, and obesity. After 8 weeks of a low-fat (cholesterol-free) diet, testosterone is reduced by 12%.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6298507
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15741266
A low-fat diet can increase LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels
Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are often referred to as “bad” cholesterol. It is well known that elevated LDL levels are associated with a high risk of heart disease.
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/arti...ticleid=601301
However, new data has shown that there are also subtypes of LDL. People have small LDL particles and large LDL particles.
And here it is interesting that large particles are not harmful, but it is the small LDL particles that are dangerous.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article....ticleid=407945
http://secure.jbs.elsevierhealth.com...n/cookieAbsent
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/95/1/69.abstract
High carbohydrate intake (especially refined carbohydrates) increases the number of small LDL particles. But saturated fat changes LDL from small LDL particles that are "bad" to large LDL particles that are "good".
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/502.short
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/67/5/828.short
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16256003
Also, studies show that low-fat diets change large particles LDL, "good" in the side of small particle LDL is "bad". But high-fat diets change small LDL particles "bad" to large LDL particles "good".
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16685042
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10075324
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/6/1611.full
Conclusion: a large amount of carbohydrates or a low-fat diet changes LDL from large "good" to "bad" small. Conversely, saturated animal fats change small LDL "bad" in the direction of large LDL "good".
This means that fatty foods improve cholesterol fractions in the direction of healthy ones.
A low-fat diet causes heart disease
Heart disease is the most common cause of death in middle-and high-income countries.
http://who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/
Interestingly, the Trobriand islanders, Polynesians, Eskimos, and others traditionally consume a lot of saturated fat. Eskimos generally up to 70% of the calorie content. But they were not influenced by the Western diet.
This means that they eat little sugar, flour, TRANS fats, and fried foods. And now they have almost no cardiovascular diseases and strokes.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/34/8/1552.short
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8450295
http://www.jstor.org/stable/673842
When the people of these peoples start eating a Western diet (rich in sugars, flour, and fried foods), they quickly become obese, develop type 2 diabetes, and die from heart disease and malignant tumors.
http://www.dovepress.com/the-western...d-article-RRCC
So it's clear that the Western diet is an important risk factor for heart disease, not fat.
In an attempt to prove that a low-fat diet is good for the heart, several large-scale randomized controlled trials have been conducted. But it is randomized controlled trials that are evidence-based, not a bunch of observational ones that only build hypotheses.
And as often happens — they wanted to prove one thing, but it turned out another.
It turned out that low-fat diets did not reduce mortality from cardiovascular diseases and cancer, although the people studied even quit smoking, forcibly lost weight by restricting themselves in their diet, and began to lead a healthy lifestyle.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article....ticleid=377969
www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2012/niddk-19.htm
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article....ticleid=202339
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16467233
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16391215
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16467232
And these studies compared switching to healthy foods only with the exclusion of fat. But it seems that if such studies investigated the elimination of fat while remaining on a traditional Western diet, the result would be even worse.
So, what do we have? People in the studies abandoned the Western style of eating in favor of healthy foods, but with the exception of fat.
And in the end, they didn't get any benefits. This means that a low-fat diet is just as harmful as a Western-style diet high in sugar, flour, and fried foods.