How an Idea Becomes Dogma

I have lately been reading a great book: How We Get Fat by Gary Taubes.

Taubes, a science writer, lays out a great case for restricting carbohydrates while eating saturated fat in order to lose weight. In fact, Taubes cites numerous studies and actual weight loss programs the world over between 1750 and 1950 which led to a similar conclusion: fat doesn't make people fat; it makes us thin.

But then a curious thing happened in the 1960's, chiefly in the United States. We decided that saturated fat was giving people heart attacks, and therefore fat intake should be restricted while carbohydrates should be increased in the diet. The science behind this assertion, however, was flawed.

We now know that adulterated fats and simple carbohydrates, common in the diet for the past 50 years, are the true culprits when it comes to coronary disease - and a whole lot of other chronic ills.

And yet the medical/ scientific community clings to this shibboleth that saturated fat is the foe, whereas in fact it is the friend. Why?

There is something moralistic here. Fat implies sloth and gluttony, and therefore it is deemed a failure of will.

But overweight is a metabolic disorder. It results, not from eating too much, but from eating the wrong foods.

But the scientific medical industrial complex has invested trillions of dollars and countless careers and reputations in fat-as-the-enemy hypothesis. So renouncing it would be far too much crow to eat.

In the meantime, our population continues to suffer. Our country continues its long, slow decline.

Science, we have always been assured by the scientific establishment, is about the search for truth. Sadly, in this very important case, I think not.

It's Diet, Not Exercise

There is a myth out there that only if we eat less and exercise more we will lose fat. Unfortunately, this is not the case, no matter what all the "experts" say.

It takes a big workout to burn off a few calories. And then once we're done in the gym we have a big appetite. And so we eat more to kill our appetite.

If you eat the right foods and stay moderately active you can take in pretty much all the calories you want.

The right foods - basically - are saturated fats and leafy green vegetables. The wrong foods are simple carbohydrates and vegetable oils.

Moderate activity is better than a hard workout in the gym because it tones the body and keeps it flexible. Keeping the body moving in a sustained way over a longer period of time is part of nature's design when it comes to imparting good health.

Modern day efforts to demonize saturated fats are puzzling because they are so integral to the body's structure and function.

Such a wrongheaded assumption can only be chalked up to ego and hubris. "Experts," invoking junk science buy into a line of thought and end up lacking sufficient humility or open-mindedness to back down from their claims.

Information, Not Fuel

The modern concept of food is that it is a form of fuel.

The traditional concept is that it is information.

Traditional cultures held their nutritional and culinary secrets dear, as they were scene as an essential part of their heritage to passed down, solemnly, from one generation to the next. In other words, this knowledge was valuable information.

Needless to say, modern America doesn't have much of a culinary "tradition" to speak of, beyond going to the supermarket all hours of the day or out to dinner on the weekend to a chain restaurant.

The notion of food as information carries over to the body as well. Our genes and cells read the information conveyed to them in the foods we eat, and respond accordingly.

When we eat nutrient dense food our cells respond by functioning well, and our genes respond by in essence re-programming themselves to construct a healthier body (this is the essence of the science of epigenetics.)

Put simply, eating good food equals clear communication, which then translates as sound performance.

Eating nutrient-deficient food results in static; confused signals sent to the organism, and resultant disease.

The SAD Truth

For the past half century a big - and deadly - fraud has been perpetrated upon the population by government and agribusiness.

This is not so much a conspiracy as simply a convergence between the profit motive and sloppy, compromised science to reinforce the status quo.

The fraud is this: Grains and vegetables should be eaten in quantity because they are good for us, while saturated fats should be strictly limited because they are deadly.

The truth is that since man first walked the earth he based his existence - and rise - upon the consumption of fat from animal sources. This is the diet that allowed our brains to grow and for us to become the planet's dominant species. This is the diet that gave us sound health and immunity.

Today, we are beset with a host of chronic ills because our diet in no way resembles that of our ancestors. We eat far too many carbohydrates and cheap fats and far too few high quality saturated fats. And it is the former, not the latter, which has wreaked havoc with our bodies.

These refined and processed foods comprise the bulk of the Standard American Diet (SAD) - which, as the acronym rightly suggests, is the source of our current chagrin.