The Skinny on Saturated Fat: It's Vital for Health and Doesn't Cause Heart Disease

The story behind 70 years of non-scientifically-based dogma against saturated fat.

Note: Nina Teicholz, who has an excellent Substack called Unsettled Science, spent 10 years researching and conducting interviews for her rigorous and compelling book The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet which I just finished reading. This post is a summary of her research.

Overview of this post:

• Ansel Key’s theory that saturated fat causes heart disease had scientific critics right from the beginning

• The Sugar Lobby quietly paid three Harvard researchers to write studies that put the blame for heart disease on saturated fat (see NPR article here)

• National fear of heart disease led many to flock to Key’s simplistic theory that eating saturated fat caused heart disease

• Scientists who dared question Key’s theory were kept from getting grants, couldn’t advance their careers or speak at conferences, and journals wouldn’t publish their research

• The data from Key’s “Seven Countries” correlation study could just as easily be explained by lower sugar intakes

A Nation Terrified of Heart Disease

In 1955, President Eisenhower suffered the first of several heart attacks. This event epitomized the nation’s growing fear over the national heart disease epidemic that had appeared almost out of nowhere in the proceeding decades. Heart disease went from being rare in 1900 to the leading cause of death in 1950.