Interesting article about fat...

[Eden]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116724/

What do you all think? I think they might be on to something...everyone ate the stuff for years and years, and they didn't seem to have all the problems we do now--this may turn out to be just one more case of "everything in moderation" and sticking to natural products rather than processed and fake foods. Of course, I think a big part of it is also the lack of physical activity in our society today---when people were eating a lot more of the saturated animal fats etc., they were also getting a lot more exercise in their daily life than most people do now, so those fats were being used for energy.

I think one of the things we really have to remember is that it really pretty recent that most people have had access to such large amounts of food, and animal proteins especially. Not too long ago meat, and red meat especially was a treat, to be used sparingly or maybe once each week or two. Not only that - most people's everyday lives are much less physically demanding these days. We have so many convienences that save us physical labor that we and so much food that its no wonder there are now so many obese people at severe risk for a coronary.
We might also consider that life expectancy has increased too. Many illnesses and accidents that were killers not too long ago are now survivable, and people that live longer will die of something eventually. This may be leading to more deaths via heart disease as more people are living long enough to develop it, so it may be difficult to say that people of generations ago may not have had significant amounts of heart disease, but they just did not die of it....

[Jolt]

I think one of the things we really have to remember is that it really pretty recent that most people have had access to such large amounts of food, and animal proteins especially. Not too long ago meat, and red meat especially was a treat, to be used sparingly or maybe once each week or two. Not only that - most people's everyday lives are much less physically demanding these days. We have so many convienences that save us physical labor that we and so much food that its no wonder there are now so many obese people at severe risk for a coronary.
We might also consider that life expectancy has increased too. Many illnesses and accidents that were killers not too long ago are now survivable, and people that live longer will die of something eventually. This may be leading to more deaths via heart disease as more people are living long enough to develop it, so it may be difficult to say that people of generations ago may not have had significant amounts of heart disease, but they just did not die of it....

The overeating issue is definitely part of our problem today, combined with the lack of physical activity. As far as the life expectancy increasing, that could certainly be part of the explanation for the heart disease deaths increasing--it does make sense that more people used to die from other things before the clogged arteries had a chance to happen. I'm really getting frustrated at all the "back and forth" stuff that goes on in the world of nutrition as far as what's healthy and what's not. Especially since I'm going into nursing and planning to specialize in cardiology--I feel like I need to get this straight in order to recommend the right things to my patients. So far, the safest advice seems to me to be the following: moderation is a good general rule, you're best off sticking to natural, minimally processed foods, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, avoid trans fats like the plague, and stay away from crappy carbs like white flour and large amounts of sugar. Not to mention physical activity is important.

[Wahine]

I hear you Jolt. I am often asked to make general lifestyle recommendations to people at high risk for cardiovascular disease and I'm really fed up with the way the media flip flops everything all the time and over simplifies. It's difficult to convince an uneducated person to change there diet when what they hear is contradictory statements in the news and magazines. There attitude is that nobody knows anything anyway so what does it matter.

I myself am at high risk for cardiovascular disease. I both of my parents suffered heart attacks by the age of 60 and now I have a brother with advanced atherosclerosis at age 45. I sure hope the eating right, no smoking, exercise and not obese factors count for something!! But sometimes you wonder.

[Eden]

I think you sound right on track - nothing will likely kill you if you are sensible about *how much* of it you eat (execpt maybe transfats )
I just think articles like the one you posted are often a little light on looking at the bigger picture or at very least you have to be sure to read carefully.... OK- you might accept eating more saturated fats may be better for some people, but don't forget to eat your veggies too....
I also think a lot of people forget that fats contain so many more calories for the same amount of food, so they don't appropriately scale their intake when they eat them.