What's the real deal on good and bad fat?

More Background?
​Let's begin with olive oil which is mostly mono-unsaturated, far more stable and made from the flesh, not the seed,  of the olive. It’s been around for millennia but so-called vegetable oils (they are really seed oils) first entered the American food chain in the early 1900’s. In Europe, they did not really go mainstream until the time of the second World-War. Before 1900, we all cooked with lard, beef tallow and butter (maybe some goose and duckfat 'on the continent') and the first hardened vegetable oil product originally made from cottonseeds as a by-product of the textile industry was Crisco, launched in 1911. These seed oils such as sunflower, soy, safflower and corn which were virtually non-existent 100 years ago now make up around 9% of all calories consumed by Americans – I have been unable to get UK or European figures. But back to the science…

"Just a little note to add that sadly,  Dr Fred Kummerow passed away on May 31 2017 at the ripe old age of 102."

Professor Emeritus Fred Kummerow of the University of Illinois, now 102 years of age, here in a 2008 photo courtesy of The News Gazette

​       The volatile compounds such as aldehydes produced when you heat these oils are hard to study because of their instability, but groups researching on animals have found that they cause inflammation. Research published in 2002 also found that aldehydes cause toxic shock in animals through damaging their gastric system. And researchers in Taiwan are studying the potential link between female cancer and stir-frying in unventilated spaces using these oils.

        But there is a further solid scientific basis to be found in the work of Prof. Kummerow of the University of Illinois many years ago (he’s now over 100), where his team documented that heating these oils creates oxidized LDL cholesterol showing a direct link to heart disease. The problem, he said, is not LDL, the “bad cholesterol” widely considered to be the major cause of heart disease. What matters is whether the cholesterol and fat residing in those LDL particles have been oxidized. 

             “Cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, except if it’s oxidized,” he says. 

        Oxidation is a chemical process that happens widely in the body, contributing to aging and the development of degenerative and chronic diseases. Fred Kummerow has contended for years that the high temperatures used in commercial frying cause inherently unstable polyunsaturated oils to oxidize, and that these oxidized fatty acids become a destructive part of LDL particles. Even when not oxidized by frying, soybean and corn oils can oxidize inside the body. This fits with the available research data showing that 50% of all heart disease patients have normal or low levels of LDL. 

              “You can have fine levels of LDL and still be in trouble if a lot of that LDL is oxidized,” according to Dr. Kummerow.

        His conclusion? …that the saturated fat in butter, cheese and meats does not contribute to the clogging of arteries and is beneficial in moderate amounts in the context of a healthy diet (lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other fresh, unprocessed foods). Now where have I heard that before? And by the way, Dr.Kummerow cannot remember the last time he ate anything deep-fried. He has never used margarine, and instead scrambles eggs in butter every morning. He calls eggs one of nature’s most perfect foods, something he has been preaching since the 1970s, when the consumption of cholesterol-laden eggs was thought to send you straight to the mortuary. 

           “Eggs have all of the nine amino acids you need to build cells, plus important vitamins and minerals,” he says. “It’s crazy to just eat egg whites. Not a good practice at all.”

       So getting back to Michael Mosley: My message tis that if he’s truly interested in getting to the truth of this matter? Why not set up a meeting with the highly respected Professor Kummerow, even if he is a centenarian. Or perhaps because he's a centenarian… ?

More on Fred Kummerow at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/health/a-lifelong-fight-against-trans-fat.html
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