Originally published November 23 2013
British doctors admit saturated fats are vital for good health, help naturally lower cholesterol without drugs
by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Following the lead of Sweden, which recently denounced the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate "healthy" diet myth, a cohort of prominent British doctors and professors has come out to declare that saturated fats, which have been demonized for decades, are actually healthy. As reported by the U.K.'s Daily Express, British cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra says that millions of people are now needlessly suffering from cardiovascular disease and obesity as a direct result of bad advice that told them to avoid eating fats.
Dr. Malhotra, an interventional cardiology specialist registrar at Croydon University Hospital in London, has conducted extensive research on the subject of fat intake and discovered that we have all basically been lied to. The oft recommended low-fat diet is actually a primary driver of both obesity and heart disease, he says, noting that the elimination of saturated and other healthy fats from the diets of millions of people worldwide has left them with more cardiovascular abnormalities, the opposite of what governments have long claimed.
In a recent study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Dr. Malhotra clarifies the difference between artificial trans fats, which have repeatedly been shown to trigger the inflammatory processes in the body that lead to heart disease, and saturated fats, which occur naturally in foods like butter, coconut oil and palm oil. He dubs governmental preoccupation with the unsubstantiated dangers of saturated fats an "obsession," noting that the real issue involves carbohydrates and sugars, which have been shown to trigger an uptick in harmful, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
"Correlation is not causation," stated Dr. Malhotra to the Daily Express, referring to now debunked studies that seemed to link saturated fats to heart disease. "Nevertheless, we were advised to cut fat intake to 30 percent of total energy and a fall in saturated fat to 10 percent."
Diets high in saturated fat three times more effective than statins at lowering cholesterol
Though obviously ineffective at curbing obesity and heart disease, low-fat diets have continued to generate huge profits for the pharmaceutical industry, which now rakes in some $26 billion annually from the sale of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. But Dr. Malhotra says statins are both harmful and ineffective, and that eating a diet high in saturated fat is actually three times more effective than statins at naturally lowering and balancing cholesterol levels.
"The assumption has been made that increased fat in the bloodstream is caused by increased saturated fat in the diet, whereas modern evidence is proving that refined carbohydrates and sugar in particular are actually the culprits," adds Prof. David Haslam, chair of the National Obesity Forum.
Beyond this, a growing body of evidence now suggests that cholesterol is not even the issue. Since roughly 80 percent of the cholesterol in your bloodstream is actually made by your own body -- your brain, in fact, is made of both cholesterol and saturated fat -- there must be some other factor responsible for causing heart disease. This also means that artificially lowering your cholesterol with statin drugs is a bad idea, not only because they deprive your body of needed cholesterol, but also because they pose major risk factors like sexual dysfunction and muscle, nerve and organ damage.
"Focusing on an elevated blood cholesterol concentration as the exclusive cause of coronary heart disease is unquestionably the worst medical error of our time," says Timothy Noakes, a professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. "After reviewing all the scientific evidence I draw just one conclusion -- never prescribe a statin drug for a loved one."
Sources for this article include:
http://www.bmj.com
http://www.express.co.uk
http://drhyman.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
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