All food is broken down into one of three categories: fat, protein & carbohydrates. These categories are known as macronutrients (macros). The body can use all three macros although many of us have been led to believe otherwise.

In the 1950’s heart disease was on the rise to be the number one killer from what seemed to be out of nowhere.  At that point in time it was unknown what caused heart disease and it was very unclear what a heart attack was.  In fact they called it a coronary.

In 1955 President Eisenhower was out golfing and thought he had heart burn. Come to find out it was in fact a heart attack. When people heard about what happened they became terrified of this new health scare especially since it took the president out of the oval office for ten days. President Eisenhower was put on strict bed rest without any visitors allowed in.

Professor Ancel Keyes was the leading researcher in heart disease at the time and he believed that saturated fat and cholesterol were the culprits.  This became known as his, Diet Heart Hypothesis.  This enabled him to secure funding for a major study which is now know as the, Seven Countries Study (SCS).  The SCS was the first major study to investigate diet and lifestyle along with other risk factors for cardiovascular disease across seven countries. This study only shows association, not causation, which is a major flaw. Keyes cherry picked the countries that he used in the study.  He went to places that he knew didn’t eat many saturated fats and lived long lives because that would’ve contradicted his hypothesis. Without having any counter studies to show otherwise people began to believe this. This convinced Dr. Paul Dudley White who was Eisenhower’s physician and founding member of the American Heart Association (AHA). Dr. White had previously met Keyes and built a professional relationship with him. With this “in” Keyes was able to sway the AHA to advise people to stay away from saturated fat and cholesterol to avoid heart disease.  Dr. White was also a great fundraiser. He made a connection with Proctor and Gamble to get a huge endowment for the AHA.  The American Heart Association in turn depended on P&G who happen to manufacture foods loaded with harmful vegetable oils. This relationship ultimately led to a very dangerous connection between big food companies and medicine.

After President Eisenhower’s heart attack he was advised from his doctor, Dr. White, to eat margarine, dry crackers, bread and avoid read meat to follow the new AHA recommendations. In addition to eating those types of foods he was also a heavy smoker. Keyes saw in his Seven Countries Study that smoking played a heavy role in heart disease at the time but chose to omit that information focusing all risks on saturated fat and cholesterol to support his hypothesis. Eisenhower ultimately had another heart attack years later and died. 

Since the AHA was the only organization out there giving guidance on how to avoid heart disease this became the source that everyone listened to. In fact Keyes was the first one to create a fully ready to eat food known as the K-ration (K standing for Keyes). K-rations were given to feed soldiers in the military during World War II. This essentially was the first processed food. By following Keyes recommendations it allowed food companies to begin adding whatever they wanted into our food as long as it was low in saturated fat. Anyone who tried to speak out against Keyes or these recommendations were silenced. Over time not only was vegetable oil used heavily but food companies needed to make their food taste better when eliminating fat so they added sugar into everything.

I for one grew up eating fat free and low fat everything. Anyone else remember this craze? Fat was known as the evil villain. How about spray butter? I lived off of spray “butter” which had zero everything on its nutrition label. It was loaded with artificial flavors and offered no nutritional value. Our foods became loaded with new types of artificial, calorie free sweeteners. All of the new processed foods and sugar made us literally addicted to eating them. It’s no wonder I blamed myself for decades for not being able to control my portions or cravings for them. We the people were duped.

It’s only been since the past decade that people have started to speak out again about bringing healthy fat into our diets. We now know that manufactured vegetable oils are extremely harmful to our health. Unfortunately you can find them in nearly all processed foods.

The food industry is so large and powerful that our major government leaders haven’t risked standing up to them in fear of losing their political positions. We now have such low food standards in comparison to other parts of the world such as Europe. Not only are the toxic oils allowed into our foods but known carcinogens (cancer causing agents), genetically modified organisms (GMOs), artifical flavors, colors and ingredients are all fair game.

Unfortunately this isn’t common knowledge amongst most Americans. Why food industry leaders would want to allow these chemicals into their own food is beyond me. Luckily there are some people willing to brave their reputations by championing for better standards and demand better. Sadly certain large, money fueled corporations work around the clock to devalue their work and their names. We need to take an active role in helping to make this change. That is if you want yourself and more importantly your kids to live a better quality of life. When we know cancer, heart disease and type II diabetes (just to name a few) can all be significantly reduced by eliminating or at least lowering the consumption of heavily processed foods it blows my mind that our government wouldn’t help to support that.

In the meantime, instead of feeling helpless we can support activists working hard in our favor by helping to share their work. You can also vote with your dollars. Every time you buy heavily processed foods it tells the companies to make more because people want it. By choosing healthier options and supporting companies that are trying to use healthier ingredients it shows them that we support them in their efforts. You can also buy produce from local farmer’s markets and talk to the people who actually grow your food. It feels good to support farmers making an effort to do the right thing by not using harsh pesticides to provide organic and non gmo foods. Another option is checking out the Environmental Working Group (EWG). They are an organization that puts together an annual list of the “dirtiest” and “cleanest” produce based on research. That way you can at least aim to buy the “dirty dozen” foods organic and start making a difference. (See: EWG Dirty Dozen for the list of foods)

I 100% understand how hard it can be to steer clear of all bad ingredients in this day and age. I try my best for myself and my family. I realize healthier foods are often more expensive but the more we “vote” by buying healthy, the more cost effective they’ll get.

Again there are three macronutrients, fat being one of them. We no longer need to fear all fat. Yes some are bad such as trans fat and should be avoided however it’s important for everyone to know there’s more to the overall fat story.

When we know better we can do better.

I could go on and on about all the unique nutritional needs that people have including vitamins, micronutrients and so forth but I’ll spare you for now. If you’re still reading this hopefully it gave you a sense of just how important it is to value your nutrition not just for swimsuit season but for your well being. My hope is that one day soon we can revert our food system to what it was meant to be, nourishment for our bodies to thrive.

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Special thanks to Naomi Whittel, Dr. Cate Shanahan and Nina Teicholz from, The Real Skinny on Fat, documentary for serving as such valuable sources of information. For more check out: https://youtu.be/CdoSSaKjv7A