What is modified palm oil?

There is no genetic modification involved here, rather the term refers to altering the molecular structure of the naturally occurring fats in palm oil to produce fats with the desired melting point, consistency and mouthfeel.

Joe Schwarcz PhD | 21 Jan 2022 

Health and Nutrition

You Asked

 
 

This is a term you will see on the ingredients list of numerous products ranging from margarine and shortening to chocolate bars. I’ve been repeatedly asked about the presence of modified palm oil in Nutella, the popular chocolate hazelnut spread. Let’s squash one misconception right away. There is no genetic modification involved here, rather the term refers to altering the molecular structure of the naturally occurring fats in palm oil to produce fats with the desired melting point, consistency and mouthfeel.  

First, we need to tackle a bit of chemistry and then a touch of history. A comb with three teeth serves as an analogy for the molecular structure of fats. The teeth represent fatty acids that are attached to a backbone of three carbon atoms, which is a molecule called glycerol. (In chemical parlance this “comb” is a “triglyceride”.) The fatty acids can be “saturated,” meaning that they are composed of a chain of carbon atoms linked by single bonds, “monounsaturated,” in which there is one double bond in the chain or “polyunsaturated” in which multiple double bonds are present. In each case, the number of carbon atoms in the chain can also vary.  

Now for the history. When saturated fats, such as those found in butter and shortening, were first linked with cardiovascular disease back in the 1950s, the food industry took steps to give consumers a means to reduce their intake. 

An obvious approach was to replace some of the animal-derived saturated fats with vegetable fats that were mostly unsaturated and were deemed to be heart-healthy. 

The problem, though, was that these fats were too “liquidy” for most applications. However, “partial hydrogenation,” achieved by passing hydrogen gas into the vegetable oils, converted some of the unsaturated fats into the saturated variety and produced a consistency and mouthfeel similar to butter. 

A problem, only recognized later, was that hydrogenation also produced some “trans fats” as a side product. When these were linked to heart disease, the industry geared up to find a way to produce vegetable fats with the desired consistency without resorting to hydrogenation. Another way to “modify” the vegetable oils had to be found. 

Palm oil is the most widely produced vegetable oil in the world, derived from the fruit of the oil palm, distinct from palm kernel oil which is extracted from the fruit’s kernel. Palm kernel oil is composed of roughly 80% saturated fats, while palm oil is composed of 50% saturates, 40% monounsaturates and 10% polyunsaturates. It is the high unsaturated content of palm oil that is responsible for its low melting point and fluidity.  

The challenge then was to replace one or two of the polyunsaturated “teeth” in the “comb” with saturated fatty acids. The basic idea was to first dissociate the fatty acids from the glycerol backbone and then allow them to recombine with the glycerol in a process known as “interesterification” hoping that the recombination would result is a formation of novel “combs,” including some in which the middle “tooth” is the monounsaturated oleic acid, and the other two “teeth” are saturated palmitic or stearic acids. Such an arrangement was expected to have the right consistency for food applications. Enzymes (lipases) can catalyze both the disassociation and recombination reactions, as can some simple chemicals such as sodium methoxide. Indeed, some of the desired product was formed and various “fractionating” methods were developed to separate out this desirable component. Presto, food chemists had produced “modified palm oil” that was capable of replacing partially hydrogenated fats. 

Of course, this modified oil still contains some saturated fatty acids, but less than butter. In any case, current scientific opinion is that saturated fats are not quite as villainous as once believed. When it comes to Nutella, I’d be more concerned about the sugar content (58%) than the inclusion of modified palm oil.

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@JoeSchwarcz

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-and-nutrition-you-asked/what-modified-palm-oil

5 Sources of Hidden Trans Fats to Avoid at All Costs

After more than 60 years of encouraging folks to eat trans fats—or partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs)—the FDA is phasing them out of our food supply. Eating them puts you at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.1 And like we predicted a few years ago… Things aren’t changing fast enough.

INH ResearchJune 26, 2015

They’re giving companies until 2018 to swap out trans fats for healthier alternatives. Don’t wait for the FDA to save you. Many foods still have trans fats lurking in them. And you may have no clue. That’s because a company can list zero trans fats even if it isn’t true. As long as it has 0.5 grams per serving or less, they can say their food doesn’t have any. Thanks FDA!2 Big Food will use this loophole to their advantage for as long as they can.

Here are five sources of hidden trans fats to avoid at all costs.

1. Microwave Popcorn: The most popular brands of popcorn still have up to seven grams per bag…3 Yet they list a serving size on their website as just two tablespoons. This is to avoid telling you just how much trans fat is in a whole bag of their product.4 If that’s not bad enough… These products may contain toxic additives.

Try making homemade popcorn instead. This alternative isn’t just healthier. It tastes better. The simplest way to make it only requires three ingredients… Organic popcorn kernels, some ghee, and a pinch of salt. Or you can get creative and add your favorite seasonings.

2. Coffee Creamer: The label for this one lists PHO as the third ingredient… Right after water and corn syrup solids.5 Yet you won’t find the amount of trans fat listed in the nutrition facts.6

Any product with hydrogenated oils in it contains trans fat. For non-dairy creamers, one serving may contain only 0.5 grams… But how likely are you to measure out the serving size of one teaspoon? Or use only one mini-cup in your coffee?

Let’s say you drink three cups of coffee in one day… And you add about a tablespoon of creamer to each cup… That’s three teaspoons. This would mean you’re downing about 4.5 grams of trans fats from coffee alone.

3. Canned Icing: There is nothing nutritious about refined sugar, artificial flavors, or trans fats. Betty Crocker lists partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil as the sixth ingredient in their Whipped Fluffy White Frosting.7 The serving size is two tablespoons.

Going back to the estimate of 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving… A piece of cake piled high with this icing could have up to four grams of trans fat. But it’s not on the label… Or their website. 

4. Snack Cakes: It’s not just the sugar in the desserts you need to worry about…The biggest producer of these treats in the U.S. doesn’t list ingredients or nutrition facts on their website.8 One look at any of their labels at the store …and you’ll see why they want to keep it a secret.

Many of their most popular snacks—like Zebra Cakes—list partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil as the second or third ingredient down. This means there is a significant amount in the food compared to the other ingredients. In other words, you’re eating mostly trans fats. 

5. Refrigerated Cookie Dough: Most of us crave a warm cookie from the oven every now and then. And when you do, it’s simple to grab a package from your store’s refrigerator. But these are one of the most dangerous sources of trans fats you can find.

Even cookies that are marketed as “natural” still have trans fats in them. And they don’t try to hide it… Margarine is right on the ingredients list.9

You might not think these are such bad choices… But nobody’s ever happy with just two cookies. The more you eat, the more trans fat—and sugar—you’re consuming. That’s a double whammy for inflammation that raises heart disease risk. Of course, we don’t recommend indulging in cookies too often. But when you do, make them from scratch. It’s a lot less work than you might think and well worth the effort.

These aren’t the only foods that put your health at risk with trans fats… Just the worst. But there are easy ways to avoid these additives. Start by passing up any boxed foods—frozen or otherwise—at your grocery store.

Health Watch readers know that trans fats extend the shelf life of foods. So another way is to check the expiration date. If it’s years away, the product likely contains trans fats.

References:
1 http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyEating/Trans-Fats_UCM_301120_Article.jsp
2 http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm079609.htm
3 http://www.amazon.com/Pop-Secret-Theater-Microwavable-Popcorn/dp/B00O92NBQU/ref=lp_2598758011_1_1/190-4124695-8197540?srs=2598758011&ie=UTF8&qid=1435173515&sr=8-1
4 http://www.popsecret.com/products/new-flavors/
5 https://www.coffee-mate.com/Products/Default.aspx#b936f373-d1f9-4af0-a4da-32221f22135e
6 https://www.coffee-mate.com/Products/Default.aspx#b936f373-d1f9-4af0-a4da-32221f22135e
7 http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/frosting/whippedfluffywhitefrosting
8 http://www.littledebbie.com/www/findlocation?pid=4160
9 http://www.publix.com/p/RIO-PCI-139590

https://www.institutefornaturalhealing.com/2015/06/5-sources-of-hidden-trans-fats-to-avoid-at-all-costs/

Paying Respect to Dr. Kummerow

Fred Kummerow, the scientist who took the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to task for failing to protect Americans against artery-clogging trans fats, died on June 2, 2017. He was widely acknowledged for 58 years of tenacious activism that scientists believe may prevent 90,000 premature deaths per year.

June 19, 2017

Story at-a-glance

• Dr. Fred Kummerow, the key figure behind a lawsuit filed against the FDA to get trans fats removed from processed foods and stop blaming saturated fat for heart disease, died on June 2, 2017, at 102 years old
• Major news sources acknowledged Kummerow’s patience and resolve as he worked for decades to rid foods of artery-clogging trans fat, which experts say may save as many as 90,000 people a year from premature death
• Trans fat, found in partially hydrogenated oil, may cause heart disease, as may the consumption of oxidized cholesterol, found in fried foods and, sadly, about 95 percent of the foods Americans eat are processed
• It took Kummerow’s tough stance with the FDA to get them to concede that trans fats were not safe, with the caveat that unless a manufacturer could present convincing scientific evidence that a particular use was safe, they would be banned after June 18, 2018

By Dr. Mercola

As they say, patience is a virtue, and that's part of what it took for Dr. Fred A. Kummerow to accomplish what was arguably his most important work: spearheading a federal ban on synthetic trans fats in processed foods. It took nearly 50 years of what The New York Times described as his "contrarian" nature to get the job done, and it wasn't an easy task.

Kummerow, a comparative biosciences professor at the University of Illinois, died on June 2, 2017, at the age of 102. He had studied trans fats for decades — long before they were an issue in the minds of food scientists. Despite opposition and even ridicule (such as heckling by industry representatives at scientific conferences, according to his local Champaign, Illinois, newspaper, the News-Gazette1), his tenacity eventually facilitated changes in the American diet that have undoubtedly saved thousands of lives.

Perhaps it was his perseverance in working toward his goal that spurred Kummerow on to centenarian status. He started with a petition targeted toward the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2009. The agency's failure to respond led — just a few months before his 99th birthday — to his lawsuit against the agency in 2013. Two years later, the FDA agreed to start the process of banning all synthetic trans fats from food. The ban is set to go into effect in 2018.

A few brief snapshots of some of Kummerow's most pivotal moments in the fight hint at the importance of this accomplishment: He was both one of the first to suggest an association between processed foods and heart disease, and the key figure behind the FDA lawsuit, which asked the administration to simply be more responsible for the decisions the agency made that could (and did) make or break the health of consumers.

Robert Jones, chancellor at the university, called Kummerow both a "trailblazer" and "maverick."2 Michael Jacobson, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which began working toward the use of safer oils in foods in the 1980s, noted that "for many years, he was a lonely voice in the wilderness."3

What Are Trans Fats and Why Are They so Bad?

Trans fats, The New York Times explains, are "derived from the hydrogen-treated oils used to give margarine its easy-to-spread texture and prolong the shelf life of crackers, cookies, icing and hundreds of other staples in the American diet."4

If you want to get technical, trans fats are synthetic fatty acids. Kummerow pointed out that trans fats, which are not found in animal or vegetable fats, prevent the synthesis of prostacyclin,5 which studies show your body needs to prevent blood clots from forming in your arteries. The natural result, all too often, is sudden death.

Synthetic trans fats found in partially hydrogenated oil can cause heart disease, as can oxidized cholesterol, which is formed when cholesterol is heated, such as in the case of fried foods. The sad fact is, about 95 percent of the foods Americans eat are processed. The elimination of processed foods (or any foods containing trans fat) may be the single most important change you make in your diet. Here's an encouraging word: Your body can eliminate the built-up trans fats it contains in about a month.

Kummerow was the first scientist to identify trans fat as the true culprit behind clogged arteries, which for years were blamed on saturated fats (and still are, in some circles). The opposition was tremendous. Part of the problem, the News-Gazette reported, was that politics were in play, overpowering a desire for the public to be healthier as a result of governmental food policies. He was quoted in an interview:

"Professor Kummerow said that in the 1960s and 1970s the processed food industry, enjoying a cozy relationship with scientists, played a large role in keeping trans fats in people's diets."6

Kummerow told The New York Times, rather tongue in cheek, that "other scientists were more interested in what the industry was thinking than what I was thinking." Although Kummerow found a direct correlation between heart disease and trans fat consumption in women, which he called the "tip of the iceberg" after finding another disturbing link between trans fat and type 2 diabetes in women, it took another 20 years for the scientific community to acknowledge there might be something to his research.

Early Years: Influences and Opportunities

In a short autobiographical sketch,7 Kummerow outlined details of his life that offer insights regarding his early years, which undoubtedly influenced his work ethic as well as his chosen profession. He was born in Berlin in 1914. In 1923, a relative offered his father a job in a concrete block factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which ultimately helped them escape Germany's growing political turmoil.

He particularly remembered the gift of a chemistry set when he was 12, which he credited to his immediate and passionate interest in food science. Kummerow's school career followed a fairly straightforward path: Milwaukee's Boys Technical School ("because they had a three-year chemistry course"), the chemistry department at the University of Wisconsin in 1936 and graduate studies in the school's department of biochemistry four years later. He explained:

"My Ph.D. research involved identifying the chemistry of a factor in the blood (linoleic acid) that keeps the blood from clotting in the arteries and veins. This is a particularly important factor in today's cardiovascular disease research since that clotting affects the blood flow from the heart."8

In 1945, he was asked by Kansas State University to work on the technology of food storage, especially those containing fat, noting how food containing certain fat goes rancid quickly, an important observation in the throes of World War II. When the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps granted contracts to universities to work on the development of food storage methods in extreme conditions, he gained one of them, as well as a subsequent citation for his work in 1948.

Dr. Kummerow: Tenacious, Contrary and, Ultimately, Right

The citation itself, awarded at Fort Knox, was a steppingstone to his next project as a biochemist at the University of Illinois in 1950 to continue his lipid research, which he continued for the remainder of his long career. Kummerow wrote:

"In 1948, the U.S. Congress created the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and made research funds available on a variety of topics, including diet and health. The NIH was mandated to fund research on cancer and other diseases, but only a few million dollars per year were allocated for heart research until after President Eisenhower's heart attack in 1955.

With money available from NIH grants to study heart disease, I began to work in that field. The effect of cholesterol on heart disease was one avenue of study and was the one I followed. Almost everyone now has heard of cholesterol and its possible link to heart disease, with recommendations (I disagree with) to cut back on eating cholesterol containing foods such as eggs and meat, and saturated fats in foods like butter."9

When Kummerow began studying trans fats in foods in 1957 and documenting his concerns about their negative effects, he was able to show how arteries in heart disease patients literally changed in composition and developed blockages unrelated to dietary cholesterol or blood cholesterol, causing an imbalance in nutrients that can also lead to obesity. The New York Times wrote of Kummerow:

"He had been one of the first scientists to suggest a link between processed foods and heart disease. In the 1950s, while studying lipids at the university, he analyzed diseased arteries from about two dozen people who had died of heart attacks and discovered that the vessels were filled with trans fats."10

Using pigs that had been fed a diet heavy in trans fats in his next study, he revealed the high levels of plaque his porcine subjects' arteries were clogged with. In 1957, while every other scientific institution was blaming the growing number of atherosclerosis cases on saturated fats from foods like cheese, butter and cream, Kummerow published his findings about the dangers of trans fats in the journal Science. It was ignored.

It took Kummerow's tough stance with the FDA to get them to concede that trans fats are not safe, with the caveat that unless a manufacturer could present convincing scientific evidence that a particular use was safe, they would be banned after June 18, 2018. That's 58 years after Kummerow's first findings told the ugly truth about trans fats. Even now, scores of doctors and hospitals erroneously tell their patients that saturated fats are the problem.

But today, Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the T. H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard, is just one scientist who credits Kummerow's research and tireless activism for inspiring his own interest in researching trans fat. It led him to include the topic for further investigation as part of Harvard's highly influential Nurses' Health Study, published in 1993. In fact, Willett believes the push for the trans fat ban will save as many as 90,000 people a year from dying prematurely.

Dr. Kummerow: Perseverance and Passion

An individual as unique and knowledgeable as Kummerow had, like the rest of us, interesting quirks that may have hinted at some of the larger aspects of how his brain worked. For one, he had many interests, the News-Gazette noted. He wrote letters to five different sitting presidents, members of Congress and others he thought might be able to do something about some of the topics that weighed on his mind, such as energy, nuclear weaponry and the national debt.

In his biography, Kummerow recalled being an expert witness for several hearings before the Federal Trade Commission on the topic of cholesterol, reports made to a U.S. Senate hearing on nutrition and the biochemistry of cholesterol, co-authoring more than 460 peer-reviewed scientific papers, editing three books and writing chapters in six other books on the role trans fat plays in heart disease.

He called being made a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the American College of Nutrition, the American Society of Nutritional Sciences, the International Atherosclerosis Society, the American Heart Association Council on Arteriosclerosis, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, and the Council of Clinical Cardiology, and involvement with the American Heart Association a "recognition of competence."

Incidentally, Kummerow noted that his own diet included whole milk, red meat and eggs scrambled in butter. After writing his book, "Cholesterol is Not the Culprit: A Guide to Preventing Heart Disease," published just a few years before his death, he summed up the importance of respecting how the body processes food, writing:

"How the body uses food to make what we need to keep going is an incredible, almost magical, process. We — as well as all animals and plants — are not programmed to live forever, but we can certainly increase the number of high quality years of life."11

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/06/19/trans-fat-toxicity-scientist-fred-kummerow-dies.aspx

Popular statin drugs linked to cancer

It’s time to give credit where credit is due.

Your body is inhabited by an innate intelligence. It knows how to fix itself – and it wants to fix itself. But it needs the right raw materials.

And those seldom come from a chemical capsule. The latest case in point is statin drugs, reportedly taken by more than 30 million Americans.

Newsletter #610
Lee Euler, Editor

If you test high for cholesterol, your doctor will probably insist you take a statin drug. Most likely, your mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, and best friend are all on them. Do you have the guts to go against the grain?

I hope so, because these trendy drugs are associated with cancer and memory loss. What’s more, there is NO proof they reduce your risk of heart attack. Here’s what you need to know. . .

There’s a rapidly growing body of research showing that, despite drug industry claims that statin drugs protect against cancer, they actually promote cancer.

Here are just a few findings:

• Linked to increased risk of prostate cancer, in a study of nearly 2,000 men. And the higher the statin dose, the higher the risk.¹
• Higher cumulative daily doses of statins were linked to higher kidney cancer risk in patients over age 50.²
• More cancer incidence and cancer deaths in the statins group in a 2009 study.³
• Statin use is linked with thyroid cancer in women.⁴
• Women using statins long-term (10+ years) had DOUBLE the risk of breast cancer… a 1.83-fold increased risk of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and a 1.97-fold increase in invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) versus those who never used statins.⁵

Of course, correlation doesn’t prove causation. Given that these women were compliant with use of statins, they were probably also compliant with breast screening guidelines.

And breast screenings are linked to the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of 1.3 million American women over the past 30 years, so the screenings could result in more cancer diagnoses.

That’s giving statins every benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, the result could mean that statins pose a far worse problem… that statins are in some way, shape or form, carcinogenic.

At a bare minimum, these studies raise serious questions about the recent push to claim statin drugs are chemo-preventive or chemotherapeutic. (By the way, “chemo-preventive” describes any drug or chemical agent, even a food supplement, that prevents cancer.)

Authors of four studies have casually dismissed the possibility that statin drugs may cause cancer. Among other things, they claim the evidence is “insignificant,” or has “no known potential biological basis.” I wouldn’t bet on it.

Statins are also linked to an increase in diabetes, and we know there’s a connection between high blood sugar and cancer.

And the news gets even worse.

Toxic to your brain, muscles and more

Statins are linked to more than 300 adverse effects in the published scientific literature, so far…

They’re toxic to your brain, muscles, nerves, and liver. They cause diabetes, cancer, and birth defects, and disrupt your hormones.

Statins do serious damage to your most cholesterol-dependent organs – like your brain.

Turns out your brain is the most cholesterol-rich organ in your body, boasting one-fourth of all your cholesterol. Seventy percent of that – nearly three-fourths of the cholesterol in your brain — is in the essential myelin sheath that protects your nerve cells.

No wonder cholesterol plays such a pivotal role in brain health.

Low cholesterol has been named a biological marker of major depression and suicidal behavior, whereas high cholesterol is protective. One study showed that thoughts of suicide are more than 2½ times greater in adults taking statins.

Ditto for dementia. If you’ve ever worried about losing your mind to Alzheimer’s – or even if you want to avoid having “senior moments” – then skip the statins. Memory loss, including full-blown dementia, is one of the most common side effects of taking statin drugs.

Statins also cause severe irritability, homicidal tendencies, road rage, threatening behavior, violence, paranoia, antisocial behavior, plus bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

You have to damage your heart in order to save it?

One of the most well-known statin side effects is muscle breakdown and pain, as in peripheral neuropathy – the pain in fingers, toes, arms and legs associated with advanced diabetes. The rate of occurrence is as high as 40 percent in just the first few months of statin use.

One of the worst outcomes of muscle toxicity is – irony of ironies – that statins actually damage your heart – your hardest working muscle. The one statins supposedly protect.

Big Pharma has gone to the ends of the world to promote statins as the ultimate wonder drug.

Yet with statins your heart gets weaker instead of stronger.

Statins deplete heart-protective coenzyme Q10, as well as cardio-protective minerals. Statins also decimate omega-3 fatty acids. That’s why omega-3s are protective for those who don’t use statins, but are of no benefit to statin users.

Just to sum up all this: millions of statin users are risking their hearts and their very lives on a bad bet.

Heart disease is not caused by lack of a drug.

Nor is it caused by high cholesterol.

Fight the real culprit behind heart disease

Your arteries don’t suddenly become clogged because you eat too many eggs or even too much richly-marbled beef and pork. This myth is a carryover from a poorly run study that led everyone to shun fatty foods a few decades ago. These days, the theory that natural fat causes heart disease or obesity is dead and buried.

The big mistake is lumping all fats into one evil category.

First order of business: Ditch all cheap vegetable oils.

After all the publicity about this subject, I hope most people are savvy enough to know that hydrogenated fats – trans fats — are bad. But here’s the proverbial elephant in the room…

Hydrogenated oils are the #1 cause of heart disease and a major contributor to neurological disorders. Their poison accelerates plaque buildup like crazy.

They’re artificial and never appear in nature. They’re made solely for the convenience and profit of food manufacturers. They spoil less readily than do natural fats and therefore give foods a longer shelf life.

Hydrogenated oils are found abundantly in nearly every baked, fried, and packaged product in your grocery store (and favorite restaurant). The aisles containing vegetable and wheat crackers, cookies and chips are so tainted with this heart poison they should carry a warning label.

Look for the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated,” and if you see either, put the item back. Let food makers know they can no longer sell you chemicals in a pretty box and call it food.

Enjoy delicious foods that protect you from heart disease

Now that you know what to avoid, it’s time to enjoy foods that’ll actually help sweep your arteries clean. And they won’t cause cancer either.

You need healthy natural fats like omega-3 fatty acids, fish, nuts, seeds, butter, olive and coconut oil, and avocados.

In addition, enjoy this lip-smacking food that gives statins a $29 billion run for their money…

Chocolate. Just half an ounce a week lowers your blood pressure and reduces your risk of dying from any cause by a stunning 50%. More delicious than a statin any day. Use in moderation, and cut your risk of heart disease in half.

Make sure you eat dark chocolate. Health food stores now feature chocolate bars whose labels tell you the percentage that’s dark. Personally, I choose 100% dark chocolate – no sugar or milk at all. Takes some getting used to, but now I like it.

And here’s a tip you learned as a child…

Pass the apples… Pass on the statins

An apple a day. Oxford researchers found that one apple per day was as effective as statins – without the awful side effects.⁶ The worst side effect from apples was the trauma caused by a bruised apple – or finding half a worm inside.

Another study found that an apple a day for just four weeks lowered LDL cholesterol by 40%.⁷ Editorial comment: That’s incredible.

Pomegranate. A study showed that drinking pomegranate juice daily reversed carotid artery stenosis (a leading cause of stroke) by up to 29% within one year.⁸ Meanwhile, blockages in the control group that didn’t consume pomegranate got nine percent worse. Pomegranate has been shown to have a long list of heart benefits.

Other foods. Eat generous amounts of these foods if you want to have a healthy heart: garlic, organic spinach, organic berries, turmeric, chia seeds, tomatoes, leafy greens, olive oil, and organic green tea.

If you follow all or even a few of these tips, chances are, you’ll never hear your doctor say you need statin drugs. Just say no, and spare yourself cancer, brain dysfunction, neuropathy, diabetes, and so much more.

http://www.cancerdefeated.com/3679/3679/

MUST READ: Saturated Fat - No Grounds for Current Warnings Against

22 December 2014

Americans have long been told to stay away from foods high in saturated fats.  But new research suggest they might not be as bad for you as once thought.

Systematic Review Finds No Grounds for Current Warnings Against Saturated Fat

This post is on Healthwise

Story at-a-glance

• Despite low-fat diets having become the norm over the past six decades, American levels of heart disease, obesity, and high cholesterol have skyrocketed
• Four years ago, a meta-analysis came to the conclusion that there’s “no significant evidence... that saturated fat is associated with an increased risk for coronary heart disease”
• Another recent meta analysis also found that saturated fats, which have the longest history of being (wrongfully) demonized were found to have no effect on heart disease risk
• The only fat found to really promote heart disease was trans fat (found in margarine, vegetable shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils)
• To protect your heart health, you need to address your insulin and leptin resistance, which is the result of eating a diet too high in sugars and grains

By Dr. Mercola

For well over half a century, the media and a majority of health care officials have warned that saturated fats are bad for your health and lead to a host of negative consequences, including high cholesterol, obesity, and heart disease.

The American Heart Association began encouraging Americans to limit dietary fat, particularly animal fats, in order to reduce their risk of heart disease as far back as 1961. And as of 2010, the current recommendations from the US Department of Agriculture1 (USDA) call for reducing your saturated fat intake to a mere 10 percent of your total calories or less.

Worse yet, fat was virtually removed entirely from the latest USDA "food pyramid," now called "MyPlate." Except for a small portion of dairy, which is advised to be fat-free or low-fat, fats are missing entirely!

But despite low-fat diets having become the norm over the past six decades, American levels of heart disease, obesity, and high cholesterol have skyrocketed, far surpassing such disease rates in modern-day primitive societies that still use saturated fat as a dietary staple.

Clearly there's a lot of confusion on the subject of saturated fats, even among health care professionals. Fortunately, the tide is starting to turn, as the truth about these correlations is becoming more glaringly obvious.

Systematic Review Finds No Grounds for Current Guidelines on Fat

Four years ago, a meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition2 came to the conclusion that there's "no significant evidence... that saturated fat is associated with an increased risk for coronary heart disease."

Now, yet another meta-analysis of 49 observational studies and 27 randomized controlled trials published in a major publication, the Annals of Internal Medicine3,4,5 has reached the same conclusion. In all, the analysis included data from more than 600,000 people from 18 countries, and according to the authors:

"[C]urrent evidence does not clearly support cardiovascular guidelines that encourage high consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and low consumption of total saturated fats."

The study looked at four categories of dietary fats: saturated fats; polyunsaturated fats, such as omega-3 and omega-6; monounsaturated fats such as olive oil; and trans fats. Saturated fats, which have the longest history of being (wrongfully) demonized, were found to have no effect on heart disease risk.

Ditto for monounsaturated fats such as olive oil, which are generally recognized as being heart healthy. Both omega-3s and omega-6s were also deemed to be beneficial6, 7 for heart health. The only fat found to really promote heart disease was trans fat (found in margarine, vegetable shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils). Fortunately, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already taken steps to remove these harmful fats from the food supply.

They plan to do this by removing partially hydrogenated oils—the primary source of trans fats—from the list of "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) ingredients. If the proposal goes through, it would be a big step in the right direction. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also previously called for the elimination of trans fats from the global food supply.8

According to the authors of the featured analysis, the lack of correlation between saturated fat and heart disease really should trigger a review of our current dietary guidelines for heart health. Others still vehemently disagree, to the detriment of anyone listening to their recommendations. As reported by MedicineNet.com:9

"In response to the study, the American Heart Association says its guidelines remain the same. For heart health, it recommends a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, nuts, and unsaturated fats. Less than six percent of the diet should include saturated and trans fats, the association says."

Sugar, Not Fat, Drives Heart Disease

Many health experts now believe that if you are insulin or leptin resistant, as 85 percent of the US population is, you likely need anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of your daily calories in the form of healthful fats for optimal health. Research also increasingly points to refined carbohydrates (particularly processed fructose) as being the real culprit behind rising heart disease rates. 

In the 1960s, British physician John Yudkin was among the first to challenge Ancel Keys' hypothesis that saturated fat caused heart disease by raising cholesterol, stating that SUGAR is the culprit in heart disease—not saturated fat.

Unfortunately, Keys was a politically powerful figure, and it was his flawed cholesterol theory that ultimately gained firm traction within the medical establishment. By the 1970s, you were considered a total quack if you supported Yudkin's sugar theory.

In more recent years, Yudkin's work has been proven prophetic—and far more accurate than Keys' ever was. For example, a 2010 study published in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition10 found that when you replace saturated fat with a higher carbohydrate intake, particularly refined carbohydrate, you exacerbate insulin resistance and obesity, increase triglycerides and small LDL particles, and reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol.

The authors state that dietary efforts to improve your cardiovascular disease risk should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate intake and weight reduction.

Courtesy of the low-fat myth taking firm hold, this is the polar opposite of what actually occurred over the past half century. While saturated fat consumption was dramatically reduced in most people's diet, refined carbohydrate intake dramatically increased. Today, refined fructose is added to virtually every kind of processed food and beverage on the US market.

One of the reasons for all this added sugar is because when you remove fat, you lose flavor. So sugar is used to add flavor back in. Consumption of harmful trans fat (which for decades was touted as a healthier alternative to saturated animal fat) also radically increased, starting in the mid-1950s.

Replacing Saturated Fats with Carbohydrates Has Led to Elevated Disease Risks Across the Board

In the final analysis, it seems clear that one seriously flawed hypothesis gaining foothold in the minds of the medical establishment has led to a decades-long snowball effect of dietary recommendations that have both altered the food supply for the worse, and led to an avalanche of otherwise avoidable chronic diseases.

Evidence of this was recently highlighted in an excellent editorial in the journalOpen Heart.11 In it, research scientist and doctor of pharmacy James J. DiNicolantonio reviews the cardiometabolic consequences of replacing saturated fats with carbohydrates, which includes the following:

Shift to overall atherogenic lipid profile (lower HDL, increased triglycerides and increased ApoB/ApoA-1 ratio)	Increased risk of coronary heart disease, cardiovascular events, and death from heart disease and increased overall mortality (all causes)	Increased thrombogenic markers
Increased oxidized LDL	Increased inflammation	Reduced HDL
Impaired glucose tolerance, higher body fat, weight gain, obesity, and diabetes	Increased small, high-density LDL particles	Increased risk for cancer

Heart Disease Prevention 101

Groundbreaking research by the likes of Dr. Robert Lustig and Dr. Richard Johnson (author of the books, The Sugar Fix andThe Fat Switch) clearly identifies the root cause of heart disease—and it's not fat. It's refined fructose, consumed in excessive amounts. Their research, and that of others, provides us with a clear solution to our current predicament. 

In short, if you want to protect your heart health and avoid a number of other chronic disease states, you need to address your insulin and leptin resistance, which is the result of eating a diet too high in sugars and grains. 

For those of you still concerned about your cholesterol levels, know that 75 percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels. 

Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol, thereby reducing your risk of both diabetes and heart disease. 

To safely and effectively reverse insulin and leptin resistance, thereby lowering your heart disease risk, you need to:

• Avoid sugar, processed fructose, grains if you are insulin and leptin resistant, and processed foods
• Eat a healthful diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs with:
• Large amounts of vegetables
• Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein (think organically raised, pastured animals)
• As much high-quality healthful fat as you want (saturated and monounsaturated from animal and tropical oil sources). Most people actually need upwards of 50-85 percent fats in their diet for optimal health—a far cry from the 10 percent or less that is currently recommended. Sources of healthful fats to add to your diet include:avocados; butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk; raw dairy; organic pastured egg yolks; coconuts and coconut oil; unheated organic nut oils; raw nuts and seeds; and grass-fed and finished meats

A third "add-on" suggestion is to start intermittent fasting, which will radically improve your ability to burn fat as your primary fuel. This too will help restore optimal insulin and leptin signaling.

Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Are Both Necessary for Optimal Health

Saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources provide a number of important health benefits, and your body requiresthem for the proper function of your:

Cell membranes	Heart	Bones (to assimilate calcium)
Liver	Lungs	Hormones
Immune system	Satiety (reducing hunger)	Genetic regulation

Cholesterol also carries out essential functions within your cell membranes, and is critical for proper brain function and production of steroid hormones, including your sex hormones. Vitamin D is also synthesized from a close relative of cholesterol: 7-dehydrocholesterol. Your body is composed of trillions of cells that need to interact with each other. Cholesterol is one of the molecules that allow for these interactions to take place.

For example, cholesterol is the precursor to bile acids, so without sufficient amounts of cholesterol, your digestive system can be adversely affected. It's also critical for synapse formation in your brain, i.e. the connections between your neurons, which allow you to think, learn new things, and form memories. In fact, there's reason to believe that low-fat diets and/or cholesterol-lowering drugs may cause or contribute to Alzheimer's disease.12 Low cholesterol levels have also been linked to violent behavior, due to adverse changes in brain chemistry.

To further reinforce the importance of cholesterol, I want to remind you of the work of  Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who most recently made a giant splash in the world of science with her discovery of how glyphosate acts to destroy human health. According to her theory on cholesterol, it combines with sulfur to form cholesterol sulfate, which helps thin your blood by serving as a reservoir for the electron donations you receive when walking barefoot on the earth (also called grounding). She believes that, via this blood-thinning mechanism, cholesterol sulfate may provide natural protection against heart disease. In fact, she goes so far as to hypothesize that heart disease is likely the result of cholesterol deficiency—which of course is the complete opposite of the conventional view.

For Optimal Heart Health, Balance Your Omega-3 to Omega-6 Ratio

Another critical fat your body needs for optimal health is animal-based omega-3. Omega-3 deficiency can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. Again demonstrating the abject failure of government guidelines to promote health, the 2011 "food pyramid" (MyPlate) doesn't even mention omega-3. To remedy this gross "oversight," I've created my own Food Pyramid for Optimal Health, which you can print out and share with your friends and family.  

 

As for omega-6 fats, it's important to understand that while you do need them, the most important factor is the ratio between omega-3 and omega-6. The ideal ratio is thought to be anywhere between 1:1 and 1:5, but the typical Western diet is between 1:20 and 1:50 in favor of omega-6, courtesy of an overabundance of industrially processed vegetable oils. As an oversimplification, omega-3s are anti-inflammatory, whereas omega-6s are pro-inflammatory. Hence, when omega-6 is consumed in excess, it can become problematic — and even more so if it's damaged through processing. I firmly believe that increasing your omega-3 and reducing industrialized omega-6 oils is a profoundly important and simple shift in diet that you need to address. For a more complete discussion of the differences between types of dietary fat, omega-3 versus omega-6, DHA, EPA, etc., please refer to our comprehensive fatty acids overview.

Preventing Heart Disease Is Within Your Control

The take home message here is that eating saturated fats like butter, coconut oil, and avocados will not increase your risk of heart disease. On the contrary, it is extremely important for optimal health, including your heart and cardiovascular health. 

What WILL dramatically raise your risk of heart disease and any number of other chronic health problems is refined carbohydrates, including sugar, fructose, and all unsprouted grains. Replacing saturated fats with trans fats and carbohydrates is precisely what has led to a literal "world of hurt" over the past several decades. 

Fortunately, reversing this trend is rather simple, but it will require you to buck a very stubborn status quo—albeit a status quo that is starting to crumble at the foundation, as more and more researchers are coming to the conclusion that we've had it all backwards. 

So, in summary, if you want to prevent heart disease:

• DO eat unprocessed saturated animal fats. Many may benefit from increasing the healthful fat in their diet to 50-85 percent of daily calories
• AVOID all sugars, including processed fructose and grains if you are insulin and leptin resistant. It doesn't matter if they are conventional or organic, as a high-sugar diet promotes insulin and leptin resistance, which is a primary driver of heart disease
• DO exercise regularly, as physical activity along with a healthy diet of whole, preferably organic, foods may be just as potent—if not more potent—than cholesterol-lowering drugs
• AVOID cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins, as the side effects of these drugs are numerous while the benefits are debatable. In my view, the only group of people who may benefit from a statin drug are those with genetic familial hypercholesterolemia. This is a condition characterized by abnormally high cholesterol, which tend to be resistant to lifestyle strategies like diet and exercise

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/12/22/saturated-fat-heart-disease.aspx

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