As I was
perusing the shelves of my favorite bookstore (Half-Price Books), I caught
sight of The Big Fat Surprise: Why
Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, written by Nina Teicholz.
The cover was, I admit, rather off-putting for me: it features a roast of some
sort below a glowing golden halo. However, “fat” is the magic word for me, so I
took a gander at the cover blurb. There it was: “With conclusions based on her
nine-year investigation, [she] reveals the unthinkable: everything we’ve ben
told about fat is wrong. She documents how overzealous researchers allowed weak
science to take hold in public imagination and become dietary dogma.” I bought
the book and took it home with me.
Teicholz is
interesting in that she is not a nutrition industry “insider”: she is actually
a journalist. As a reporter, she was in a far better position to look at
current nutritional guidelines with a jaundiced eye. As she explains in her
tome, nutritionists who question the long-held conclusions about fat face
serious prejudice from their colleagues, up to and including outright refusal
to provide funding for or publish studies. Free from concerns about
professional blacklisting, she was able to openly question long-held beliefs
about the relationships between dietary fat, cholesterol, and heart health.
Teicholz
provides ample evidence to support her conclusion that dietary fat is not the
problem many of us have been taught to consider it: she clearly and carefully
explains the limitations of observational studies in general and identifies
some of the serious flaws of many of the most famous studies upon which the fat
guidelines were based. For instance, Ornish, whose studies did show a
correlation between lower fat consumption and improved heart health, did not
isolate fat consumption as an intervention: his experimental groups were also
told to exercise more, reduce their consumption of refined carbohydrates, and
quit smoking. Furthermore, they were often provided with tangible support (in
the form of smoking cessation support and provided meals), whereas the control
group received were entirely free-living. Teicholz also found a study in which
the experimental group received two interventions: cholesterol-lowering drugs
and a dietary intervention. The
researchers conducting the study concluded that the diet was responsible for
the reduction and conveniently downplayed the possibility that the medications
(which the control group did not receive) played a role.
The book is
not an “easy read,” but it is interesting. Readers who are familiar with the
theories and researchers explored in the books will likely enjoy seeing the
other side. Laypeople will appreciate the footnotes that clarify ideas that
might be unfamiliar. Teicholz does an excellent job of addressing
counterarguments (indeed, the entire book is a rebuttal) and provides numerous
citations in support of both her claims and those claims that she seeks to
refute.
An
important note: Teicholz directly addresses the issue of meat and ethics in a
short note at the end of her book. This thoughtful and direct concession is
refreshing in a world in which people tend to ignore the ethical implications
of their choices as consumers. Readers who are concerned about these issues
(animal welfare, environment, etc.) should begin with the note and understand
that Teicholz’s purpose in writing this was to explore which types of fats are
the most health-inducing for humans: she did not seek to understand which ones
were the most beneficial to the environment or to animals. While the bulk of
the book focuses on the history of our nation’s descent into fatlessness, the
health consequences of that trend, possible solutions, and the research
supporting all of the above, Teicholz explicitly recommends a return to
consumption of animal fats, including body fat. The idea of eating body fat is
a little bit tough to swallow (yuk yuk) for a vegetarian or a vegan. Anyone who
is vegetarian or vegan needs to know that
both tallow and lard make appearances on these pages: don’t let these
ideas distract you from the “meat” of the book: fat isn’t the bad guy!
