Is Saturated Animal Fat Good For You?

Today, we’ll talk about one of the oldest concerns regarding diet:  is animal fat really as bad as the media and medical establishment makes it out to be?  How many times in your life have you heard “avoid red meat?”

This is the latest in a series about the Primal Blueprint, a book that I encourage my patients to read.  It is written by Mark Sisson, an ex-marathon runner and fitness expert who is the co-developer of the P90X Extreme Home Fitness Workout Program.

The Primal Blueprint premise is that, based on evolutionary biology, the human body is physiologically designed to metabolize animal and plant food sources in their natural state (thus, excluding prepared foods and crop foods; i.e. grains–wheat, rye, oats, etc.); be active in the form of long walks/slower movements with intermittent periods of intense bursts (no long runs or other excessive endurance exercises); and to engage in playful activities (a great excuse to have fun!).

Human physiology has not changed much at all over the last million years; only the food source has.  So any major alteration to the dietary habits that existed thousands of years ago is not going to agree very well with the human body.  This can include overweight/obesity problems, heart disease, high blood pressure, metabolic disease like diabetes, autoimmune diseases like Chron’s, celiac sprue, leaky gut syndrome, arthritis, and of course, cancer.  All these diseases plague society and continue to persist despite the best medicine has to offer, and research shows that many if not all of them are “lifestyle factor” related diseases; i.e. due to the patient’s dietary and other lifestyle choices.

Conventional wisdom says to limit your intake of saturated animal fat because “eating fat makes you fat.”  CW says to replace saturated fats (meat, lard, dairy) with polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils.

Primal Blueprint says there is little or no association between consuming animal fat and getting heart disease (Framingham and Nurses Health studies).  Animal protein with associated fat should be the major dietary calorie source.  Animal protein/fat drove human evolution/advancement of brain function for two million years.  Promotes efficient fat metabolism, weight control and stable energy levels.  The major risk factors for heart disease are actually Metabolic Syndrome, driven by excess PUFA (polyunsaturated fats) and insufficient Omega-3s, high carbohydrate/excess insulin production, and an overly stressful lifestyle.

If you stop for a moment to think about it, it makes a lot of sense.  Our muscles are made up of protein, and we need protein to maintain muscle tissue.  Our cell membranes are made up of cholesterol, a main constituent of saturated animal fat.  The cell membrane is critical as it determines what can enter and exit the cell, and how well the cell is able to function.  It’s not the saturated animal fat that is the culprit in heart disease; the body definitely needs this food source, and has needed it for the past two million years.

The next post will deal with the controversial topic of cholesterol.  Where do you think cholesterol fits in in the Primal Blueprint?

Dr. Perez