Fat Lies! And a sweaty cardio circuit

      Let me post today's cardio workout before I get to the sciencey stuff :) It's good stuff, so please read on after taking a look at the workout.
     Today's workout is a cardio circuit that involves intermittent jogging and jumping! I completed it in about 35 minutes, including a warm up and cool down jog. For my warm up, I jogged to a nearby park and found a shady grove of trees :)

     There was a sidewalk loop that took me around the small park and back to the grove, but you don't have to have a loop or a park. This circuit can be done anywhere! You can even do it next to the treadmill if that's your thing :)

Takes about 30-35 minutes

 Try to jump (and even tuck jump!) at the top of your burpees!

Now onto those lies I referred to in my title :)

*Disclaimer: The following discussion does not give us permission to chow down on cheese smothered bowls of sausage and bacon for breakfast! :)

    The idea that saturated fat is not  the devil incarnate is slowly coming into the spotlight. Early studies (1950s and 1960s, just before the original food pyramid became the gold standard) on the link between saturated fat and heart disease have been picked apart many times over in the last ten years. In fact, most studies demonizing fat were picked apart to begin with  by the scientific community; however, the American public is rarely privy to behind the scenes arguments. After reading so much on this topic, I feel like I could write about it all day. But don't worry! I'll just mention a few findings, and if you want to learn more, I suggest reading Death by Food Pyramid (which is where I found most of this information) and The Big Fat Surprise.

• The famed "Mediterranean Diet," which involves a diet low in saturated fat and high in whole grains, is based on the island of Crete. Ancel Keys, who was the famous American scientist behind the "fat=death" movement, failed to mention that the citizens of Crete were intermittently fasting  when he collected data on their diet and occurrences of heart disease. Intermittent fasting, done correctly, has been found to reduce overall cholesterol levels and provide many health benefits. Keys' peers pointed out this scientific blunder, but Keys pretended this oversight didn't exist. Oops. So the results of his study on this particular group of people prove nothing, because Keys performed terrible  scientific practices. 
• Keys also  ignored the fact that citizens on Crete consumed more vegetables than other regions studied, consumed a high amount of omega-3 rich foods, and during particular religious seasons practiced intermittent fasting. He did not control his study for saturated fat consumption...which is a pretty basic scientific practice.
• Ancel Keys, again the scientist with whom we trusted to deliver the nation sound nutritional advice, completed another study, called the Six Countries Study. Here's the problem...he actually studied twenty-two  countries and gave no valid explanation for eliminating 16 countries. 
• Here are a two charts that go with the above bullet. The left side includes the six countries Keys' included in his study. The right side includes data he conveniently left out.

Instead of trying to figure out why citizens of countries like Norway and Holland could consume high amounts of saturated fat and not die at the same rates as citizens in the U.S. and Canada, Keys decided to leave the data out of his conclusions!!! This is so absurd. Chart created by scientists Yerushalmy and Hilleboe

           Ready for the worst part? Keys didn't even base his fat consumption data on food that people ate. His data came from food that was AVAILABLE, not consumed, to each country.  Notice the United States looks pretty bad. That's because the U.S. had the most meat and dairy available for consumption. Keys didn't study whether or not American citizens were actually consuming all that fat. He also didn't take into consideration any other part of lifestyle or diet.  (Like a daily recommendation of 6-11 servings of grain in the 60s and 70s.)

       So what does this nearly 60 year old study have to do with us? Well, the USDA used this information to create the food pyramid that recommends absurd amounts of whole grains and as little fat as possible. Our idea of what is healthy for us is based on heavily flawed studies (Ancel Keys' studies are just a few examples) that show no causation between saturated fat and heart disease. Here's one more picture that really puts things into perspective: two scientists reviewing Keys' study dug deeper into the data from the study and found that fat had the strongest negative correlation with mortality. On average, countries that consumed the highest amounts of fat had citizens living longer. Hmmm.  That means Ancel Keys lied to the public about his findings, and then the USDA used the data to tell you how to eat.

Chart created by scientists Yerushalmy and Hilleboe

So now that I've talked too much, let me say a few things about what I'm not  saying:

1. I'm not saying fat and cholesterol are perfectly safe under all circumstances. It all depends on the other foods you eat ::cough::breadpastarice::cough:: and your lifestyle. For example, I would never recommend this diet to my grandmother who loves to sneak candy and cookies throughout the day. If she consumed a high fat diet, the combination of sugar and fat would absolutely take its toll.

2. A green light for saturated fat doesn't mean we can ignore vegetables. Vegetables provide much needed fiber and nutrients. I consume a good bit of fat, but I also consume a lot of vegetables, as seen in my "Week in the Life" post. 

3. You still can't overeat. I maintain my belief that total calories are correlated to our weight, but since I began eating primal/paleo, I consume fewer calories because my meals are much more filling.

So what does make us fat if it's not fat? Oh my goodness I could write forever, but here are a few quick points:

1. Sugar. It's hiding everywhere. Cereal, granola bars, juices, flavored waters, and yogurt.

2. Pasta. Half a cup of pasta is a serving. Really? Who eats half a cup of pasta?  No one. And that's the problem.

3. Grains. Americans overdo it on the granola, quinoa, couscous, rice, white bread, wheat bread, oatmeal, oats, chips, crackers, and corn. (Read labels...corn is everywhere and it's a grain.)

4. Excess Carbs.  When you eat more than you burn, it's stored as fat. Refined carbs raise blood sugar, so your body produces insulin to lower your blood sugar. It just so happens that insulin is a hormone that plays a significant role in your body's fat storage. With more insulin running around your body trying to make up for that bowl of oatmeal or honey-nut cheerios, your body is going to convert those excess carbs to fat and store them in all of our favorite places. Sure, this is an incredibly over simplified version of how this all works, but you can see we're asking our bodies to do a lot of work just so we can eat an oatmeal square for breakfast. A breakfast of eggs and sauteed spinach, all cooked in coconut oil, will not send a surge of insulin on a rescue mission in our blood stream.

I'm really done talking now. Thanks for reading up to this point. You are officially allowed to come to the conclusion that I'm a kook, but I'm a kook who feels a lot better after adjusting the way I eat :)

Question: What still makes you suspicious about fat consumption? Scroll all the way down to comment!