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Tuesday 16 February 2016

Dr Aseem Malhotra: The truth about fat and sugar

The truth about fat and sugar: Cardiologist explains why FAT is the best medicine - and why it's so crucial to our health

  • Dr Aseem Malhotra is a cardiologist and founder of Action on Sugar
  • Says fat has been unfairly demonised when sugar is the real villain 
  • Claims full fat diary can actually prevent heart disease and type 2 diabetes
  • And diabetics told to eat carbs are unwittingly wrecking their health  

For decades, we were told that eating fat would lead us to early grave. Horror stories of clogged arteries and coronaries were the norm, while foods such as pasta were seen as healthy.

But research is increasingly disproving this theory - and sugar is now public enemy number one.

In fact, fat is good for us and should be our medicine, claims cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, who is based in Surrey.

He says a mounting slew of evidence suggests that far from contributing to heart problems, having full fat dairy in your diet may actually protect you from heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  

Here, writing for Men's Health, he explains his controversial view...

This morning, as I do most days, I breakfasted on a three egg omelette cooked in coconut oil, with a whole milk coffee.

I enjoyed a wedge of full fat cheese with my lunch, poured a liberal dose of olive oil on my evening salad and snacked on nuts throughout the day. 

In short, I ingested a fair amount of fat and, as a cardiologist who has treated thousands of people with heart disease, this may seem a particularly peculiar way to behave. 

Fat, after all, furs up our arteries and piles on the pounds – or at least that’s what prevailing medical and dietary advice has had us believe.

As a result, most of us have spent years eschewing full fat foods for their ‘low fat’ equivalents, in the hope it will leave us fitter and healthier.

Yet I’m now convinced we have instead been doing untold damage: far from being the best thing for health or weight loss, a low fat diet is the opposite. 

In fact, I would go so far as to say the change in dietary advice in 1977 to restrict the amount of fat we were eating helped to fuel the obesity epidemic unfolding today.

It’s a bold statement, but one I believe is upheld by an array of recent research.

WHY I ENCOURAGE MY PATIENTS TO EAT FAT

These days I make a point of telling my patients – many of whom are coping with debilitating heart problems – to avoid anything bearing the label ‘low fat’. 

Better instead, I tell them, to embrace full fat dairy and other saturated fats within the context of a healthy eating plan. 

It’s an instruction that is sometimes greeted with open-mouthed astonishment, along with my request to steer clear of anything that promises to reduce cholesterol – another of those edicts we are told can promote optimum heart and artery health.

As we will see, the reality is far more nuanced: in some cases lowering cholesterol levels can actually increase cardiovascular death and mortality, while in healthy people over 60 a higher cholesterol is associated with a lower risk of mortality. Why, exactly, we will come to later.

First though, let me make it clear that until very recently, I too assumed that keeping fat to a minimum was the key to keeping healthy and trim.

In fact, to say my diet revolved around carbohydrates - sugared cereal, toast and orange juice for breakfast, a panini for lunch and pasta for dinner was not an uncommon daily menu.

Good solid fuel, or so I thought, especially as I am a keen sportsman and runner. 

Still, I had a wedge of fat round my stomach which no amount of football and running seemed to shift.

That, though, wasn’t the reason I started to explore changing what I ate. 

THE TOXIC TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR

That process started in 2012, when I read a paper called ‘The toxic truth about sugar’ by Robert Lustig in the science journal Nature.

In it, Lustig, a Professor of Paediatrics who also works at the University of California’s Centre for Obesity Assessment, said the dangers to human health caused by added sugar were such that products packed with it should carry the same warnings as alcohol. 

It was an eye-opener: as a doctor I already knew too much of anything is bad for you, but here was someone telling us that something most of ate unthinkingly every day was, slowly, killing us.

The more I looked into it, the more it became abundantly clear to me that it was sugar, not fat, which was causing so many of our problems.

This is why, along with a group of fellow medical specialists, I launched the lobbying group Action on Sugar last year with the aim of persuading the food industry to reduce added sugar in processed foods.

Then earlier this year I had another light-bulb moment. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Graham

18 comments:

Launna said...

I'm on total agreeance. .. I'm so against so called low call food and I have been for years. I did like pasta too much years ago but I've learned to curb that. I'm into moderation. .. I do eat lots of veggies and whole foods too xox

Anonymous said...

Great article, very interesting. A whole decade or more of advising our patients to eat low fat diets; cut the skin off chicken, avoid snacking on nuts as they are high in fat, be careful with avocados, in cardiac, diabetic and weight management clinics across the country.

Unsurprisingly, had to listen to the same old comment today... ''doctors don't study nutrition in depth in their courses''. Politely explained that we need to get our heads out of our arses and start learning from each other and respecting each other. Doctors are specialists in their field and know a damn sight more about the body, endocrinology, hormones and pathways than many of us do! And yes, believe it or not they can read and understand a research paper and review the 'evidence' for themselves!

Anonymous said...

What a brilliant article. Thank you for posting this.
I think it should be compulsory reading for all.

As the Doctor said to start " if you do one thing, make it this: next time you are in the supermarket and are tempted to pick up a pack of low-fat spread, buy a pack of butter instead or, better still, a bottle of extra virgin olive oil."

Anonymous said...

Highly recommended article DO READ MORE use link at bottom of post
Ted

Passthecream said...

It is good to see this information coming out so clear and loud in the popular press. Thanks for the link, I've been forwarding it all over the place!

Linda said...

It's going to take a while for people to accept such a radical change. I've done very low fat and low carb and both are hard to do. Now it's winter and I'm finding it difficult to find fresh veggies. Most are slightly brown when you buy them and by the next day they're not fit to eat. I plan to make a trip to a better supermarket soon but it's an hour away and the weather's been bad here.

Anonymous said...

This woke me up with a jolt. A very informed and interesting article.

Jenny S

Linda Kay said...

Jan, sounds a lot like the Adkins theory on eating fat and no sugar. We try to stay close to the "modified" version.

Anonymous said...

You keep rolling out the same narrow band of brothers here, how many times are you going to mention this man, Kendrick and the like? Other heart specialists and GPs exist and nearly all of them disagree with your chosen few, but no doubt they are all in the pocket of Big Pharma, they would be rolling in it even more wouldn't they if they had the journalistic and book deals of the aforementioned?

Lowcarb team member said...

Anonymous said...
You keep rolling out the same narrow band of brothers here, how many times are you going to mention this man, Kendrick and the like? Other heart specialists and GPs exist and nearly all of them disagree with your chosen few, but no doubt they are all in the pocket of Big Pharma, they would be rolling in it even more wouldn't they if they had the journalistic and book deals of the aforementioned?

It may have escaped your attention but the blog title is The Low Carb Diabetic therefore we promote those that in our experience view the Low Carb is the way forward especially in the the field of diabetes.

The other heart specialists and GP's you mention would prefer we were all rattling with pills instead of following a diet that negates the the need for medications.

Nothing stopping you from starting your own blog were you can promote those that reflect your views, though of course you will realise that your efforts would be futile.

Low Carbing for almost eight years

Graham

Anonymous said...

That's fair enough then, so long as the advice is confined to diabetics.

Lowcarb team member said...

"Anonymous said...
That's fair enough then, so long as the advice is confined to diabetics."

Who are you to approve or decide what we publish on this blog?

Negative anons have never carried any weight on this blog, that goes for you my friend.

Eddie

Anonymous said...

The weight should be in the argument Eddie not where its coming from. Did you see the pictures of the 2 year old girl dying from meningitis in the UK media, the healthy baby girl followed by the intensive care image,do you think a Noaksian baby weening food regime would have prevented this? Of course not, the biggest online petition in parliamentary history is calling for a vaccination of all children up to the age of eleven, who do you think is going to help these children and provide the vavcine - couldn't be Big Pharma could it,those you keep ranting against? Or do you think the solution will come from the world of alternative medicine?

Lowcarb team member said...

Remind me again, how many $billions big pharma has been fined for dishonesty over the last ten years. Don't forget the Glaxo boss stated publicly most drugs don't work on most people.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/glaxo-chief-our-drugs-do-not-work-on-most-patients-5508670.html

No diet would have saved that poor child, the problem we have today with the massive corruption and criminality of big pharma is, which drugs do work. We also have to consider the damage done by big pharma drugs.

We promote a whole fresh food lifestyle here for all. A pretty safe bet I reckon. And unlike so many dietitians and medics on the payroll of junk food and big pharma, we work for love not money and handouts.

Eddie

chris c said...

Someone isn't eating enough fat, it's addled its brain.

Lowcarb team member said...

Anonymous said...
That's fair enough then, so long as the advice is confined to diabetics.

Firstly we don't give advice we just recount our own and other peoples experiences of low carb.

Secondly there are millions of non metabolically challenged people following a low carb or similar so logically what we post pertains to them too

Graham

Anonymous said...

The world of meat and livestock has been beset by scandal after scandal but I don't see you advocating a vegan diet Eddie.

Lowcarb team member said...

Anonymous said...
The world of meat and livestock has been beset by scandal after scandal but I don't see you advocating a vegan diet Eddie.

Is that not just the same for any of the food groups, think pesticides, GMO and lab produced frankenfoods

Like me Eddie is a lifelong omnivore as such why on earth would we advocate a vegan diet.