Fats; Do you Know What You Think You Know?

“Common Knowledge” is a phrase we all rely on everyday;

Red sky at night Shepherds delight, chavs are trouble, fats are bad. Woah wait a minute, not everything that we believe to be true is always so, yes, chavs are trouble. No fats are not always bad.

In the 1950’s a prominent AMA (America Medical Association) Cancer surgeon went public advising “One could modify and old slogan; A pack a day keeps lung cancer away” in reference to smoking (Ironically he died in a fire caused by smoking in bed). Sometimes, health claims are made simply because someone pays a person enough money. If you rely on what the media tells us about helath how much do you really know about the way to a healthier body…

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At some point in the 1970’s it became “common knowledge” that fats caused a host of ailments (The “Fat Hypothesis”)but just who started that idea? And why?

The answer to that question lies somewhere between politics, money, big Pharma and waste products of the food industry. A subject I dare not broach in a single post, or perhaps ever.

Did you know that The Journal of The American Medical Association published a long term study in 1966 showing that a diet high in Animal products did result in higher cholesterol levels than their counterparts who consumed a grain, margarine, corn oil, cereals, chicken and fish based diet.

Obviously I hear you mutter! Hold the press, the group that ate meat three times a day and had higher cholesterol in fact had no deaths due to heart disease where as the cereals and grains group had eight deaths from heart disease despite their lower cholesterol levels.

So low cholesterol keeps you heart safe…so we have been led to believe. Half of heart disease victims have high cholesterol and half don’t. Low or high cholesterol doesn’t seem to make a difference. Lets put this cholesterol myth to bed please, it should have died out before it even took off with all the studies against it.

One of the founders of the American Heart Association had no belief in the “Fat Hypothesis” saying that it didn’t follow the history of the disease.

 

Do you know what you think you know?

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?

As usual, it depends on your goals. If your goal is simply weight loss with no consideration for health or body composition, then it may well be the most important meal. If your goal is more health focused and you desire not only to lose weight but to lose body fat and retain lean tissue then skipping breakfast and consuming the bulk of your calories later in the day has been shown repeatedly to be more effective. Check out the review of carb nite for an example of successful breakfast skipping methods.

 

 

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Sometimes you just need to let go of previous ideas and beliefs in order to move forward.

As a Personal Trainer I spend a lot of time with my head in the books reading and finding out the truth and if the latest claim from the media is true so you, my clients and readers get the most accurate information I can pull together for you.