Episode Details

A decade ago, investigative journalist Nina Techolz set out to uncover the truth about our country’s misguided conception that eating delicious butter, beef, and cheese would make us fat and give us heart attacks. 

What she found was a shocking trail of incomplete scientific data, one man’s maniacal mission to squelch conflicting information, and an authoritative body on nutrition taking handouts from Big Food, Inc.

In this incredibly open, honest interview, Nina touches on a little bit of what’s covered extensively in her new book, “The Big Fat Surprise:  Why Butter, Meat, & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.”   Prepare to be shocked with:

·      The American Heart Association’s affiliation with Proctor & Gamble.

·      How one man bullied his anti-fat agenda into the hearts and bodies of the American people, and why the community of nutrition experts was afraid to speak out.

·      What should be on your dinner plate? (Bacon?  Please say bacon.)

·      Nina’s advice to women about how to fight the saturated fat phobia.

In this podcast, you can find out about the bacon… and all of the secret history explaining why we think that eating fat makes us fat.  You’ll be relieved to know that the foods that should be on your dinner plate are way more delicious than a frozen, low-fat, weight-control dinner.  Trust me, I know. 

PODCAST NOTES

We hear a lot of conflicting information about fat, but what’s the real story?

I was a low-fat vegetarian.  As an investigative journalist, I was sent on an assignment to write a restaurant review column.  There was no food stipend, and the chef’s didn’t want to send out grilled chicken and sautéed vegetables.  The chefs wanted to send out red meat, cream, sauce, and pate.  This was my introduction to this way of eating. 

All of a sudden, I lost the stubborn 10 pounds I’d been struggling with and my cholesterol markers looked great!

I wanted to try to understand the history of why we believe what we do about saturated fat—and those efforts culminated in “The Big Fat Surprise.”

1950’s:  The nation panicked over the epidemic of heart disease—it was the #1 killer.  A scientist name Ancel Keys proposed that saturated fats were the dietary culprit.  He was a charismatic, forceful man who got his hypothesis into the American Diabetes Association.

There were NO SCIENTIFIC TRIALS to back his hypothesis.

His theory was based on epidemiological studies in seven countries that were cherry-picked to support his hypothesis. 

·      He deliberately avoided countries like France, where they consume a diet rich in saturated fats but enjoy very low rates of heart disease. 

·      PLUS, he went to Crete during lent—when they were abstaining from meats and rich foods!