I’m happy to report that my new book, Nourishing Fats, will be out this coming January (2017). The book began as a few notes and a hasty table of contents jotted down over a dozen years ago, after many conversations with my mentor, Mary G. Enig, PhD. We agreed on the need for a popular book addressing the subject of saturated fats, one that would do more than acknowledge the notion that they “might not be so bad,” but explain why they are essential to life. Needless to say, the inspiration for this book, and the basic knowledge on fats and oils, came from her. Nourishing Fats is dedicated to the memory of this courageous biochemist, who sacrificed research grants and a prestigious career in order to warn the public about the dangers of trans fats.
I
think the timing for this book is just right. Many fine researchers
and writers have paved the way for the collapse of the anti-saturated
fat dogma, most notably Nina Teicholz, whose excellent book
The Big Fat Surprise brought this whole issue to public notice, especially readers for the
New York Times,
a publication that has featured Nina’s work. Nina exposed the
background and fraud that led to the low-fat dietary guidelines, and the
dangers of a diet that avoids animal fats, even the so-called
Mediterranean diet, which was promoted by Ancel Keys. In the course of
writing her book, Nina discovered that the reason you never hear about
the French diet (high in saturated fat from butter, cream and meat) and
the French paradox (rates of heart disease in France are low) in Keys’
papers is because “Keys didn’t like to travel in France.” No, he
preferred the sunny Mediterranean, especially Italy, where he eventually
purchased a villa. (
Fred Kummerow
reports seeing Keys enjoying a breakfast of bacon and eggs at a
conference many years ago; when he asked Keys why he wasn’t eating a
lowfat breakfast, Keys replied that such diets were only for the
masses!)
Nourishing Fats has provided a platform to bring together
all that we have learned over the past fifteen years, and its key
message is that far from posing a threat to human health, animal fats
are essential to physical health and mental well being. Here’s a summary
of the chapters in my upcoming book:
Chapter 1: The Greatest Villains: An outline of the
campaign to demonize butter and lard while promoting industrial fats and
oils as free of cholesterol and saturated fat. This pernicious
marketing effort, ongoing since 1913, has relied on flimsy evidence to
turn Americans away from nutrient-dense animal fats, in the teeth of
mounting evidence that the science supporting these claims is shaky to
nonexistent.
Chapter 2: A Short Lesson in the Biochemistry of Fat:
Saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated? Omega-3, omega-6,
omega-9. Fatty acid, triglycerides, cholesterol? What do all these
terms mean? The chemistry of fats is actually not that difficult, and
this chapter gives you all the information you need.
Chapter 3: Not Guilty as Charged: Animal fats get
the blame for everything from cancer to ingrown toe nails—and none of
these accusations is true! The science shows that saturated animal fats
actually protect us from chronic disease, including heart disease,
cancer, high blood pressure, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and even weight
gain.
Chapter 4: The Many Roles of Saturated Fat: We need
saturated fat for the brain, the heart, the kidneys and the lungs, for
hormone production and for protection against inflammation—in fact for
every cell to work properly. Our bodies can’t function without
saturated fat!
Chapter 5: AA and DHA: We get these important fatty
acids, which support everything from brain function to gut integrity to
healthy skin, exclusively from animal fats.
Chapter 6: Remember the Activators! Critical
vitamins A, D and K2 occur uniquely in animal fats—and westerners are
woefully deficient in these nutrients. A, D and K2 support everything
from proper vision to growth to fertility. Vitamin K2 is essential for
wide, attractive facial development and naturally straight teeth in
children—we owe a great debt to Chris Masterjohn for figuring out that Dr. Price’s X Factor is actually vitamin K2, and for finding all the research on this important vitamin.
Chapter 7: The Rancid and the Trans: With the revelation that trans
fats are bad—bad at any level in the diet—food manufacturers and
consumers are using more liquid vegetable oils—but these carry the
problem of rancidity. Rancid liquid oils cause uncontrolled reactions
on the cellular level; trans fats inhibit reactions. The
result of the Standard American Diet containing industrially processed
fats and oils is biochemical chaos.
Chapter 8: Remember the Little Ones: Children need
animal fats for normal growth and the development of their brains. But
at the two-year checkup, doctors warn moms not to give saturated fats to
their toddlers, and whole milk is forbidden in school lunches—despite
consistent science showing that children on low-fat diets are more
likely to suffer from allergies, asthma, learning disorders and
obesity. We are literally starving our children in the name of phony
science.
Chapter 9: Animal Fats for the Mind: The key
components of animal fats—stearic acid, arachidonic acid, cholesterol,
and vitamins A, D and K2–are critical for neurological function and for
supporting our emotional biochemistry as well. The receptors for
serotonin, the body’s feel-good chemical, can’t work without
cholesterol, and vitamin A helps us focus on completing tasks. It’s
hard to be happy without plenty of animal fats in the diets.
Chapter 10: Why Butter is Better: The queen of fats,
butter is loaded with nutrients the body needs to be healthy and happy.
Starve yourself of butter during the day and you’ll crave ice cream
when nighttime rolls around. Modern processing technologies cannot come
close to providing in spreads and margarines the range of vitamins and
lipid components present in butter, Nature’s fat for optimal growth and
development.
The book is beautifully illustrated by Mary Wooden, and begins with a Foreword by Nina Teicholz. My main hope is that this book will convince American parents to feed their kids butter!
Since its founding in 1999, the Weston A. Price Foundation
(WAPF) has served as a lone voice in warning the public about the
dangers of the low-fat agenda. WAPF receives no moneys from the food
industry or government, and depends on membership fees to carry out its
important work. Consider becoming a member to support our efforts to return nutrient-dense foods, including important fats like butter and lard, to American tables.