American Heart Association Was Paid Off By Procter & Gamble To Say Heart Disease Was Caused By Saturated Fat, Not Seed Oils
We've been told for decades that heart disease is caused by saturated fat found in butter, meat, and eggs, but recent research reveals that the studies promoting these messages were heavily compromised.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists out the official recommendations for eating a healthy diet that will stave off disease and obesity. The information comes from a document called Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, and it lists out the following for a healthy eating plan: an emphasis on grains, produce, and fat-free and low-fat milk products, foods that are low in saturated fats, and a variety of protein such as beans, poultry, and lean meat. Saturated fat is discouraged by public health organizations and just about every mainstream expert you'll encounter. But we're quickly learning how useless this information may be.
American Heart Association Was Paid off by Procter & Gamble to Say Heart Disease Was Caused by Saturated Fat, Not Seed Oils and Sugar
It's been hammered into us for years that saturated fat is a scary type of food that we should avoid for the most part. Things like butter, eggs, and red meat need to be eaten in moderation—or better yet, not at all—according to public health organizations. But science journalist and author Nina Teicholz is one of many writers and health enthusiasts who is helping to pull back the veil on this belief and make everyday people understand that saturated fat isn't the devil.
"Do saturated fats cause heart disease? The science was always weak," Teicholz tweets. "Fear of these fats was started by American Heart Assoc. in 1961 based on a flawed study."
She shares an article from a journal called Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity that reviews the history of "the diet-heart hypothesis from the late 1950s up to the current day," including revelations that were never published before in scientific literature. The American Heart Association, the nation's largest nonprofit organization that is considered the leading voice when it comes to heart disease education and awareness, started recommending in 1961 that people avoid saturated fat and replace it with polyunsaturated vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, etc.
"The 1961 AHA advice to limit saturated fat is arguably the single-most influential nutrition policy ever published, as it came to be adopted first by the U.S. government, as official policy for all Americans, in 1980, and then by governments around the world as well as the World Health Organization," the article reads.
However, they were paid off to distribute this information. The AHA accepted $20 million (in today's dollars) in funding from Procter & Gamble, a corporation that conveniently makes and sells Crisco Oil. The AHA recommended that everyone replace butter with "heart healthy" alternatives like vegetable oil or Crisco Oil.
"Despite Heart Assoc advice, the original 'core' clinical trials on saturated fats, from the 60s and 70s, could not find an effect of these fats on cardiovascular mortality, total mortality, and for the most part heart attacks or other 'events [sic],'" Teicholz tweets. "Results from these trials, other studies on sat fats were ignored, suppressed. Eg, the famous Framingham study couldn't find any link between sat fats and heart disease. This govt-funded result was never published. Another major study w/ contrary results not published for 17y [sic]."
It wasn't until the late 2000s that scientists and journalists started to re-examine saturated fats and restructure the way people talked about butter, meat, and eggs in relation to overall health and wellness. Teicholz points out that the 2020 Dietary Guidelines expert committee "found that 88% of studies in their own review did not support" the idea that heart disease was caused by saturated fat. And yet the committee ignored this data and claimed "the evidence against saturated fat was 'strong.'"
Teicholz also reminds us that cutting out saturated fat can actually do the body harm, "because you will cut out foods that contain the key nutrients needed for maintaining health and having healthy children."
"It's sobering to realize that US policy to cut saturated fats was created for middle-aged men fearful of heart disease," she concludes. "Never considered the potential harms to women, children. US policy on sat fats never weighed costs vs. benefits and has never reflected the science."
It's no wonder more people than ever are skeptical of public health organizations and mainstream experts who claim to possess the final word on health and nutrition, when there is so much proof that information has been censored and even doctored in order to push a certain message that will help corporations like Procter & Gamble become richer and richer.