THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMAL FAT Today I am going to talk about the myth that is present among the whole society and what is even worse among the medical staff that supposed to teach the rest how to stay healthy. It regards animal fat which was convicted for causing artherosclerosis and heart diseases, opposed to a vegetable fat and oils. I chose this topic because I think it is essential to change the approach to food and we as a future modern doctors should update our knowledge. I divided my presentation in 3 parts. Firstly I'm going to provide you history of the misleading theory. Then I'll move on to the kind of fat that is actually bad for your health. I will also present reasons to eat butter and other animal fat. At the end you are free to ask questions. My speech will last no longer than 10-12 minutes. Let's start with the work of dr Ancel Keys. His The Seven Countries Study showed that the risk and rates of heart attack and stroke both at the population and at the individual level were directly related to the level of total serum cholesterol. Problem is that Keys chose only those countries that have confirmed his thesis. He has had also results from 15 other countries that weren't supporting this conclusion. In the early 70s they have identified the cause - saturated fatty acids were found guilty of hipercholesterolemia. Why would they make such statement without any reliable proof? Well, the production of vegetable fat is cheap and a lot of big companies started to make a huge amount of money on it, also the pharmacists started selling statins to reduce cholesterol level. Of course we don't talk much about their side effects. So nothing new, it's all about the money, even when the cost is our health. Now I will focus on the fat that is a realistic danger. Nutritionists and doctors agree that trans fats are one of the worst components of the diet. They contribute to the formation of atherosclerosis, metabolic disorders and even cancer. They block the cholesterol metabolism. But not everyone knows that only the artificial transizomers are harmful. They are formed by hydrogenation or hardening of the liquid oil. Their quantity in margarines ranges from 0 to 35 percent . Some countries have already introduced the obligation of information about the content of trans isomers. Denmark, Canada and Russia have laws specifying the maximum trans fat content, but Poland doesn't regulate this in any way. In butter we can also find fransfat, up to 7% but it's the natural one. Prof. Grazyna Cichosz of the Department of Food Science, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn says: "It is mainly vaccenic acid and conjugated linoleic acid with very high antioxidant activity. Unlike artificial trans isomers present in margarines natural trans isomers in milk fat exhibit antiatherosclerotic activity as well as anti-cancer " . So why should be eat butter? There is no fat that is more valuable. It contains antioxidants: CLA, alpha-tocopherol, coenzyme Q10, vitamin A and D3, phospholipids. Saturated fatty acids found in butter are necessary to create the correct structure and functioning of the colon epithelium. They are not the cause of hypercholesterolemia. The problem is a deficiency, especially of long polyunsaturated fatty acids omega-3 which are found in fish oil. First biotransformation of cholesterol is an estrification of polyunsaturated fatty acid with a cis configuration. In the absence of suitable fatty acids cholesterol metabolism is blocked, but that's still not the only cause of artherosclerosis. 75% of stroke patients and more than 50% patients after heart attack have got normal or low levels of cholesterol. French elders of 90-104 years old had an average cholesterol level 360 (where 200 is seen as the need to take medications) and they still maintained high intellectual abilities. Let's sum up. We should stop the cycle of providing false information that affects our and our patients' health. For sure we should stop using margarine, promote animal fat such as butter and put fish oil in our everyday diet. Comprehension of the role of cholesterol in our organism should be essential and as future doctors we should seek for the truth as health is the biggest value. Thank you for listening
miloszlo