Saturated fat: monstrous or misunderstood?

I wish you had gone into a lot more detail about why whole fat dairy like cheese and fermented whole fat dairy like yoghurt are better for you than, say, saturated fat from meat or butter.

Very interesting. My diet certainly has far more saturated fat than government guidelines recommend, but it also has far less refined carbs and it almost always comes from dairy or nuts, with full fat Greek yoghurt and cheese being the primary sources. I realised how ludicrous the guidelines were when I saw that my walnuts were given a red traffic light for their saturated fat content.

Please could you put timestamps in the description for key points? Helps to retrieve info later.

Jonathon, I listen to alot podcasts, and I have to say you are one of my favorite interviewers. I like your sense of humor and you do such good summaries in the end. Keep the great content coming. I was in the Predict 2 cohort and love seeing all the great observations your work is bringing to light. I am curious if you are following any subjects to see how dietary changes shape their microbiome going forward and then how their response to foods change over time.

What else were the people eating who were having a higher risk of disease with the saturate fat? What were they eating full stop? Fresh food? Processed? What countries and what was their general lifestyle like? What about all of the people removing inflammation and other diseases from their body on Keto or Carnivore? What about the "clear" evidence to the contrary?

Not sure this added a great deal to human knowledge, beyond: 1. Eat a balanced diet, restricted in amount, 2, avoid processed food, and 3, steer clear of the mainstream media.

When talking about "the sum of the evidence", we need to consider the quality of evidence, to see how admissible it is. Any "evidence" that is based on LDL cholesterol levels is not evidence at all, because it has never been established that high LDL cholesterol independently causes heart disease. It has been known for quite a while that the only LDL particles that correlates with heart disease and other forms of metabolic syndrome is damaged LDL particles that are too small and oxidized to be recognized by the liver and recycled, so they stay in circulation until they find some trouble to get into. The body actually uses healthy LDL particles to patch lesions in the arteries, but when damaged particles end up being part of the plaque, things only get worse. These zombie LDL particles are NOT the result of eating saturated fat; they are the result of eating too much linoleic acid and refined carbohydrates, or eating too much fructose when their liver glycogen stores are already full. I think that the "balanced diet" target that Sarah and many other diet experts like to talk about is a big part of the actual problem; our mitochondria do not deal with a high level of both glucose and fat available to them at the same time; either one has to be low for the mitochondria to work properly, otherwise, they create less energy and more hunger, causing people to eat or snack when they are already saturated with energy. Linoleic acid, BTW, is burned at half the rate of monounsaturated and saturated fat by mitochondria, which clearly indicates that it is NOT intended by the body to be used as fuel. It is called "essential" only because the body does not manufacture it from other molecules, and some is needed for construction of cells. It is in no way "essential" that we seek it out, because it is already overly abundant in just about every whole food item available, plant or animal.

More content like this please. All these podcasts are not only interesting they help me understand what we should be eating and why. Result!

I’m doing an AIP (auto-immune protocol) diet long term. That means I eat zero ultra processed food. Instead, I eat fresh vegetables, steak, chicken, or fish from the supermarket. I often cook without oil, but when I use oil it’s extra virgin olive oil or extra virgin coconut oil, or beef fat. Also no grains, and I limit my intake of carbs, but it’s not “keto” low. Sweet potatoes are welcome. The result? Pretty low cholesterol (total 160), very low triglycerides, low blood sugar, zero calcification of my arteries, low blood pressure. Of saturated fat, (ultra) processed foods, and sugar, in my experience, it is the processed foods and sugar that should be avoided. Saturated fat (again from non-ultra processed sources) doesn’t seem to cause a problem in this experiment of N=1 which is me.

Get your saturated fats from meat, eggs, fish and dairy. Don't eat ultraprocessed crap, regardless of what it's label says. Just eat real food.

That's me; a newly independent adult of the 90's. I chose the low fat meat options and upped the pasta & rice, which I love. I'm now classed as pre-diabetes. I blame the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). The fact that there are scrotes out there who will mislead people and create health damaging foods to increase their profits, is a given. The FSA has failed to confront them.

Eating a piece of cheddar while watching your video, my net carb count for today is zero , lunch today will be a frittata made from eggs, cream , onion, bacon bits net carb count of 3-4. I’ve been keto for four years, blood tests all normal, weight and waist measurement the same as they were when I was 24.

When I go to a supermarket I see shelves and shelves of vegetable oils. Not much animal fats. So the majority of the population is using vegetable oils. And probably the majority of people in hospital with heart disease have cooked with vegetable oils. Also over 100 years ago they cooked with lard and tallow and heart disease was very rare. ( only with people who drank a lot of alcohol). Heart disease increased when vegetable oil came on the market. And increasing further as people moved away from saturated fats and used vegetable oils. So how can Sarah say vegetable oils don’t cause any chronic diseases? There are scientific evidence that proves one side or the other. One thing is certain- we can’t deny our history!

It *****s me off that British butchers and eateries trim the fat (which is the best bit) off steaks and pork chops!!! R 😎

So now listeners are going to inadvertently eat more Omega-6 fatty acids. It’s going to happen. This is going to increase inflammation. I don’t think nutrition should be dealt with in shorts. It cannot be made simple.

An interesting discussion on many levels, thank you both. Could you direct me to the RCT evidence which you refer to please? Maybe not all of the hundreds, let’s say your top three to give me a flavour. I didn’t get the impression that you were saying any of them showed any causal link between saturated fat and disease, only some level or other of association with health markers - is that right? I’m puzzled why a nutrient which is essential for life and health (saturated fat) can be considered bad in general, good if it’s in dairy, not so good if it’s in coconuts and terrible if it’s in a sausage roll. Is it possible that these good bad or indifferent outcomes are not about the saturated fat at all? I don’t think the information presented here is sufficient to confidently direct a consumer away from any food just because of its saturated fat content. I’m open to being convinced otherwise. Just out of interest, are either of you two Vegetarian? Thanks again, Lowri

The problem has never been about saturated fat, but the mass majority that have been taken for a ride by the medical establishment and eventually lost their basic common sense and well being and soon followed by their disappearing bank account. Many victims have died broke, without knowing what and why.

I hear from the Keto guys that it is saturated fat that gives you energy. Personally I have a weight problem….trying to keep it up, as a long distance runner, so needing an energy source that is not refined carbs.

The number of people I’ve heard say they consume coconut oil with every meal for its health benefits scares me. It’s even worse when I try to tell them that this might not be the healthiest choice and see how blatantly close-minded they are.

I was shocked when she said she taught on fat for the past 20something years, as she looks so young for that