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The war on saturated fat, never based on good science, can now end
The Hill ^ | 12/16/25 7:00 AM ET | Nina Teicholz, Opinion Contributor

Posted on 12/23/2025 8:33:10 PM PST by Olog-hai

For more than half a century, Americans have been urged to shy away from saturated fats, found mainly in animal products. We have been told to cook with canola oil instead of butter, select skim instead of whole milk, and to fill our plates with pasta instead of steak.

Paradoxically, decades of adherence to this advice has coincided with rising levels of chronic disease. As people cut more saturated fat from their diets, the nation grew heavier and sicker — not healthier.

Put plainly, the war on saturated fat, rooted in the hypothesis that it causes heart disease, has never been based on sound science. In fact, a large and growing body of evidence reveals that saturated fats aren’t a menace but a key part of a healthy diet. And they should be recognized as such in national nutrition policy.

Fortunately, this long-overdue change now appears likely to happen next month. The federal government will soon release the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans — the nutritional blueprint that shapes everything from school lunches to hospital meals. Officials have finally signaled that they will lift the decades-old limit on saturated fat. This would mark a critical turning point.

The misguided crusade against fat began in the 1950s, when researcher Ancel Keys proposed a connection between saturated fat and heart disease. But in his seminal Seven Countries Study on the subject, Keys cherry-picked the countries that supported his claim and ignored others — like France and Germany — where people consumed plenty of butter and meat yet had low rates of heart disease. …

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Food; Science
KEYWORDS: diet; fats; healthlinks; maha; saturatedfats
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To: Bob434

Up until 1990, it was beef tallow. After that, it was vegetable oil, due to political pressure of course.


21 posted on 12/23/2025 11:25:02 PM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is goings to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai; All

Some restaurants have re-introduced beef tallow

https://www.thedailymeal.com/1833047/chain-restaurants-that-use-beef-tallow/


22 posted on 12/24/2025 1:38:20 AM PST by Reverend Wright (Anschluss now !)
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To: Bob434

I just bought my first jar of beef tallow. Loving my fried potatoes. Wild Wings uses tallow...best fries ever.


23 posted on 12/24/2025 3:51:29 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Olog-hai

I used to love scrambled eggs fried in butter. A few decades back the wife switched to margarine. I noticed the taste difference, as IMO margarine is quite bland tasting. We recently switched back to butter, and the flavor in anything made with butter has greatly improved.

Also the fries and McDonalds used to be so good you couldn’t eat enough of them. Then they changed their cooking oils and they are now very bland tasting.

That switch to plant based cooking oils is based on a heart disease “hypothesis”. Bad scientific hypotheses are quite abundant in our society. The more prominent ones being covid and glowbull warming. The bad actors know good little lemmings will always do what they are told.

And “studies” indicate excess salt increases the risk of Cardiovascular Disease. I have a feeling this is more fake science, as I love salt on anything and I’m very healthy for my age, just like my parents and grand parents.


24 posted on 12/24/2025 4:13:06 AM PST by redfreedom (They’re AWFUL...Affuent White Female Urban Leftists)
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To: Veto!

I have trouble believing you have spent five minutes investigating available evidence about saturated fats, unsaturated fats and cholesterol.

The Big Fat Surprise https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Nina-Teicholz/78779127 is good place to start if you care to learn about the subject.

Gary Taubes wrote several books on it too.

Myself I hope to live long enough to see pharma sued like big tobacco for their statin blockers.


25 posted on 12/24/2025 4:49:31 AM PST by zek157 ( )
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To: Olog-hai

“Next thing we’re going to hear is how good tobacco is for us . . .”

It turns out that nicotine is a wonder drug kept secret like ivermectin or fenbendazol.


26 posted on 12/24/2025 5:09:40 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: hinckley buzzard

“You summed up the evidence well.”

Dr. Berry summed it up best by looking at animals. How many animals stay away from food they consider tasty and therefore, even when veterinarians tell them that it is unhealthy? ZERO. Why aren’t they all extinct?


27 posted on 12/24/2025 5:13:43 AM PST by BobL (Trusting one's doctor is the #1 health mistake one can make.)
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To: Olog-hai

Catching stuff on fire and inhaling it is definitely a bad idea.

Nicotine, however, and the various alkaloids and phenols in tobacco are almost certainly good for you.

Delivery method is the issue.


28 posted on 12/24/2025 5:49:14 AM PST by TheThirdRuffian (Orange is the new brown)
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To: Olog-hai

Next thing we’re going to hear is how good tobacco is for us


Nothing harmful about meat, why do you think God gave us our incisor and canine teethe?

Those are in our mouths to cut and tear the meat from the bones of freshly killed animals.


29 posted on 12/24/2025 6:01:11 AM PST by delta7
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To: Olog-hai

Well, it was much less harmful before they started
adding stuff to prevent house fires for those who
fell asleep with a lit cigarette.


30 posted on 12/24/2025 6:04:01 AM PST by BrandtMichaels ( 1st Peter 4:8 "Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins." )
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To: kawhill

I never in my life willingly gave up butter. Life is short, and it is even shorter without butter.

I don’t listen to any of these kinds of “Don’t eat this food...” or “Eat this food...” anymore.

Live life. Enjoy it. It doesn’t mean you have to eat things that are poison. I have simply come to trust all these people who have spread this for decades with the same degree of skepticism with which I view the product commercials in between YouTube videos.


31 posted on 12/24/2025 6:21:15 AM PST by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: rlmorel
I never in my life willingly gave up butter.

Here butter is considered an essential food group - never can have too much.

My granny had a jar of bacon grease next to the stove. She used it in everything, even popping corn in it. She was a few months shy of making it to 100 before she checked out.

32 posted on 12/24/2025 6:38:21 AM PST by Lovely-Day-For-A-Guinness (Jesus rides beside me, He never buys any smokes)
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To: Olog-hai

Eat what pleases you. You ain’t going to make it out of this world alive any how.


33 posted on 12/24/2025 6:47:09 AM PST by Captain Compassion (I'm just sayin')
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To: Olog-hai

But Science!


34 posted on 12/24/2025 6:50:42 AM PST by bray (It's not racist to be racist against races the DNC hates.)
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To: Lovely-Day-For-A-Guinness
Yes! I have a jar of bacon grease in my fridge right now! (I use it mostly for when I cook my "Black Eggs":

Heh, I went light on the black pepper, but those to me are key: Black Pepper, Crushed Red Pepper, and...Bacon Grease! (Full disclosure-the image above shows them being cooked in olive oil, which is still okay, but...for full effect, I love Bacon Grease!

35 posted on 12/24/2025 6:55:35 AM PST by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: Olog-hai

Yep, i remember when they switched- hated the fries from that pount forward. We make our own now with duck fat. We cut lert over boiled potatoes into smallish cubes and fry those in a layer of duck fat too- life doesnt get much better. (Well, it could get better IF McDonalds went back t9 beef tallow!)


36 posted on 12/24/2025 7:15:30 AM PST by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: BobL

Yeah but animals dont smoke, so their opinions dont count lol


37 posted on 12/24/2025 7:18:08 AM PST by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Sacajaweau

Get a jar of duck fat too for fried potatoes- really good!


38 posted on 12/24/2025 7:19:54 AM PST by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Olog-hai

Well I feel better about those four sausage balls I scarfed up for breakfast. 😄


39 posted on 12/24/2025 7:43:43 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: zek157

I take a statin and have for years. I’ve begun questioning if I should stop. There’s more articles regarding statins that says it’s bad for you. Do I believe them?


40 posted on 12/24/2025 8:36:38 AM PST by JoJo354 (President Trump will make America great again!!)
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