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I've seen a lot of people on this board mention that they think foods like Canola oil are unhealthy but foods like bacon or lard are healthy. More broadly, there seems to be this idea that natural things are healthy because they are natural. This idea is sometimes manifested in statements like "Don't eat something your grandmother wouldn't have recognized" or "Don't eat foods that contain things you can't pronounce." While it is undeniably true that there are many artificial things that should be avoided, this sort of natural bias isn't founded on science.
A handful of recent reports have muddied the link between saturated fat and heart disease. One meta-analysis of 21 studies said that there was not enough evidence to conclude that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease, but that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may indeed reduce risk of heart disease.
Two other major studies narrowed the prescription slightly, concluding that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils or high-fiber carbohydrates is the best bet for reducing the risk of heart disease, but replacing saturated fat with highly processed carbohydrates could do the opposite.
While saturated fat may not be the devil, there is no scientific evidence to support some of the claims I see on this forum, such as "Saturated fat is healthy" or "There's no reason to avoid lard and heavy cream."
There is a ridiculous emphasis in society right now on "natural foods." Watch a few food commercials and see if you don't see a single one that is emphasizing that there are no artificial colors or preservatives or that don't mention the product being "100% natural." Hell, even McDonald's is trying to spin Chicken Mcnuggets as healthy because they are all-natural. This idealization of the natural sounds good, but consider the following:
Sugar is completely natural, yet is undeniably unhealthy
There is no difference to the human body between sugar and high fructose corn syrup
Many natural substances have been proven to be unhealthy to the human body (sugar, trans fat, etc)
Many artificial substances can save your life when no natural substance could do so
Eating like a pioneer or a cave man or a 1940's grandmother (pick your pop-nutrition meme) might sound great. It sounds natural, and it's popular to think that natural foods are "real." After all, what's more real than bacon and lard? The problem is that this trend is independent of science. In some cases, the natural things are very healthy (broccoli, for instance). In some, they aren't (bacon). Most importantly, however, we have good, science-based reasons to think of the healthy things as healthy and the unhealthy things as unhealthy. What is natural and what is not is irrelevant.
Just regurgitating the Health Information du jour. It changes like the weather.
To the contrary, I am disputing some popular notions about nutrition. It is very much a fad that eating like grandma or a caveman or a pioneer is the healthiest option. My point is simply that we should care about what is backed by science, and that is not "health information du jour." Yes, the actual scientific conclusions may change, but our commitment to science itself should not.
Natural and Organic are tricky...arsenic is "natural", but it will kill you! Toadstools are organic and natural...you don't want to eat them!
Common sense should prevail!
Yes, exactly. "Natural" isn't meaningful when discussing nutrition.
The fascination with "natural" has become so absurd that some food commercials are literally advertising that their products contain "pure cane sugar," as though that's some sort of health advantage. "Pure cane sugar" sounds nice and natural, but it's far from healthy.
To the contrary, I am disputing some popular notions about nutrition. It is very much a fad that eating like grandma or a caveman or a pioneer is the healthiest option. My point is simply that we should care about what is backed by science, and that is not "health information du jour." Yes, the actual scientific conclusions may change, but our commitment to science itself should not.
You do realize what is backed by science changes constantly don't you? All you have to do is research what was and wasn't healthy eating 50 years ago compared to now: I can still remember in my nutrition classes n college back in the mid 50s what we were taught was a good diet.
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