Day Nine: My Hard Head and Fat

It sucks being sick. It feels like my head is full of cement.

So, since I am home sick I have been catching up on some reading. I am in the process of reading two books: Eat Fat by Richard Klein and Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

Fascinating stuff, I highly recommend both books.

Each takes on, what can only be described as, the current obsession (both good and bad) with fat in this country. Klein's book is more of a philosophical venture, ruminating on the social and historical meanings of fat.

Taubes' book, on the other hand, takes on the actual science behind the current thinking about fat (dietary and bodily) and its relation to heart disease. Taubes effectively refutes the current (and seemingly irrefutable) thinking that high dietary fat is linked to heart disease and the commonly accepted rise in obesity. It is really eye opening. The fact is that the data is simply not there to support the politically and culturally accepted idea that dietary fat is bad. At least, any reasonable mind looking at the data can only conclude one thing: the evidence, taken in its totality, is inconclusive.

Moreover, he argues that the low fat/high carb diet may be doing more harm than good and may be what is really behind the rise in obesity and diabetes. The real dietary evil? The "the whites." That is, refined carbohydrates such as white sugar, white flour and white rice.

The fact is, as much we would like to think that we are rational beings, we are more likely prone to illogical thought. We all too often simply believe what we want to believe no matter what the data might tell us.

So, the question becomes, if the data is, at best, inconclusive to support the conclusion that dietary fat is directly linked to heart disease and other illnesses such as diabetes, why has this idea taken such a firm hold on our beliefs?

I can only come to one conclusion: we have a deep seeded culturally ingrained need to see fat (in all of its forms including dietary and bodily) as bad. We want to believe that fat is bad, so we make it so. We seem to have a perverse relationship with fat. We love it and we hate it. Fat has become our dietary bête noire and our fall guy. And yet, we love it as well.

Eat fat, indeed.