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THE RISKS

The risks appear to lie in too much total fat, too much saturated fat, and too much cholesterol. Saturated fats, found in animal foods and in some vegetable foods (especially palm and coconut oil), and cholesterol, found only in animal foods (especially eggs, some seafood, and organ meats), generally increase the blood cholesterol level. Eating saturated fat raises blood cholesterol levels more than does eating cholesterol itself.10 As Patricia Hausman explains in Jack Sprat’s Legacy, the higher the blood cholesterol, the greater the rate of fatty deposits that harden the arteries. The more severe the fatty deposits in the arteries, the greater the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other complications of atherosclerosis.

Reducing the cholesterol in the diet does not automatically reduce the cholesterol in the blood for everyone. There may be genetic factors which determine why some people respond to lowered dietary cholesterol and others do not. But to be on the safe side, it would seem prudent to assume that lowering our cholesterol consumption will make a difference.

In a survey of 200 scientists in 23 countries, 92 percent recommended that we eat less fat to reduce our risk of heart disease.11 In addition to increased risk of heart disease, says Hausman, “studies, spanning up to 40 countries worldwide, confirmed that the total amount of fat in the diet does correlate with some forms of cancer. Studies link six forms of cancer with dietary fat, including cancers of the breast and colon, two of the top cancer killers in the United States.”12

Dietary Goals for the United States suggests we return to a diet in which 30 percent of our calories come from fat, instead of the 42 percent we’re averaging now. (The Japanese, notable for their low incidence of heart disease, traditionally have gotten only 10 percent of their calories from fat. Unfortunately, this is rapidly changing as hamburger joints displace the traditional rice, fish, and noodle bars.)

The good news is that eating polyunsaturated fats—safflower, sunflower, corn, and soybean oils—actually lowers the blood cholesterol levels, and may help control hypertension as well.13 So the recommendation is that at the same time as we reduce our total fat, we shift from animal fats and palm and coconut oils to more of these polyunsaturates.

WHERE IS THE FAT IN OUR DIET?

We are eating more fat, not because we are pouring more oil on our salads or frying more foods at home. Again, we are letting someone else ut the fat in for us. In our “choice” and “prime” steaks, grain has been turned into fat. In those french fries at Burger King, a very low-fat food—the potato—has been transformed into one in which most of the calories are from fat, mostly saturated fat.

Where is the fat in our diet?

In animal foods. Over half the fat in the American diet comes from animal foods, with red meat alone contributing almost one-third. Although our consumption of butter and lard has fallen drastically (Americans eat about one-quarter the butter we ate in 1910),14 we’re eating much more fat in meat, poultry, cheese, and margarine. We’re eating two or three times as much of these foods as we did in the mid-1940s.

In fattier meat. Not only do we eat more meat and poultry, but those products contain more fat today than in our grandparents’ time. As we’ve seen, one important effect of grain feeding is to put on more fat. During their last 120 to 150 days before slaughter, cattle are fattened up (or “finished,” as cattlemen say) so they will receive USDA’s “choice” or “prime” grade rating and command a premium price. A choice-grade carcass has about 63 percent more fat than one fed less grain and graded only “standard.” (In the last several years the meat industry has begun to respond to the public’s concern about fat by offering more lean meat and even a few reduced-fat processed meats, such as hot dogs.)

In snack foods. Just as important in explaining our increase in fat consumption are