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Top 8 Reasons Not to Fear Saturated Fats

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Humans have been eating saturated  fats  for hundreds of thousands of years. They were demonized a few decades ago and claimed to cause heart disease, but new data shows that to be completely false. Here are the top 8 reasons not to fear saturated fats. 1. Saturated Fats Increase The Size of LDL Cholesterol Cholesterol is a molecule that is absolutely vital to life. Every cell membrane in our bodies is loaded with it. It is used to make hormones like cortisol, testosterone and estradiol. Without cholesterol, we would die… and our bodies have developed elaborate mechanisms to manufacture it, to make sure we always have enough. But a protein that carries cholesterol in the blood, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), has been associated with an elevated risk of heart disease. However, new data shows that there are subtypes of LDL: Small, Dense LDL:  Particles that are small, dense and can easily penetrate the arterial wall ( 1 ,  2 ,  3 ). Large LDL: ...

3 Facts About Fat That Could Have Saved Us All A Lot Of Trouble

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With one dramatic study, Swedish scientists have at last put saturated fat in its place. Eating just got a whole lot easier. Christofer Backlin had gained 5 pounds, and it was all because of the muffins. Swallowing one last bite of crumbly cake, the 31-year-old resident of Uppsala, Sweden, closed his eyes and exhaled with relief. It was his 49th day and his 160th baked good (total tally: 40 chocolate, 40 vanilla, 40 lemon, 18 strawberry , 16 apple, 5 cinnamon, and 1 very unfortunate tropical flavor), and it marked the end of a bizarre, vaguely masochistic experiment. "Let's just say I won't be interested in muffins again for a while," says the medical PhD student, who had been forcing them down after every meal , every day for 7 weeks. One of his peers had quit the study, unable to stomach one more crumb, but Backlin never considered dropping out. "The world needs an answer," he says. He's right. There was a final unresolved mystery in the decades-long...