Nina Teicholz' The Big Fat Surprise

1
Nina Teicholz The Big Fat Surprise Denies
Dietary Cholesterol Danger
2
Cholesterol in our diet does not increase the
dangerous cholesterol that clogs our arteries and
exacerbates heart disease. So says Nina Teicholz
in her book The Big Fat Surprise. According to
her, we have been approaching the very real
problem of heart attack risk from the wrong angle
for many years.
3
Nina Teicholz first became curious about the
ideas that would appear in The Big Fat Surprise
when she began eating in a whole new way as a
restaurant critic sampling high fat, high
cholesterol dishes that chefs would send out for
her. Before this, she had been living the diet
recommended by the USDA, a low-fat diet that was
also low in cholesterol. After her inadvertent
switch in diets, she lost ten pounds and felt
better than ever.
4
Her own health was again questioned when she
spoke to JuJu Chang on ABCs about her book The
Big Fat Surprise. Nina Teicholz agreed to have
her cholesterol checked as part of the segment
and found she had great numbers. Since she
follows what her book states, eating a diet high
in fat and low in carbohydrates, this was good
anecdotal evidence that she is onto something.
5
In her study of past research, she saw other
evidence that dietary cholesterol did not cause
heart disease. One example was the work of A.
Gerald Shaper. Nina Teicholz discusses his
findings in The Big Fat Surprise. Shaper was a
South African doctor who studied the Samburu
tribe of Uganda to learn the effects of their
diet on their health. A Samburu man in his prime
typically consumed two to seven liters of milk
per day, over a pound of butterfat. When
possible, he would also eat two to four pounds of
meat with his milk. Saturated fat composed
approximately 60 percent of the Samburu mens
diets. Not only were the tribal men healthy, they
did not develop obesity or heart disease as they
aged despite their fatty diet.
6
This finding goes directly against the
recommendations that have been a part of American
life since the 1950s when Ancel Benjamin Keys
brought forward his diet-heart hypothesis that
linked saturated fats to heart disease. Even
before this, cholesterol was assumed to be a
primary factor in the development of heart
disease since it is a main component of
atherosclerotic plaques, the accumulations that
can block blood flow to the heart.
7
Actually, as Nina Teicholz explains in The Big
Fat Surprise, cholesterol is a necessary part of
all body tissues. It is the gatekeeper of the
cell membranes, plays a major role in sex cell
function, and is found in greatest concentration
in the brain where it also acts as an antioxidant.
8
But many were determined that dietary cholesterol
was the source of serum cholesterol, or
cholesterol in the bloodstream, and in turn the
cause of heart attacks. As early as the
nineteenth century, this was thought to be true.
Specific children with abnormally high serum
cholesterol were found to be at high risk of
heart disease. One of the children died of heart
disease by the age of 11. By the 1940s, a genetic
cause was isolated as the culprit. Their diet was
not to blame at all. But this was one of the
clues that made people believe that dietary
cholesterol was dangerous.
9
The experiments of Nikolaj Anitschkow, a Russian
pathologist, seemed to support the theory at
first glance. In 1913, he reported that he had
found that by feeding rabbits large doses of
cholesterol, he could induce atherosclerotic-type
lesions in them. This appeared to confirm the
connection between dietary cholesterol and serum
cholesterol. However, rabbits are naturally
vegetarians and could not process cholesterol the
way a carnivore or an omnivore could. When the
experiment was repeated with dogs, the results
did not support those of the rabbits. The dogs
did not show the dramatic increase in serum
cholesterol. Still, the first results were touted
as proof.
10
Ironically Keys, the proponent of the low-fat
diet, actually discredited the idea that
cholesterol in food had a dramatic effect on
serum cholesterol. He really wanted to believe
that a connection existed but found in studies
with volunteers that no matter how high an amount
of cholesterol he fed them, the effect on their
bloodwork was minimal. Keys determined by 1955
that no further study was necessary to rule out a
negative effect.
11
Ironically Keys, the proponent of the low-fat
diet, actually discredited the idea that
cholesterol in food had a dramatic effect on
serum cholesterol. He really wanted to believe
that a connection existed but found in studies
with volunteers that no matter how high an amount
of cholesterol he fed them, the effect on their
bloodwork was minimal. Keys determined by 1955
that no further study was necessary to rule out a
negative effect.
12
Studies would continue to support this finding
including George Manns observation of Masai in
Kenya. Like Shaper in Uganda, he found that the
Masai ate a diet of mainly milk and fatty meat
with the addition of blood in the dry season. He
specifically measured their heart health by EKG
and their cholesterol levels, finding their serum
cholesterol to be actually lower than normal.
13
When Nina Teicholz discussed her book The Big Fat
Surprise during her appearance on Fox Friends,
she pointed out that cholesterol in eggs does not
translate into serum cholesterol, and scientists
have known that at least since the 1970s.
14
The governments of Great Britain and most nations
of Europe rescinded their advisories against
dietary cholesterol years ago. However, it wasnt
until fall 2014 that the U.S. committee that
develops dietary advice pulled back the
restrictions here on foods high in cholesterol,
according to Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat
Surprise, in her op-ed in The New York Times.
15
Earlier that year, an exhaustive examination of
all available information by scientists at
Cambridge and Harvard and published in the Annals
of Internal Medicine concluded that saturated
fats do moderately raise the bad LDL
cholesterol, but this does not, as far as the
evidence showed, lead to heart disease. Nina
Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise,
explored their findings in her Wall Street
Journal
16
By following the evidence, or sometimes the lack
thereof, Nina Teicholz concludes in The Big Fat
Surprise that saturated fats, cholesterol and
all, are not just safe to eat they are actually
good for you.
17
Thank You