This morning my daughter saw a cup of some yellowish fluid on the counter and asked, “What’s that orange stuff in there?”
“Oh, it’s just bacon fat,” I replied.
Her eyes widen, jaw drops. “Bacon makes you fat?!!”
“Ha ha ha. No! That’s what the oil is called. Think about it. How much bacon did you eat today?”
“Two big pieces.”
“And what about me?”
“Four I think.”
“And are we fat?”
“Nope.”
“Well it’s probably something else that makes people fat then.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
What a cute little association of words she quickly made in her limited world view. It was actually a really amazing moment for me to clearly see that the scientists who came up with the eating fat makes you fat theory were as simple minded as a five year old.
The logical fallacy that even the country’s most notable scientists fell for is this:
The Fallacy of Questionable Cause:
A and B are associated on a regular basis.
Therefore A is the cause of B.
Insert the word fat:
Fat people eat a lot of fat. (Remember they also eat a lot of other things)
Therefore eating fat makes you fat.
Replace “fat” with word of your choice:
Overweight people sit on big chairs.
Therefore sitting on big chairs makes you overweight.
Clearly this is faulty reasoning but maybe you can’t blame them too much. It would have been easy to fall for this mistake because of the word fat. Scientist considered the problem at hand – the overweight epidemic – and their minds intuitively associated the two types of fat (dietary and adipose). It just felt so right that they neglected to consider logic or the scientific method. They quickly became so convinced of their theory that even today scientists continue to find “evidence” to support it.
However, if you look closely at the literature, you will see that there are holes in every one of those articles. I have included a list of further reading which helped me to understand and firmly believe in the need for fat (a lot of fat!) in our diets and the complete backwards conception that fat makes you fat.
Further Reading:
Books:
Eat Fat Lose Fat
The Untold Story of Milk – This book has ample details of the author’s own analysis of many of the articles that launched the fat-free movement. It is an amazing book.
Articles:
Guts and Grease
The Skinny On Fats
What Causes Heart Disease
Taking the Fear Out of Eating Fat
Caveman Cuisine
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April 11, 2011 at 8:51 am
That’s so true. Fat is only a word, but maybe a little bit of a fear too you think? The fear of getting fat might have contributed to the ease of believing that fat makes you fat.
April 11, 2011 at 9:00 am
Absolutely! Fear is definitely part of the momentum keeping this theory going. People are afraid to question the government when it comes to weight gain because they wouldn’t want to risk it. How long will it be, though, before people start to realize that the line the government has been feeding us is flat out wrong?
April 11, 2011 at 10:01 am
This is really exciting for me. I love bacon! I’ve been trying the paleo diet off and on for a while, doing a lot of chicken breast, vegetables and stuff like that but I always notice that when I eat really oily meals I am so much happier. I’m trying to keep my calories down though so I don’t eat too much fat. How much fat do you eat?
April 11, 2011 at 10:15 am
I think a lot of people are probably in the same boat, thinking that if you eat too much fat, you’ll never lose weight. This really isn’t true. With every variant of the paleo diet I have tried, I find that the higher the fat (and lower the carbs) the thinner I become. And in fact, I’m really not happy with the paleo diet unless I’m eating a lot of fat. For breakfast I often have 4 pieces of uncured bacon and then I dip each bite in bacon fat. I always add extra fat to all my meals.
May 6, 2011 at 8:19 pm
That is funny! Last week we were visiting out of town family when someone said, “I don’t like eating that it has too much fat. I have enough that already!” My four year old too cool for school son very matter-of-factly announced, “Um, fat doesn’t make you fat. Sugar and treats do.” I busted out laughing and the someone said, “Well, I guess that is…true.” Priceless that in less than 6 months my son knows how it all goes down!
May 6, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Man, that is awesome! What a little mastermind you have! My daughter has since been learning all the words for fat like grease, oil, lard, etc. There’s a lot to learn when EVERY SINGLE other influence is telling contradictory information. But actually, I love raising a little dissident. It’s such a challenge!