Cain was jealous of his brother Abel after Abel's offering found favor with God. (Illustration by Linda Jeanne Rivers)

“We recited from the book of Moses the account of the first recorded offering to Jehova, where Cain brought vegetables and Abel ‘the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof’ and how the Lord had respecteth unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering he had no respect.” – Genesis 4:3-5.

In other words, God doesn’t like vegetables. God likes fatty meat.

Viracocha is the great creator deity in the Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America. Viracocha means “Sea of Fat.” Viracocha was also a form of greeting. When they met, to greet, they said: “Be engulfed in a sea of fat.”

A study published in October 2015 in the Journal of Evolution and Health by Dr. Miki Ben-Dor from Tel Aviv University with the title “Use of Animal Fat as a Symbol of Health in Traditional Societies, Suggests Humans may be Well Adapted to Its Consumption.” You read this in the result and conclusion section of the paper: “Collection of 200 cases from culturally and geographically diverse traditional societies, reveals that in all three expression forms, there appears to be a clear tendency to associate animal fat with extremely positive meanings like ‘fertility,’ ‘sacredness,’ ‘wealth,’ ‘health,’ and even ‘a source of creation,’ and life itself. In line with evidence for the importance of dietary animal fat in prehistoric and traditional societies, the studied traditional societies perceived animal fat as a vital component of their diet and a profound source of health rather than an impediment to health as it is presented in many dietary recommendations today.” [1]

Cavemen went hunting and ate animals. It is undeniable that the surplus fat and protein were stored as saturated fat. For days, weeks and even months of food scarcity, until the next successful hunt, they fed themselves from the body’s saturated fat reserves. The only carbohydrates they had access to were some berries and herbs once a year. That means the body ran almost exclusively on saturated fat. One might argue that humans in Paleolithic times had a short life span, which is true. However, they died from acute diseases, and not chronic ones. They lived in an extremely dangerous world of microbes, viruses, aggressive predators, lack of hygiene, severe cold, heat, and other natural hazards. Despite all these, they made it to this date. We exist. And our brain is the biggest among all animals.

Look at the Inuits and Eskimos. Their diets consisted of 85% saturated fat. Seal fat! And another 15%? Protein. Where could they find fruits, vegetables, or grain to have some carbohydrate? In ice? Until Western food found its way to these societies, chronic diseases were non-existent.

I have seen in New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Southern Germany the free-range cows in open wide pastures upon the mountains and valleys are grazing happily. These animals reward us by contributing to our health and well-being with grass-fed saturated fat, fresh meat, and dairy. How can the saturated fat come from them be bad? It’s a natural and organic source of food that humans have been consuming for thousands of years. I eat twice a day in a 6-hour eating window. I also ensure that the animals from which the products come were treated with great respect and not transported. We want to stay away from factory-farmed beef, chicken, pork, and fish.

Our lifestyle and diet are not in alignment with humane evolution. Our genetic material, physiology, biochemistry, and mitochondria (the power plants of our cells) are challenged heavily because the primary source of our energy is glucose coming from sugar and refined carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is metabolized into simple sugar, regardless of whether it’s coming from whole-grain bread, brownies, fruit, or cereal. The excess proteins, that are not used immediately in the process of new protein synthesized for cells, will turn into simple sugar. The point is, if you remove the saturated fat from your diet, there is nothing remaining to be utilized for energy but sugar.

Over the course of 2.6 million years of human evolution, however, the mitochondria have been burning fat to power up the cells. The human body was never meant to burn sugar for energy. Sugar is the body’s supercharge fuel for times of massive physical stress, such as escaping from a predator or chasing a mammoth. In our modern times, we call it a fight-or-flight response, which is our prehistoric mechanism to cope with stressful situations.

The brain prompts your adrenal glands, located on the top of kidneys, to release hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure, and boosts energy supply. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars in the bloodstream that can be burnt anaerobically, meaning creating energy without oxygen, in which we can burn sugar quickly to run away from the dangerous aggressor. This is because in fight-or-flight situations, we are not able to supply sufficient oxygen to burn fat. As soon as the danger is over, the cortisol hormone level return to normal, the heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and our body sets back to fat-burning mode. [2] Meaning regular and steady metabolism of energy without lactic acid and free radical by-products that cause oxidative stress. That is why, by using sugar as a primary source of fuel, we are turning this evolutionary setting and healthy human physiology upside down, which constitute the very underlying cause of all chronic diseases.

We are putting the mitochondria in a state of struggle by leaving them no choice but to burn sugar instead. And then wondering why our body is loaded with free radicals. The production of excess free radicals is prominently based on glucose metabolism, which the mitochondria are not designed for. [3]

Our ancestors were eating saturated fat for 2.6 million years. When I say 2.6 million years of evolution, I refer to Homo habilis, which lived roughly between 2.6 and 1.7 million years ago. By the way, stone tools and hunting habits of Homo habilis correlate with the rapid growth of the brain size, as studies show.

The agricultural revolution, however, was only 8000 years ago. Even within the last 8000 years, we were eating saturated fat. Our grandmas cooked food with lard, tallow, and butter. The big-pharma, big-food, and heavily lobbied medical schools have been demonizing saturated fat since the early 1960s. Instead, they promote trans fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils, refined carbohydrates from genetically modified grains, and high fructose corn syrup, all of which are extremely inflammatory and the major drivers of chronic diseases. I highly recommend the in-depth discussion on the history of fat demonization here.

There is no single piece of scientific evidence in the entire history of medical and nutrition science that shows any link between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease. Exactly the opposite is true. Chronic diseases are mainly a result of insufficient intake of natural saturated fat and cholesterol-rich foods from animal sources. And that is precisely the reason why chronic diseases prior to dietary guidelines were so low. Educate yourself about these topics here.

A new Norwegian diet intervention study (FATFUNC), performed by researchers at the KG Jebsen Center for Diabetes Research at the University of Bergen in 2016, titled “Very-high-fat diet reversed obesity and disease risk,” states “The very high intake of total and saturated fat did not increase the calculated risk of cardiovascular diseases.” Pprofessor and cardiologist Ottar Nygård, who contributed to the study, said, “Participants on the very-high-fat diet also had substantial improvements in several important cardio-metabolic risk factors, such as ectopic fat storage, blood pressure, blood lipids (triglycerides), insulin and blood sugar.”

The myth that saturated fat is unhealthy is related to a systematic planned campaign of the pharma industry, as they always use their vast resources to manipulate the data. Since people believe that saturated fats are not good for them, they fix their metabolism on carbs and sugar. The result is devastating .

As Paul J. Rosch, MD put it: “It is no coincidence that the present obesity epidemic started precisely after these low-fat guidelines were first published in 1980. The sad fact is that this low-fat diet should never have been introduced, and the consequences of this error have been disastrous. Only 15% of the population was obese when the low-fat guidelines appeared in 1980. This has now increased to 35% in adults, and 17% in children and teenagers. If obesity rates continue on their current trajectories, 50% or more adults could be obese by 2030. And the diet-heart idea has even had more catastrophic results. From 1980 through 2014, the number of Americans with diagnosed diabetes has increased fourfold (from 5.5 million to 22.0 million).” [4]

In a 2010 evaluation of 21 studies and 350,000 subjects, saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease – and numerous other studies have reached similar conclusions. The replacement of saturated fats in the diet with carbohydrates, especially sugars, has resulted in increased obesity and its associated health complications. Well-established mechanisms have been proposed for the adverse health effects of some alternatives. [5]

Another study found that when three groups of obese people were fed diets of 90% fat, 90% protein, or 90% carbohydrates, respectively, the high-fat group lost the most weight. [6]

11 Reasons Why We Need Saturated Fat

1. There is no double bond between the carbon atoms to make it unstable. It serves us as a stable, whole, and full-functioning molecule. Conversely, polyunsaturated hydrogenated vegetable oils from GMO grains are extremely inflammatory. They are unstable broken electron- hogs, attacking around and damaging the healthy components of our body.

2. Fats have twice the amount of calories than carbohydrates, which enables the fat molecules to be digested very slowly. Fat metabolism is slow metabolism, which makes you feel full and cause you to eat less overall. You give the body the possibility to rest and not being permanently in digestion-glucose-insulin mode. When the body is not busy with digestion, it acts on healing inflammations in the blood vessel, repairing the damaged DNA, and optimizing the performance of the brain.

3. The insulin spike is not as high on saturated fat as it is on carbohydrates. Therefore, fat serves as, so to speak, an insulin buffer. This is an ideal way to improve insulin sensitivity and reverse type 2 diabetes.

4. Consuming saturated fat allows the body abundant and steady energy. When we eat carbohydrates, the blood glucose rises, resulting in an instant burst of energy, and it falls in a short sequence. That is why we feel sleepy and lazy after eating a big portion of pasta.

5. Eating fat and cholesterol-rich foods aids in the metabolism of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K2. Vitamin K2 coming from cheese, egg yolk, butter, salami, beef, chicken breast, and liver. Vitamin K2 keeps the arteries elastic, takes the calcium deposits away from the spot of inflammation in the blood vessels, and thus acts against coronary artery calcification and mortality from coronary heart disease. It also maintains glowing skin, strengthens bones, and enhances brain performance. Vitamin K2 also reduces the risk of prostate cancer by 35% (based on data from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg), and support significantly supports the immune system. [7]

6. The cell membranes (the layers that separate the interior of all cells from the bloodstream) are made of fat (lipids) and cholesterols. These lipids are optimally composed of omega-3 fatty acids, which make them more sensitive to insulin. Grass-fed beef, egg yolk, sardines, and salmon are prominent sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

7. Cancer cells generate energy through glucose fermentation, which makes them demand a large amount of glucose to survive and proliferate. Therefore, by cutting off the glucose supply, the cancer cells die out. Fat A fat-based ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting are, therefore, the most powerful protocols to prevent and heal cancer.

8. Eating fat, prominently in egg yolk and beef, increases the hormone testosterone, which helps a higher fertility, repairing tissue, preserving muscle, improving sexual desire, and building muscles. [8]

9. A diet rich in saturated fats will increase the levels of HDL "good cholesterol”. ” Higher HDL also helps to produce more growth hormone, which increases the production of amino acids (the building blocks of muscle). In short, protein is essential, but fat is also necessary for gaining healthy muscle mass.

10. Saturated fat makes the liver cells dump their fat cells, which helps the liver to function more effectively. A diet enriched in saturated but not unsaturated fatty acids can reverse alcoholic liver injury by making the liver cells dump their fat cells. [9]

11. Eating a low-fat diet can promote depression and anxiety in humans. [10]

The Connection Between Long-Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (LC omega‐3 PUFA) and Red Meat

LC omega‐3 PUFA contain:

• Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)

• Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)

• Docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, a “new” omega 3 fatty acid)

The omega 3 fatty acid in plants includes the ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) and not DPA, EPA, and DHA. ALA is a precursor to EPA and DHA, but the conversion rate in the body is extremely low – less than 1% of ALA is converted to EPA and DHA. That is why you want to get your omega 3 fatty acids from an animal source. There are an increasing number of surveys that red meat contributes almost as much as seafood to the LC omega‐3 PUFA intake.

Recent evidence suggests that DPA is just as important as EPA and DHA for providing the health benefits related to the omega‐3 fatty acid. Grass-fed beef can serve as the primary DPA source. [11] The presence of DPA in our body and its abundance in human milk have long served as indications of its importance in human health, and it is increasingly recognized as an important part of our diet. Numerous studies have shown a clear link between DPA intake and better health. Among terrestrial sources, the livers of New Zealand beef and lamb are the richest sources of DPA, containing approximately 140 mg DPA per 100 g of an edible portion (USDA, 2014). Australian beef provides up to 80 mg of DPA per 100 g of edible meat. [12]

Scientific analysis has revealed that meat contributes almost as much as seafood to the long-chain omega‐3 fatty acid intake of adult Australians. Meat has a relatively high content of DPA, relative to EPA and DHA. Recent evidence suggests that DPA is just as important as EPA or DHA for delivering the health benefits associated with long-chain omega‐3 fatty acid. Lean red meat is an important natural food source of long-chain omega‐3 fatty acid, given it is grass-fed. [13]

Seal meat and blubber are also rich sources of DPA. Greenland Intuits, who were absolute carnivores before their exposure to Western civilization, consumed, on average, 400 g of seal meat per person per day. It can be estimated that the population consumed anywhere between 1.7 to 4.0 g of DPA per day. The authors suggested that the high intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, including DPA, may explain the rarity of heart disease in this population. [14]

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Scientific References

[1] Use of Animal Fat as a Symbol of Health in Traditional societies Suggests Humans may be Well Adapted to its Consumption https://doi.org/10.15310/2334-3591.1022 Dr. Miki Ben-Pgc, Tel Aviv University.

[2] Dietary saturated fatty acids: a novel treatment for alcoholic liver disease. Nanji AA, Sadrzadeh SM, Yang EK, Fogt F, Meydani M, Dannenberg AJ. Gastroenterology. 1995 Aug;109(2):547-54. PMID: 7615205

[3] The pathobiology of diabetic complications: a unifying mechanism. Brownlee M Diabetes. 2005 Jun; 54(6):1615-25. Mitochondrial fission mediates high glucose-induced cell death through elevated production of reactive oxygen species. Yu T, Sheu SS, Robotham JL, Yoon Y Cardiovasc Res. 2008 Jul 15; 79(2):341-51.

[4] Paul J. Rosch, MD, Kendrick, Malcolm. Fat and Cholesterol Don’t Cause Heart Attacks and Statins Are Not The Solution. Columbus Publishing Ltd. Kindle Edition.

[5] Dietary fats and health: dietary recommendations in the context of scientific evidence. Lawrence GD. Adv Nutr. 2013 May 1;4(3):294-302. doi: 10.3945/an.113.003657. Review. PMID: 23674795.

[6] CALORIE INTAKE IN RELATION TO BODY-WEIGHT CHANGES IN THE OBESE. Kekwick, A, Pawan, GL. The Lancet, 1956 Jul 28;271(6935):155-61.

[7] Source: journal of Medicinal Food Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1089/jmf.2016.0030 “Inhibition of TNF-a, IL-la, and IL-116 by Pretreatment of Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages with Menaquinone-7 and Cell Activation with TLR Agonists In Vitro” Authors: Pan Min-Hsiung, et al.

[8] Effects of Dietary fat and fiber on plasma and urine androgens and estrogens in men: a controlled feeding study. Dorgan JF, Judd JT, et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1996 Dec;64(6):850-5.

[9] Dietary saturated fatty acids: a novel treatment for alcoholic liver disease. Nanji AA, Sadrzadeh SM, Yang EK, Fogt F, Meydani M, Dannenberg AJ. Gastroenterology. 1995 Aug;109(2):547-54. PMID: 7615205

[10] Alterations in mood after changing to a low-fat diet. Wells AS, Read NW, Laugharne JD, Ahluwalia NS. Br J Nutr. 1998 Jan;79(1):23-30. PMID: 9505799. Psychology Today, Hara Estroff Marano, published April 29, 2003 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016.

[11] They may confirm the available evidence pointing to its nutritional and biological functions, unique or overlapping with those of EPA and DHA.  Dietary sources, current intakes, and nutritional role of omega-3 docosapentaenoic acid. Yelashov OA, Sinclair AJ, Kaur G. Lipid Technol. 2015 Apr;27(4):79-82. PMID: 26097290.

[12] Composition of Australian red meat 2002. 2. Fatty acid profile V. Droulez University of Wollongong P. G. Williams University of Wollongong, peterw@uow.edu.au G. Levy University of Wollongong T. Stobaus National Measurement Institute, South Melbourne A. Sinclair RMIT University.

[13] Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in red meat Peter HOWE, Jon BUCKLEY, Barbara MEYER First published: 15 August 2007 I doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-0080.2007.00201.

[14] The composition of the Eskimo food in north western Greenland. Bang HO, Dyerberg J, Sinclair HM. Am J Clin Nutr. 1980 Dec;33(12):2657-61. PMID: 7435433