why are fats, particularly animal and saturated fats so bad for you.?

Question

For the 50 odd years or so the official line on diet has been to to replace animal fats with vegetable oils and eat more grains. In this time animal fat comsumption has dropped while vegatbale oil and grain consumption has risen. Yet heart disease, diabetes, cancer and depression have risen, at an increasingly alarming rate.
So, can someone please tell me the mechanisms as to why fats are so bad for you.
I dont mean 'because they make you fat' or 'because they cause heart disease'.
What I am after is proof of, and an explanation as to how they cause the damage they supposedly do

If saurated fats clog arteries, why did a study published in the lancet (1994, 334:1195)
show that 74 % of fatty acids found in artery clogs were unsaturated, of which 41% were polyunsaturated?

So it seems that while many people here want to advise others to eat low fat, no one realy seems to know or understand why this should be so. Surely there is someone who truly knows what they are talking about when they tell others to avoid these nasty fats. How can you give out advice if you have no idea of what your talking about?
There must be multitudes of studies backing up this hypothesis and papers published explaining how and why, or is it realy one big fat lie?

Answer 1

I consider all their BS a prediction rather than research.

What they say today is gone tomorrow.

They, those in research have to justify their job/paycheck.

Without all the BS they hand out, they won't be able to get the grants they need to stay in business.

And, yes . . . . . . .we, the American tax payer, pay for all this BS.

We pay for their grants with hard earned tax money.

Pardon my language, but I have listened to them change their minds for 72 years.

I let it go in one ear and out the other.

By the way, they have ruined my favorite thing.

McDonald's french fries will never taste the same again.

You asked a very good question. Thanks for the opportunity to blow off some steam.

Answer 2

I do not believe animal fat consumption has decreased at all. In fact I read recently that our meat eating has increased by %60 in the past 30 years.
We are way more sedentiary than our grandparents who often walked miles each day and did physical work around the home.
I do not know of the exact mechanism but if the body has high cholesterol (generally from saturated fats) fatty plaques are laid down in our arteries. If this occurs in the major arteries to our organs such as our heart and brain it results in diseases. Our organs simply cannot get the blood supply and thus the oxygen that we need. This is why people often need Cardiac Bypass Surgery - as their arteries that supply the heart muscle itself block (causes pain - angina or heat attack). The fat inside an artery looks like thick glug when it is scraped out - it is revolting.
Sorry my explanation is not more technical.

Answer 3

We may be eating better but we are less fit. We hardly get a fraction of the exercise our parents did. And the better diet is limited to a small portion of our population. Most of us depend on starches and sugars for the major portion of our diet.
There is even some evidence that some fat in your diet may help you fight infection.
Heart disease, diabetes and depression can be controlled or prevented by increased activity. It can be walking to the store or mowing the lawn as well as going to the gym. Those and cancer may seem more prevalent because we have the means and opportunity to identify them more readily.

Answer 4

The following are a few of the chief reasons given by those who object to its use:

First: The animal has just as much right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness as we have.

Second: They may be diseased, and there is the possibility of their containing animal parasites, such as tapeworms and trichinæ. I would like to tell you more about worms, they are so interesting, but He says not to try to tell all I know in this little book; that maybe he will let me write another sometime, although it is a terrible strain on him, and that I have given enough of the family history, anyway.

Third: The tissues of animals contain excrementitious material, which may cause excess acidity, raise the blood pressure, and so forth.

Fourth: More apt to putrefy and thus give ptomaine poisoning.

Fifth: Makes the disposition more vicious.

Happy in love and lucky in life!!!! :D

Answer 5

When you eat something, that has fat in it, as your body digests the food, it's nutrients, minerals, sugars, and fats are absorbed into your blood stream to deliver to the rest of your body for fuel. The problem with eating too much fat is that it has to pass through your heart. Animal fats and saturated fats are named saturated, because they remain solid at a room temperature, so they clog your arteries when passing through to deliver nutrients to the rest of your body. Unsaturated fats are better because they stay liquid at room temperature, but still clog your arteries as they pass through.

Answer 6

I don't have all the info to this question, but I do know that sat. fat clogs your arteries, thus leading to heart problems. I would think your liver would have a harder time trying to process alot of it also. These are vital to us so the more we consume, the quicker we are tearing ourselves down.

Answer 7

Trans-fats stick to your artery walls...

Do not microwave fats, no margarine (butter is better), or coconut based oils...

Answer 8

have you heard the saying, too much is bad for you? It doesn't matter if you switch animal fat to vegetable oil, if you over consume it is bad for you.

Answer 9

thats how it is you cant change it, it just works like that its the human body and your digestive system that does all that

Answer 10

I have no idea but these two links should help you figure it all out.

What do you say?

You're welcome, lol!