Myths about fats in your diet

The recommendation for saturated fats in Americans' diets made decades ago are now changing. New dietary guidelines are now bringing back certain foods containing saturated fats and cholesterol in people's diets. Dr. Jonny Bowden, as known as "The Myth Buster" shows us some of the myths behind certain foods that were once forbidden.

Fueling your fat fix: Forbidden foods that are okay to eat

If you've banished red meats, butter and egg yolks from your diet for health reasons, there's reason to rejoice. The notion that saturated fat and cholesterol are the demons in the diet is 100 percent wrong.

It's time to rehabilitate the reputation of saturated fat, a perfectly healthy fat that we collectively demonized when we wrongly believed it lead to heart disease. Recent research has shown that there's no connection between saturated fat in the diet and the incidence of heart disease. Instead of saturated fat and cholesterol, most leading edge experts are now looking at inflammation as a prime mover in the development of heart disease.

The irony is that the foods we were taught are good for us - breads, cereals, pasta, rice, potatoes - are the very ones that are killing us. Our bodies convert these foods to sugar (blood glucose) almost instantly. Sugar raises insulin, causing spikes in insulin, and this process leads to inflammation, which is the fundamental cause of heart disease. Without inflammation, chronic diseases like heart disease, arthritis and asthma are much less likely to happen. Inflammation is what makes us sick.

Foods containing saturated fat that are okay to eat

• Butter: "Butter was never bad to begin with! It was banished from our tables because of our ill-advised fear of saturated fats. So we replaced it with something much worse, called margarine!"

• Grass-fed beef : "Grass-fed beef is rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and less inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. It's also free of added hormones, a very big plus indeed." Cows are meant to eat grass for their food. Of course you are eating grass-fed beef, or at least you used to be. Now you have to seek grass-fed beef out. The beef from cows who eat their natural diet of grass has a much more healthy fat and fatty acid profile than cows raised on corn and hormones.

• Tropical oils: "When we reduced our intake of saturated fat, and replaced it with vegetable oils (corn, soy, canola, etc.), the ratio of omega 6 fatty acids to omega 3 fatty acids in our diets became wildly out of balance. Omega 6s are the building blocks of inflammatory chemicals in our bodies, and we are consuming 6-25 times more of these trouble maker fatty acids than we are the healthy anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. We should substitute Malaysian palm fruit oil for some of that inflammatory omega 6, which will help bring us back to better balance. Malaysian palm fruit oil won't cause inflammation. It also won't break down into toxic substances when you cook with it, it remains healthful as you use it."

• Egg yolks : "What a relief that you don't have to suffer through one more tasteless egg white omelet! The advice to eat egg white omelets is way past its expiration date!" It turns out that egg yolks and the cholesterol they can are not the enemy.Cholesterol is not the problem. Inflammation is the problem. Cholesterol is only a problem if you have inflammation. Inflammation can make a particular kind of cholesterol (LDL) sticky, and that is what can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

• Dark meat poultry: "The USDA data shows that there are mere milligrams of differences in the nutritional content of white and dark meat. Just be cautious of the skin, which is calorically dense." You don't have to eat just the breast meat of chicken and turkey to have a healthful meat choice when eating poultry.

• Cheese and nuts: "One ounce a day is associated with lower body mass index, so these are absolutely healthy. But they are also easy to overeat and contribute to weight gain, so just be careful about the amount you consume." For cheese and nuts, portions matter. Before you start eating, decide how much you'll eat of either cheese or nuts and then eat that amount. Don't let yourself keep going back for more, or you may be consuming more calories than you realize.

We all need fat in our diets. Bowden adds that, "We all benefit from healthful fats in our diets. Our metabolism, brain, nervous system, sex hormones, reproductive system, skin and more depend on these fats in order to keep us healthy and feeling full. Fat as a fuel burns much more evenly than sugar, helping to keep weight and mood stable. Eating sugar causes you to feel hungry and moody. Sugar causes our metabolism to shift to fat storage, and we pack on the pounds as a result of eating too much sugar. Eating healthy fats helps us to feel full and stop eating when we are no longer hungry, avoiding over-eating and nasty cravings for food we don't really need.

Biography: Jonny Bowden, PhD, CND Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS, (aka "The Myth Buster") is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. He is a board-certified nutritionist with a master's degree in psychology and the best-selling author of 14 books on health, healing, food and longevity, including three best-sellers, "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth", the award-winning "Living Low Carb" and his latest book, co-written with cardiologist Stephen Sinatra and featured on the Dr. Oz Show, "The Great Cholesterol Myth".