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The publication of Know Your Fats is a rare treat: it is, to this reviewer's knowledge, the ONLY book on fats and oils for the consumer and the professional written by a recognized authority in the field. Virtually all of the titles on fats and oils in print now are either too technical to be accessible by the layman, or are too error-laden to be worth the paper they are printed on.
Mary Enig made her mark in the nutritional world in 1978 when she and her colleagues at the University of Maryland published a now-famous paper in the American journal Federation Proceedings. The paper directly challenged government assertions that higher cancer rates were associated with animal fat consumption. Enig, et al, concluded that the data actually showed vegetable oils and trans-fatty acids to be the culprits in both cancer and heart disease--not naturally saturated fats that people have been eating for millennia. In the ensuing years, Enig and her colleagues focused their work on determining the trans-fatty acid content of various food items, as well as publishing research that clearly demonstrated TFA's to be potent carcinogens, prime factors in heart disease, disruptors of immune function, and worse.
Enig's book begins like any other on lipid biochemistry and discusses the nature of saturates, monounsaturates, polyunsaturates, and trans-fatty acids. Included also is a revealing discussion of cholesterol and its vital importance to the body. The first chapter also clearly discusses the molecular structure of different fatty acids (with diagrams) and presents the metabolic conversion products of each of the major fatty acids (oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and palmitoleic).
The physiology of fats and cholesterol is fully covered in chapter two. Almost half of this chapter is devoted to shattering popular myths about saturated fats and their roles as disease promoters. Not mincing any words, Enig methodically demonstrates the faulty data and reasoning behind the ideas that saturates either cause or contribute to heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, mental illness, obesity, and cerebrovascular disease. For example, after trashing the "data" that supposedly prove that beef and beef fat caused colon cancer, Enig flatly concludes: "And now, more than three (3) decades after the initial fraudulent report, the anti-animal fat hypothesis continues to lead the nutrition agenda. It was a false issue then, and it remains a false issue today."
Subsequent chapters deal with fats historically used in Western diets; the fatty acid composition of various oils and fats such as coconut, butter, lard, and olive oil; and a succinct summary of "fat facts." The book is rounded out by detailed appendices on definitions, fatty acids in a huge number of foods, and molecular compositions of major fatty acids.
What is most telling, however, is Enig's insider take on the nutritional research world and the forces at play that manipulate the facts. Never one to shy away from controversy, Enig makes some pretty strong indictments of such organizations as the American Dietetics Association, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the American Heart Association, and the food industry in general. More shocking are her thoughts on research scientists:
"The common scenario is that of a highly intelligent person . . . who finds a research task that will lead to funding from the food and/or pharmaceutical industry or from the industry-controlled government agencies. If that research shows an adverse effect of any of the new foods studied, this is frequently ignored. . . . Of course, the research that is done by the industry-supported scientists is good basic research, and it usually is of great interest so as long as it supports the food industry or avoids a clash with the industry it is promoting. What seems so ironic, is that the very foods (saturated fats and cholesterol) that people are avoiding are the very foods that are healthful. When it comes to fat, this really has become the age of the flat earth."
Hopefully, Know Your Fats will help make the earth round once more.
Dr. Enig pulls no punches in discussing misunderstood or misused research, and this honesty is welcome and refreshing, not to mention possibly life saving. It is so tiresome trying to wade through the hype and PR noise around nutrition. Like medical research, the food business is about Big Money, and truth seems to be a stranger to that part of our society. More and more, one must become an informed advocate for one's own health and welfare. This book is an important tool for the enlightened consumer.
The book is well written in a very clear style with no extraneous scientific jargon. It is well referenced and cited, which I like in a book that discusses scientific research. These days people have much more access to original research papers than ever before.
If you get only one book on fats in your diet, this should be it. The research and information is solid, free of fads and commercial influence.
While this book is primarily for the layman, it provides a sufficient detailed overview of lipid biology, biochemistry and physiology that professional readers will find it very useful. Journalists who write about these health areas should be especially encouraged to study it. Indeed, anyone seeking an understanding of the role that dietary fats play in human health and disease should give this a read. The style is succinct and jargon free, with many illustrations and useful tables that not only facilitate an understanding of the material covered, but serve as a source of information for future reference. It provides an in-depth discussion of the many facts and fantasies regarding dietary fats and oils. A General Glossary of terms, common to fats and oils in foods and lipids in biological systems, is included at the end of the book.
A distinctive aspect of the book is the challenge to the scientific community which she feels is partly responsible for propagating many of our current misunderstanding regarding the health risks and benefits of various dietary fats. Dr. Enig was an early and outspoken critic of the use of trans fatty acids and has advocated their inclusion in nutritional labeling, so that we can more easily avoid them. In addition to her views on partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, she is critical of other mainstream beliefs, including the decision to vilify tropical oils many years ago. She feels that their virtual exclusion from our current diet has been detrimental to our health. In her support of including these and other saturated fats in our diet, such as those in dairy products, she places herself outside the conventional establishment. The challenges she presents to the food industry and the scientific community should help prevent complacency in this important and evolving arena.
will tell you (at least, most of them)...this book will encourage you to eat animal fat... Read more
