I'm amazed no-one has yet commented on this programme!
Whilst I applaud the effort of people like Jamie to bring to people's attention the horrors of fast food, I am extremely concerned about some of the blatant untruths and misleading comments in this programme, which serve only to INCREASE the confusion felt by the public, rather than reduce it, as was the stated intent.
If people who are relatively uninformed about such matters (as was the intended audience) were to follow such advice, they would find themselves making their health WORSE, not better.
Primary amongst these issues is the argument surrounding saturated fats. This was erroneously summed up by the "nutritionist" who said "fat makes you fat" - what complete rubbish!
This is basic biology and you even showed a clear example of how this is wrong in the form of the Foie Gras that Jamie cooked - what was this goose fed? Lard? Butter? Dripping? NO, it was fed MAIZE - almost completely free of fat and almost 100% pure energy in the form of carbohydrate, yet it was a grossly fatty, distended liver, as would have been the animal.
Basic biology teaches us that the function of the liver is to convert excess SUGAR to fat and back again as required (if there is always excess sugar in the system, the "back again" part never happens). This process is controlled by INSULIN, which is why diabetes and obesity are so closely related.
Consequently, it is NOT fat that makes you fat, it is sugar in all its form - sugar itself, refined flour, rice and other high glycaemic index carbs, INCLUDING maize! What might have been helpful is how people can reduce the effect of the huge spikes in blood sugar that occur by eating these foods (which is what leads to diabetes) - simply by including FIBRE in the same meal (NOT protein!) or preferably using the whole-grain varieties of the same products, which reduces the insulin response by a whopping 50%
Conversely, excess fat is usually eliminated from the system and does NOT contribute to blood cholesterol levels - ALL the cholesterol that reaches your blood comes from the LIVER - it is MADE TO ORDER to meet the needs of your body. In the case of ischaemic heart disease, these needs are hugely increased due to another deficiency - vitamin C - from which the artery walls are made (as collagen). If insufficient Vit C is in the system, damage to the artery walls can't be repaired, so something else has to be done to repair the damage - enter cholesterol - the body's "elastoplast" to block the hole and prevent blood leakage. This has been known for over 50 years (as initially proven by Linus Pauling - one of the VERY few people EVER to have received not one, but TWO Nobel prizes for science!).
The saturated fat connection to ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is a myth created by the vegetable society of America in the middle of the last century and promoted by the society it sponsored - the American Heart Association. This was to create a market for margarine and other totally unnatural polyunsaturated fats, which had been created in the 30s and 40s. Prior to this IHD was virtually UNHEARD OF - despite the fact that everyone had been eating saturated fat in its many forms for THOUSANDS of years. However, once margarines were introduced, this all changed and IHD rates have hardly ever dropped since - exactly parralelling the uptake of UNsaturated fat intake (totally provable information available to every doctor but ignored thanks to the propaganda surrounding saturated fats). h Looking at the few examples of diets that were shown, although they WERE high in fat (irrelevant) they were also VERY high in sugar, flour, alchohol (effectively more sugar) and ADDITIVES. It is THESE factors that created the high BMIs, high body-fat and other obesity issues seen in the programme, NOT fat intake. Interestingly, whilst Jamie rightly decried the use of additives, once again NOTHING was said about the fact that these are COMPLETELY UNTESTED for human safety in combination with each other and are only tested superficially as individual compounds - have you EVER seen a product with only 1 additive? Neither have I!
There were other alarming untruths in the programme (notably "adrenaline stimulates the gut" - what utter nonsense - any 3rd year high-school biology student knows that adrenaline SWITCHES OFF digestion to enable resources (especially blood) to be sent to the heart, lungs and muscles as part of the "fight or flight" response - come on Channel 4, do some research!), but the above is by far the most misleading thing included. It is high time companies like channel 4 and individuals like Jamie who are trying to do some good actually research what they are talking about instead of spouting the usual propaganda nonsense which has led us to where we are now.
I challenge you to look into these facts and discover for yourself the truth behind the "fat" argument - you owe it to those you have misinformed!
