Big Fat Lies

By Dr. Mercola

If you were to believe the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pop-Tarts and Frosted Flakes are healthier than nuts and avocados. This incomprehensible stance stems from the agency’s definition of the word “healthy.”

According to FDA rules, food can only be marketed as healthy if it meets certain nutritional criteria for fat, sodium, cholesterol and beneficial nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Snack foods cannot contain more than 3 grams of total fat per serving in order to qualify as healthy, and only 1 gram of that can be saturated fat. This position is reprehensibly negligent in light of all the new evidence supporting the benefits of saturated fat.

As a result of this outdated — not to mention wrong — criteria, high-sugar, low-fat snacks like Pop-Tarts end up on the “healthy” snack list, while high-fat, low-sugar ones like KIND fruit and nut bars fail to qualify.

FDA to Reassess Definition of Healthy

Last year, KIND LLC received an FDA warning letter ordering the company to cease using the term “healthy” on its snack packaging because their nut bars contain too much-saturated fat. As noted by the Organic Consumers Association:¹

• Use organic butter made from raw grass-fed milk instead of margarine and vegetable oil spreads.
• Use coconut oil for cooking. It is far superior to any other cooking oil and is loaded with health benefits.
• Use olive oil cold, drizzled over salad or fish, for example. It is not an ideal cooking oil as it is easily damaged by heat.
• Sardines and anchovies are an excellent source of protein and beneficial omega-3 fats and are also very low in toxins that are present in most other fish.
• Following my nutrition plan will teach you to focus on real food instead of processed junk food. This change alone will dramatically reduce the amount of refined sugar and processed fructose in your diet. It will also address the issue of healthy versus harmful fats in your diet. Believe me, you’d be hard-pressed to find a processed food containing healthy fat, or a whole food containing a truly harmful one.
• To round out your healthy fat intake, be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, and olive oil, and also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat.

Sources and References

• ¹ Organic Consumers Association May 10, 2016
• ² Wall Street Journal May 10, 2016
• ³ Medicinenet.com May 10, 2016
• ⁴ NPR May 10, 2016
• ⁵ Kaiser Health News May 10, 2016
• ⁶ NBC News May 11, 2016
• ⁷ Reuters May 11, 2016
• ⁸ BMJ October 2013
• ⁹ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition March 2010: 91(3); 502-509
• ¹⁰ Sugarscience.org, 61 Names for Sugar

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