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Summary: A New Perspective on the Proper Diet
Review: I first learned of this book about two years ago when listening to The People's Pharmacy on National Public Radio. Dr. Enig was the special guest that day and talked with hosts Joe and Terry Graedon about Knowing Your Fats and its recurring themes revolving around the essential roles that fats and oils can play in our daily diet.One of her themes was that diets have been so badly stereotyped in the West that many Americans, including nutritionists and physicians, have come to propose that the only healthy diet is that of a strict vegetarian. She then stated that,in contrast to this widely held opinion, the typical diet in China, where the citizens are regarded as typically healthy by these same individuals advocationg strict vegetarianism, is far from free of animal products and by-products. She said that, in fact, a main cooking additive in the Chinese diet is lard, a fat that has been labeled, perhaps mislabeled, as a contributor to heart disease and obesity. Dr. Enig then continued that consumer activists who are trying to eliminate animal fats and coconut oils from food products either have been or still are misinformed. She stated that many of these advocates, despite their good intentions of contributing to a healthier American population, want the food manufacturers to replace animal fats with partially hydrogenated oils and fats that, according to the studies of her and her colleagues, are even more harmful than the former. For instance, their findings concluded that trans fatty acids from partial hydrogenation can further contribute to heart disease in the following ways: 1. decrease the amount of HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol), 2.increase the amount of LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol), and 3. hamper one's ability to keep insulin levels under control. All in all, the above are just a few of several topics well-detailed in Knowing Your Fats. Included in the book are charts that categorize the types of fats and oils that can be used in cooking and how each can be beneficial and/or harmful for one's health. Dr. Enig has done an excellent job with this book. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Most Accurate Information Available on Fats Today
Review: I have not found any resource on fats that compares with Mary Enig's research. So much misinformation on fats and cholesterol exists . This book gives a clear picture as to what fats are needed for optimum health down to the cellualr level...
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Summary: Could be your ace in the hole
Review: If you are an "O" Blood Type then this book will do wonders for your health. If and when followed properly. Also check out "Nutritional & Physical Degeneration", by Weston A Price
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Summary: Disappointing
Review: If you are looking for an accurate presentation of the basics about fat chemistry and especially the differences between trans fats and other fats, this book is for you. There is a lot of misinformation out there about fats that this book corrects. As a chemist I've been horrified by some of the misinformation that I've come across about the structures of fatty acids, especially trans fatty acids. On the other hand, Know Your Fats, offers little of use besides basic structure, chemistry and compositions of fats and oils. Some interesting information about trans fats is presented but even some of the basics of fatty acid biochemistry and action in the body are given little attention. The book is also very poorly organized, filled with bits of disconnected pieces of information. Dr. Mary Enig presents herself as a real expert and criticizes some of the standard nutritional lines and research on fats and disease. She claims that saturated fat is benign and has been unfairly maligned by the hydrogenated oil industry (producers of the real bad fat, trans fatty acids) and research supported by it. Given the vast sums of money that the meat and dairy industries have themselves spent on nutritional research, the promotion of their products, and lobbying of government as well as their historically prominent role in providing nutritional "information" and setting USDA dietary guidelines, its pretty disingenuous to cast the meat and dairy industries as passive victims of the hydrogenated oil industry. Undoubtedly there is plenty of poor, biased nutritional research in the world, but Enig does not attempt to evaluate it in a systematic way. Indeed, she has just as much of an agenda as anyone. Her agenda is to sound the alarm about trans fatty acids and thereby redeem animal fats. Basically her argument is that people ate plenty of animal fats a century ago (and very little trans fat) without getting heart disease, so animal fat must be healthy. This may be true, but Enig completely ignores the dramatic changes that have occurred in the fatty acid composition of meat, due to changes in the diets and treatment of meat animals. If you compare the fat content and composition of wild game to a modern burger, you will find the burger to be far higher in total fat, saturated fat, and much lower in omega 3 fatty acids. Yet beyond a throw-away statement about picking animal products raised on traditional diets (not an easy thing to do), Enig completely fails to address this important issue. Neither does Enig do a good job of rebutting research pinning the blame for heart disease on saturated fat. Since the causes of heart disease are multi-factorial, its always possible that saturated fat causes heart disease in combination with one or more other factors (such as trans fat intake). Saturated fat could be a problem in the context of a modern lifestyle, while posing no risks in the context of a completely traditional lifestyle. If animal products are so benign then why do those who avoid them live longer? Comparisons of meat-eating and vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists have shown a greater difference in life span (longer for the vegetarians) then between smokers and non-smokers. The China Health Study apparently found increases in heart disease and cancer with meat intake even at the very lowest levels of intake. These studies may have flaws, but until someone evaluates them in a neutral and systematic way, its irresponsible to simply ignore them as Enig does. For a better treatment of the omega 3 / omega 6 issue and research on fatty acids and disease as well as clear dietary guidelines, see The Omega Diet, by Artemis P. Simopoulos and Jo Robinson. I'm sure Dr. Enig would take issue with The Omega Diet's categorization of fatty acids (other than trans fats) into "good" and "bad" categories, but given the current state of the American diet, I think these categories are warranted, especially when given with appropriate background information.
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Summary: Rendering the complex understandable
Review: Know Your Fats is a little gem that will be of interest to anyone seeking an understanding of the role that dietary fats play in human health and disease. Written in a succinct and jargon free style, Dr. Enig's book provides a comprehensive, yet understandable, overview of lipid biology, biochemistry and physiology. The book is literally crammed with attractive illustrations and useful tables that not only facilitate an understanding of the material covered, but serve as a source of information for future reference. Although written for the layman, the book will be of interest to scientists, physicians and health-care workers who seek a contemporary overview of this continually evolving field.
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Summary: Saturated fats have given me awesome health.
Review: Know Your Fats is an awesome book and the best in my nutrition library. Starting in June 1999 at 60 years of age I began a high-fat, high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet with absolutely AWESOME results. I lost 40 pounds. My cholesterol cardiac risk went from high risk to PERFECT. My blood pressure dropped 15 point to normal. It cured a skin problem on my hand and cured my allergy to my daughter's cat. My energy is wonderful and I never get sick like before and have never even had a cold. I hike the Rocky Mountains like a big horn sheep at 11,000 feet elevation for hours. My heart and lungs are perfectly clear. I eat lots of medium chain saturated fats from coconut oil and butter. High-fat ribeye steaks are consumed several times a week and I eat three soft boiled eggs every day for breakfast. Coconut oil has lauric fatty acids which is the same as in mother's milk and has proven antipathogenic properties. I do NOT eat partially hydrogenated oils, polyunsaturated vegetable oils, sugar, fruit, milk, grains, bread, starchy root veggies like potatoes, turnips, beet, carrots and yams, or other high-carbohydrate foods. I do eat lots of red-meat, fish, fowl, raw nuts, light colored real cheese and non-starchy veggies. Combining the information in "Know Your Fats" with the low-carbohydrate diet truly SAVED MY LIFE.
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Summary: Will the real fats please stand?
Review: The role of fats and oils in human health has received enormous attention in recent years. Popular media are filled with articles about dietary fat, and what we should and should not be eating. Medical organizations such as the American Heart Association have recently published new guidelines concerning new dietary recommendations with an increased emphasis on omega-3 oils - http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/4304635102. 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.
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Summary: Excellent and Readable Work on Fats and Oils
Review: This book, written by one of the world's leading lipid biochemists, is a much needed title in today's "fat-phobic" world. Discarding politically correct notions that saturated fats are unhealthy, Dr. Mary Enig presents a thorough, in-depth, and understandable look at the world of lipids. 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.
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Summary: Fats and Folks
Review: This is one of the better nutrition books available today. I learned a lot, and Dr. Enig wrote it in a way that made it understandable to the non-lipid chemists among us who would be reading it. She has done the world a great service by explaining the real place in the human diet for saturated fats and cholesterol. I "lived" on a fat-free diet for about 15 years, and in that time managed to disrupt every major endocrine and metabolic process in my body. When I came to my senses (thanks to a book called "The Metabolic Trap" by Calvin Ezrin, MD), and began to add meat and fat back into my diet, I was able to reverse EVERY SINGLE SYMPTOM. With no medications, no special medical treatment, no doctors, I restored my health by simply replacing SATURATED FATS in my diet. Nothing else. My overall cholesterol at my last test was 179, and my blood pressure remains in the low-normal range. This book vindicated what I had already figured out, and explained it in terms simple enough for anyone to understand. I used up a whole yellow marker on it, and was pleased with the careful and thorough way she explained each fatty acid and its role in metabolism. I am really glad she stood her ground in the face of the criticism I am sure she suffered for her stand, which is 180 degrees opposed to the current medical "wisdom" of "Eat lots of carbs!" "Don't eat saturated fats!" "Don't eat cholesterol!" The standard American diet (correctly and aptly acronymed "SAD") is a mishmosh that consists of 65% BREAD ("complex carbohydrates"). This, in the nation that had the highest-protein diet in the world until somebody came up with the stupidly misguided idea that dietary fat equaled body fat, and that essential saturated fatty acids were somehow responsible for heart attacks. How this "fact" was arrived at in view of HISTORICAL facts of primitive and modern unrefined diets, I will never understand. Thanks, Dr. Enig. I hope you write another book about saturated fats in the diet and metabolism, and I hope I'm the first person to read it! http://www.opinions3.com
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Summary: Hands down the best
Review: This is quite simply the best book available on lipid chemistry in nutrition that is accessible to non-scientists. It lists and describes the actions of fats in our diet, and the role fats play in our body chemistry and health. Dr. Enig takes us all the way from chemical formulas and molecular diagrams to descriptions of various kinds of oils and fats used in cooking, as well as the sources and makeup of different types of oils and fats. 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.
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