Column #258

Would you lend an ear to this woman who is a science journalist, author, and the Executive Director of The Nutrition Coalition, a nonprofit group that promotes evidence-based nutrition policy? She attended Yale and Stanford where she studied biology and majored in American Studies and then earned a master’s degree from Oxford University. Later she served as associate director of the Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development at Columbia University. She was an on-air reporter for National Public Radio based in Washington, D.C. and originally she was a vegetarian of 25+ years from Berkeley, CA. Really, is there anything she can add to the discussion?

For the past dozen years or so Nina Teicholz has been on a mission and has even presented testimony to both the Canadian Senate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the process she has become recognized for her presentations on dietary fat and particularly saturated fat, especially after the publication of her 2014 international bestseller “The Big Fat Surprise.” And, due to her vegetarian background, that book is a surprise because today she’s definitely not a vegetarian.

In spite of being pro meat and fat, her book was named a best book of the year by The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Mother Jones, and Library Journal as well as named a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors annual book award. It also received favorable reviews from The Lancet, The BMJ, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, among many other publications. Her work has appeared in The Independent, The BMJ, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker, among others.

So, what’s so revolutionary about what Nina Teicholz has been saying the past dozen years? You’ve got it, she been saying that meat and fat are good for you. She also knows how to pound the Omega-3 table. Furthermore, she based her conclusions on modern science—not myths that evolved from century-old theories.

She spent nine years methodically researching the information that’s in her book. She also documented how the past seventy years of low-fat nutrition advice has created disastrous consequences for our health. For decades, that advice was to cut back on fat, especially saturated fat, and that if we’re not getting healthier or thinner it must be because we’re not trying hard enough. But all along it was the low-fat diet that was the problem. That’s why she says it’s the creamy cheeses and sizzling steaks that are the keys to reversing the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Teicholz shocks many people when she explains why the Mediterranean Diet is not the healthiest, and how we might be replacing trans-fats with something even worse. Then she explains how nutrition science got it so wrong because of overzealous researchers, egos, bias, and premature institutional consensus which all combined to allow dangerous misrepresentations to become dietary dogma.

The Big Fat Surprise explains how we have been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades and that we can, guilt-free, welcome these whole fats back into our lives.

With all the notoriety she has generated one would think that politicians, the medical community, teachers, and the MSM would be pounding the table for meat and fat from grass-fed meats, Omega-3 meats, and wild-caught seafood. But oh no, even many professionals have responded with only superficial and/or personal attacks. Some readers have given her one star ratings for being so stupid because everyone knows meat and fat “ain’t good for ya.” So the beat goes on even while the COVID-19 bug is causing so much grief for the old and infirm who are struggling to stay alive with their chronic diseases caused by the low fat, high carbohydrate, vegetarian-oriented diets.

People continue to just stand around and accept their plight and expect drugs and operations to save the day. And now it’s the vaccine they wait for. They’ve got to have a vaccine before they can venture out. My gosh, what has happened to everyone? Why can’t they be personally responsible for their own health? Why can’t they understand that being overweight is a chronic disease and nearly every chronic disease can be caused by an improper diet and usually reversed by a proper diet?

When will thinking for yourself start kicking in? At this rate it never will if the elitists, MSM, certain politicians, school teachers, the medical community, bureaucrats, and terrified folks get their way. I say this because just like the annual flu bug, COVID-19 may be around for decades and, like the flu, nearly every year it will require a new vaccine. Not only that, but it’s the same call for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease which are far worse than COVID-19. Developing a naturally strong immune system that addresses nearly all chronic diseases and immunity too is much cheaper, faster, longer lasting, and more beneficial than relying only on the medical profession’s drugs and operations.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don’t miss these links for additional reading:

The Nutrition Coalition

Nina Teicholz on Twitter

The Big Fat Surprise on Amazon