We are currently in an environment of conflicting information presented by "expert credentialed health experts" every day. I listen to Doctor Radio on Sirius XM (yeah, it's both really good and maddening), and this week's nutrition show with Samantha Heller, a highly credentialed, registered nutrition "expert" who appears on many network TV programs and has written books, is still touting the danger of saturated fat dogma with her listeners to the degree where it's frightening. Her website:

http://www.hellerhealth.com/Samanth...t_Samantha.html

She confidently states she has referenced studies to back up her knowledge; yet, there should be no contention from her point of view, since her views are correct and based on solid science. Her guest this week was Dr. Keith Ayoob another "credentialed" nutrition expert:
http://cuttothechasenutrition.com/

A caller asked about which spread was the best alternative to butter, and the fun began. Stay away from saturated fats and go with spreads that contain safe PUFAs such as Smart Balance and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, but consider putting olive oil or canola oil on your toast as well. The demon here and the reason for recommendations to stay away from using a lot of butter is saturated fat. Why? Well, hey, we need to keep LDLs low and cholesterol low and minimize our intake of saturated fats to promote heart health. Here's a link with an alternative viewpoint:
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist....-smart-balance/

As the call was ending, the caller mentioned he's been using coconut oil for his cooking. All hell broke loose, and Heller's response was, "my dear man, you must understand the recent issues with coconut oil having more saturated fat than butter! There have been no studies confirming the health benefits of coconut oil." You get the drift.

And this is what we're dealing with in today's nutrition discussions and the messages that are constantly chanted through media sources. These "experts" are so confident that their message is fact, that it's going to take a long time for the general population to be comfortable with recent and past studies that refute this information. Recent studies indicate that LDL is a very poor heart health marker and does not correlate with heart attacks and other heart related issues. There is a recent Ivor Cummins presentation that very thoroughly addresses these issues and findings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qRCA08oblQ

The fact is that there are many who are not experiencing Metabolic Syndrome and who are not Insulin Resistant who can eat more flexibly than those who are experiencing or are on the road to developing these conditions. Unfortunately, it takes time before symptoms present themselves, and for many it's very late in the game and damage has been done over the years. Yet, these well-meaning folks glibly spout this misinformation truly thinking they are leading many to nutritional nirvana.