Butter is still bad for your heart, health experts say

When I compared Smart Balance Spread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, above, to Original Smart Balance in June, I overlooked another reason to buy the former: Less saturated fat. Reducing saturated fat can be good for your heart, if you replace it with unsaturated fat, according to Consumer Reports On Health.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Headlines such as "Butter is Back" in The New York Times and "gleeful" news articles urging people to eat more bacon were premature, according to Consumer Reports On Health, a monthly newsletter.

Those reports were based on a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine that "suggests ... saturated fat, long thought to be a major contributor to heart disease by raising LDL (bad) cholesterol, isn't a dietary demon after all," the July 2014 newsletter states.

"The study got a lot of us hoping we could chow down on buttery croissants and fried chicken without any risk to our hearts," Consumer Reports said.

Not me. I never use artery clogging butter or cream, especially not in my cooking, which relies exclusively on heart-healthy extra-virgin olive oil. 

And when I eat out, I ask the kitchen to use olive oil, not butter, to prepare my food. 

I looked at several brands of butter at ShopRite in Paramus the other day. Saturated fat in one tablespoon was 35% to 37% -- more than four times the saturated fat in Smart Balance Spread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Many missed the 'correction'

British researchers looked at 72 previous studies "on the role of fat in heart disease and concluded that the evidence didn't support the advice to cut back on saturated fat, which comes primarily from animal sources [meat, poultry and cheese], and to eat more saturated fat, which comes mainly from vegetables, nuts and fish," the editors said.

"Well, not so fast. That report got a lot of attention, but less noticed was the authors' correction a week later.

"Turns out that when it came to unsaturated fats -- the kind in olive oil and fish -- they had goofed. Their correction shows that consuming that kind of fat does help protect against heart disease." 

Grilled wild sockeye salmon with a reduction of extra-virgin olive oil, chopped fresh garlic, diced organic tomatoes, red wine, organic chicken stock and fresh herbs. The fish was $10.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale, and most of the other ingredients also came from the Hackensack warehouse store.

Extra-virgin oil also forms the basis of a pasta sauce for organic whole-wheat fusilli with sardines. After reheating leftovers, you can drizzle more olive oil on the pasta at the table.

Two organic brown eggs fried sunny side up in extra-virgin olive oil with smoked wild salmon and Aleppo pepper. I served them with garlic mashed sweet potatoes, also made with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings.

Eat more unsaturated fat

Consumer Reports says the study by British researchers "had other shortcomings to muddy the message about dietary fat."

"For example," the newsletter states, "our experts say that it left out research showing that the benefits of cutting back on saturated fat depend on what you replace it with.

"If you stop eating butter and cheese but start eating a lot of sugar or processed foods, you're unlikely to do your heart or your health in general much good," says Maxine Siegel, R.D., who heads Consumer Reports research on food and nutrition.

Considerable research shows that if saturated fat is replaced with unsaturated fats, the risk of heart disease goes down, Consumer Reports says, adding:

"It still pays to watch your intake of saturated fat, Siegel says. "Aim for no more than 7% to 10% of total calories from the stuff (about 140 to 200 calories, if you consume 2,000 calories per day).

A tablespoon of ShopRite butter contains 100 calories, all from fat.

"But equally important is to replace saturated fat with heart-healthy alternatives, such as unsaturated fats, fruit, vegetables and whole grains -- not refined carbs such as those in white bread, sugar and many snacks."

Drugs and tests

Consumer Reports on Health also discussed other research on preventing heart disease:

"Aggressive new guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology mean that 13 million more Americans -- including almost all men ages 60 to 75 and more than half of women in that age range -- should now take a cholesterol-lowering drug, such as atorvastatin (Lipitor and generic) or rosuvastatin (Crestor).

"A number of leading medical groups have questioned the usefulness of several heart-disease screening tests, including EKGs and exercise stress tests, long part of an annual checkup for millions of Americans, as well as newer and often heavily advertised tests, such as CT scans of the heart."

I brake for fish -- not bread

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Brussels sprouts are a frequent side dish to the fish, chicken, veal and pork in Jerry's Meals To Go. They are a low $7.99.

As I drove past Balthazar Bakery in Englewood the other day -- without lifting my foot off the accelerator -- I reviewed how drastically my diet has changed, and the benefits I've received.


When Balthazar opened a retail store in its production bakery just before Thanksgiving in 2002, I lived around the corner.


I'd walk over to pick up a wonderfully crusty baguette or a dozen dinner rolls and, once in a blue moon, an extraordinary fruit tart.


Even after I moved to Hackensack, Balthazar remained my main source for bread, and I'd stop in every couple of weeks to stock my freezer with dinner rolls and cut-up baguette for sandwiches.


I supplemented that with pocket bread, za'atar bread and spinach pies from the Syrian bakeries in Paterson -- I always had them in my freezer or refrigerator. 


But I gave up bread more than a year ago to lose weight, so on Monday, I kept on driving until I reached Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood, where I bought a $7.99 Meal To Go -- a multi-course, restaurant-quality dinner.


And because this month marks the 2nd anniversary since I stopped eating meat and poultry, I bought a Jerry's meal with blackened fillet of sole, rather than one with pork, chicken or veal.


The side dishes were a half-dozen grilled shrimp in the shell, Brussels sprouts, vegetable frittata and a small block of macaroni and cheese. All I needed to complete my dinner was a home-made salad and a glass of wine.


The next night, I prepared green-shell mussels from New Zealand I had purchased at H Mart -- they are blanched on the half shell and frozen. I sprinkled on some grated cheese and dried herbs and baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.


Tonight, we're having fresh wild-caught haddock fillets from Iceland that I picked up today at Costco Wholesale ($7.99 a pound).


I went to Costco after meeting friends for lunch at the Grant Street Cafe in Dumont. I had a Greek salad and black coffee, and they had sandwiches or an omelet with lots of bread and french fries.


At Costco, I also purchased 4 pounds of frozen, cleaned U-15 farmed shrimp from Vietnam (13 to 15 shrimp to the pound) for $36.99 or about $9.25 a pound with a $5 instant Costco coupon.


By giving up bread and meat, and going to the gym five days a week, I've lost a lot of weight. I weigh 190 pounds, compared to a high of 228, and my cholesterol is around 140 -- much lower than before, when I ate meat and took a cholesterol-lowering pill.. 


Balthazar Bakery, 214 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-503-9717.


Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108.


Costco Wholesale, 80 S. River St., Hackensack; 201- 487-5471.

Six months without meat

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I'm not sure what I expected, but going without meat for six months hasn't resulted in anything dramatic -- except a sense of relief from not always having to worry how the poultry, beef, pork and lamb were raised before I got to them in stores.

My overall cholesterol dropped only four points -- to 176 -- probably because I started eating much more full-fat cheese than before. In the last month or so, I've switched to low-fat cheese and plan to resume eating aged Parmigiano Reggiano (photo), which is made with skim milk.  

I don't think I saved money, because the seafood I substituted for meat often cost more, including Costco's wild sockeye salmon and farm-raised prawns from Vietnam that weigh about two ounces each (eight to a pound) and cost a small fortune.


Do I feel better? Yes. But I can't separate the effects of going to a gym five mornings a week for the past two months or so, and the lighter feeling of not being weighed down by meat.


I've always loved salads and grilled vegetables, and I've been eating them more frequently and incorporating greens and vegetables into sandwiches and frittatas or just eating them on their own.


Last Sunday, I picked up fresh mustard greens and two heads of arugula at the Tenafly farmers' market.


One morning, I quickly blanched the mustard greens, then poured some extra-virgin olive oil and Costco egg whites into a 10-inch, nonstick frying pan. When the eggs set on the bottom, I added the mustard greens, sliced beefsteak tomato and low-fat cheese; sprinkled on some salt and finished the frittata under the broiler. (Preparation tip: Chop greens into bite-size pieces to make frittata easy to portion and eat.)


Today, I made a breakfast sandwich with grilled eggplant and carrot, baked wild salmon with herbs straight from the fridge, cheese and fresh arugula, spreading toasted 100% whole-grain bread with Dijon mustard. Outrageously good.


A friend who is a faithful Costco food shopper invited me over for a lunch the other day and served me items from the warehouse store: A Greek salad with anchovies and crumbled cheese, and a fruit salad with mango, strawberries and other fruit. We had an appetizer of spicy hummus and  drank coffee and seltzer.


For the last few weeks, I've wanted to add antibiotic-free poultry back into my diet -- Readington Farms chicken from ShopRite and turkey parts and duck from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff.

But I haven't done that yet, secure in the knowledge there are so many other good things to eat that don't involve meat.

Did meat make us smarter?

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My wife and I haven't eaten meat since the end of February, relying on an abundance of seafood for our main source of protein. But a friend just sent me the following link to a piece on National Public Radio about the diet of our earliest ancestors. 

I am not going to quibble about all the points this report makes, but I will note the Neanderthals mentioned in the last sentence were easily superseded by smarter people who migrated to what is now Europe from the same region of Africa.

 Click on the link below:

Did meat makes us smarter?

Sobering look at how beef is raised

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Here is a long essay -- with a frightening last paragraph -- about how beef is raised in the United States. At the outset, the writer seems to be recommending grass-fed beef over corn- or grain-fed cattle, but he's really down on the environmental and health impact of eating beef, not to mention the brutality shown to the animals.

http://foodrevolution.org/grassfedbeef.htm

Check out this great-looking vegan food

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I stumbled across a vegan food blog written by a woman in New Zealand named Vaala, who refers to races and training and climbing, in the land of lamb. The blog is called "Twilight and Shadow." Her photos of food are gorgeous and if those dishes taste as good as they look, I'd try to give up seafood, meat and poultry. I mean, check out beans on toast. I just want to dive in. The link is below:

 
http://goddessvaala.blogspot.com/

Food coverage in The Record

In the Better Living section of The Record today, on Page F-1, 2 and 3, a staff written story on Jewish deli maven David Sax and a so-called 15-minute pork-chop recipe from the Chicago Tribune fail to discuss whether any of the meat was raised on factory farms with antibiotics, growth hormones or animal byproducts (bits of dead animals and kitchen scraps), or whether the hot dogs contain preservatives linked to cancer.


The paper's food coverage rarely discusses these issues, whether in a feature story, restaurant review or recipe. I've always been in favor of reviewing supermarkets, rating them on price and how much naturally raised food they stock. But For The Record, that might jeopardize sorely needed advertising revenue.

On Page L-10 of The Record, in business news, there's no mention in the Start-Ups column of whether the sea salt being promoted contains iodine, a necessary nutrient.