Let's get saturated about fats

My company is on some wonderful campaign to get all of their employees healthier. I imagine they couldn't give a shit less about our health and are just trying to minimize overhead on insurance costs, and even if that is the case they might want to start proofreading the cute little booklets and info packets they've been handing out as of late.

Our break rooms are littered with this cute little pamphlet called "FAST FOOD - Smart Eating Guide". First of all, this book should only consist of one page. Said page should only say "FAST FOOD: DON'T EAT IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE A TYPICAL FAT AMERICAN!" but unfortunately it delves into several dietary myths and promotes them as truths. You know, without any sources cited or surrounding facts to back up the statements. I'm only going to touch on one of them here, and that is on the topic of saturated fats. I bet the subject line of this blog made you think I'd be discussing the post mating cholesterol levels of three legged forest hamsters, didn't you? No? Oh. Here is a quote from the book, which you can also google if interested in reading it all:

Here are the simple facts about fat and salt. Healthy diets include dietary fats, but certain types of fats aren't good for you. 

The bad fats, saturated and trans fats, raise the bad cholesterol (LDL) levels in your blood and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and certain types of cancer.

Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats don't raise bad cholesterol levels and are better for you. Fats from plants, such as nuts, seeds, vegetables and avocados are good sources for these fats. 

Dieticians recommend that diets include 30% or less of its calories from fat and have less than 300mg of cholesterol. Saturated fats should account for less than 7% of your total caloric intake and trans fats less than 1%. 

Whoa. Say what? Let's pull the e-brake for a second because I see Mark Sisson on the side of the road flinging pieces of bacon at me while carrying a club and dressed like Fred Flintstone. Mark, THREE YEARS AGO, posted this highly informative piece on saturated fats. Because I believe that you, the reader, are capable of reading on your own I'll let you go ahead and read through that. Interesting stuff, huh?

Is that not enough? Well, here you go:

http://www.musclehack.com/the-saturated-fat-cholesterol-myth-destroyed/
http://www.truthaboutabs.com/saturated-fat-is-not-evil.html
http://healthyfixx.com/1/busting-the-myths-of-saturated-fat
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/food-myths-debunked-all-saturated-fats-raise-blood-cholesterol.html

Okay I got bored of copying and pasting. There are quite literally hundreds of articles debunking that stupid myth that saturated fat is bad for you. It's a shame that Better Books couldn't go the extra mile (i.e., typing in several words into a freaking search engine) to corroborate their claims. Well, I guess it makes sense since on the very next page they go onto one of those "eat this, not that!" topics when going to fast food chains. It's always the same: skip the burger, go to the salad. Punch me in the balls. The salad choices they list all have over 1500mg of sodium and are loaded with evil sugar. Yeah we should really heed this pamphlet's words.

I know I didn't give much personal insight on this matter, but I've got quite a few things to get done and figured I'd get this out there for anyone who may be reading my blog this very minute looking for info on saturated fats. THE PEOPLES DEMAND IT!

Stay shiny.