Show Notes
Is fat good or bad for your heart? For decades, we blamed fat and cholesterol for clogged arteries and heart attacks. Now you choose low-fat yogurt to protect your heart, while others cook with beef tallow.
In this episode, Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, a world-leading expert on dietary fat and heart health, helps settle the debate.
Dr. Lichtenstein explains which fats protect your heart and which to cut back on, you'll learn what raises your cholesterol, and why the type of fat you eat matters more than how much of it you eat. You’ll leave the episode with some practical food swaps to protect your heart and live longer.
Have you swapped butter for "low-fat" alternatives loaded with sugar? Could that choice be working against your heart?
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Timecodes
Intro
The most common myth about fat, busted in one word
What fat actually is, and why your body needs it to survive
Why butter and beef tallow turn solid at room temperature
How saturated fat raises your risk of heart disease
Heart attack or stroke: which one saturated fat actually raises
Are all saturated fats equally bad for you?
The flawed rabbit study that shaped decades of egg advice
What actually makes your cholesterol go up
How high cholesterol quietly clogs your arteries
The 1960s study that proved swapping fat saves lives
How your liver secretly turns sugar into fat
The verdict on beef tallow and butter
Simple food swaps for a heart-healthy diet
Does eating more fat make you gain weight?
The truth about grass-fed beef and omega-3
Is beef tallow really a healthy fat?
Is fermented dairy actually healthy?
The checklist to delay premature aging
The pantry check that could improve your heart health
The 1990s mistake we made with low-fat yogurt
Why knowing your cholesterol numbers matters most
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Mentioned in today's episode
Dietarytrans fatty acids and cardiovascular disease risk, Current Atherosclerosis Reports (2014)
Unsaturatedfats, high-quality carbs lower risk of heart disease, American College of Cardiology (2015)
Effectof Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diets on Coronary Heart Disease, JACC (2026)
Rabbitmodels for the study of human atherosclerosis, Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2014)
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Episode transcripts are available here.