Question.—What is the answer to the fatty acid question? Should we eat saturated or unsaturated fatty acids?
Answer.—In any diet we eat fats that yield both the saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. But in today's choices of foods we tend to use heavily of the oils that have been partially saturated (by hydrogenation or hardening) to give them a somewhat solid or "plastic" consistency.
An unanswered question right now is, "Does hydrogenation of oils contribute toward arteriosclerosis and heart disease?" The answer is not simple, nor do we have the answer as yet. So we must sensibly wait until the many conflicting and dovetailed data are investigated and proved. At the present time the United States Public Health Service alone is spending 25 million dollars a year on heart projects. Research is alive in this area of study, so the wait will probably not be too long.
In the meantime let us remember that any radical change in dietary habits could lead in the wrong direction as far as health is concerned. Here are a few good rules to follow and to pass on in diet and health studies:
1. There are many fad diets, and fad diets regarding fats is today's newest health fad. Avoid such diets.
2. Follow the Basic Seven diet plan. It has proved to be a good guide. A lacto-ovo-vegetarian version of the Basic Seven is one of the world's very best diets.
3. It is easy to overeat of fats. Most Americans do. Check up and cut down.
4. Avoid too many calories of any kind. Hold the weight at which you look and feel the best.
5. It is reasonable to use oils in the daily diet. Some common oils that yield essential unsaturated fatty acids and are relatively inexpensive are soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, and peanut oil. But do not add oil generously to the diet on the "if a little is good, more is better" theory. It won't work, and much harm can be done.
6. Do not take fats out of the diet.
7. Be alert for new findings, but be sure they come from those in nutritional authority.
