Two paramedics stopped for lunch at noon. Matt watched Carl order a large steak sandwich and slather fatty dressing on his salad when it came.
“I thought you were on a diet because Doc saw some cardiac irregularities?” Matt asked.
“Oh, didn’t you hear the latest?” Carl responded. “We can eat as much saturated fat as we want now. It’s not bad for you. The story’s in all the news media.”
“Is that where you get your EMT training – and your health information – from the public media?” Matt asked with a frown of concern.
“Well, no… but…”
“What did the news article really say?” Matt said, shaking his head. “It said saturated fat isn’t as much of a risk for heart disease as we once thought. It didn’t say there was no risk.”
“But the real problem,” Carl argued, “is the sugar and refined carbohydrates we’re eating to replace the saturated fat. Sugar is causing the obesity and Type II diabetes epidemic in our country. That’s the real culprit. That’s what I’m avoiding.”
“And putting back the saturated fat,” Matt finished the sentence.
“Well… yeah… they said it was good for me.”
Matt put down his fork. “Okay, tell me what you learned in EMT school. Does saturated fat still decrease the HDL (good) cholesterol and raise the LDL (bad) cholesterol?”
“Yeah… but not as much as sugar does!” he said, taking a big bite of no-sugar-added salad dressing.
Now Matt was pointing his finger. “Does saturated fat still decrease the body’s ability to use insulin – the cause of Type II diabetes?”
“Yeah…” Now Carl sat his fork down on the table.
“And does saturated fat still increase the incidence of several cancers?”
“Yeah… but sugar is worse!” But Carl didn’t sound convinced anymore.
Matt said, “Okay, let’s say that you’re riding that new street bike of yours in the sand dunes and you get sand in the gear box.” Carl grimaced. “And you use a detergent someone recommended to clean out the gear box. And then you discover that the detergent is worse than sand for the gears.” Carl was listening. “Would you stop using the detergent?” Carl nodded. “And put the sand back in the gear box?” Carl stopped and looked at his salad.
“The investigator who discovered the bad results of saturated fat recommended that we replace it with fruits and vegetables,” Matt said. “But instead, the food manufacturers replaced it with high-fructose corn syrup – the detergent in the gear box. Do you think we should put the sand back in the gear box? Or is sand still bad, even though the detergent is worse?”
Carl pushed his fat-covered salad to the middle of the table and raised his hand. “Could I change my order, please?”