Who Was Ancel Keys?
The Creator of an American Myth
Mr. Skeptical has his arms folded, looking right at me. His face depicts a question; lips puckered forward. “Well.” That is all he needs to say.
“I’ll start by stating that Mr. Ancel Keys was born in Colorado Springs in 1904. He was a physiologist and had big sway regarding how Americans eat. His impact on “healthy” eating is still promoted and popular today.”
“Would you say he had good or bad sway on healthy eating?”
“That, of course, depends on what one considers healthy eating. It’s all relative.”
Subconscious Fat at 30,000 feet
Ancel Keys helped develop K-rations for the American military. He also did a starvation study that helped various international relief agencies throughout Europe after the 2nd World War.
“So far, he sounds like a good and productive guy.” Comments Mr. Skeptical.
“His big impact on how humans should eat came when he did what’s known as the Seven Countries Study. In this study, he displayed nice tidy graphs showing how countries that ate more animal fat had more heart disease.”
“This sounds good, for he was trying to save lives.”
“Maybe he was. However, many scientists argued that what he did was a show of smoke and mirrors. He tricked Americans into thinking that high cholesterol and fat are bad.”
“Smoke and mirrors? How?”
Subconscious Fat at 10,000 feet
“Ancel Keys conveniently left out France from the 7 Country Study.”
“So what?”
“France eats tons of animal fat, cheese, and liver pate, yet they have less heart disease than the US and many other countries. There was even a term created for this inconvenient reality: The French Paradox. See chart below.”
In the last decade, France has surpassed Italy in obesity rates. This is likely because Italy uses lots of olive oil in their cooking, and France has slowly used more vegetable and seed oils over the last few decades. However, France still has way less obesity than the US.
Another big red flag in The Seven Country study was that Ancel Keys used data from Greece during lent.
“So what?” Yells Mr. Skeptical.
“That’s huge because many Greeks give up meat for lent. So, this altered the results, making it look like Greeks eat little meat when the opposite is true. The other big criticism of The Seven Country study was that Mr. Keys left out any mention that sugar might contribute to heart disease.”
Mr. Skeptical gets up and starts pacing the room. “Well, maybe he didn’t know that sugar could contribute to heart disease.”
“Maybe, but that would be naive.”
Subconscious Fat at Eye-Level
I imagine Ancel Keys getting a call from the president of the soft drink giant Coca-Cola. “Ancel, we are having a get-together at my West Palm Beach, Florida mansion. I’ll have a private jet pick you and Margaret up.”
Mr. Skeptical glares at me. “You can’t prove something like that happened?”
“True. There’s no proof of something like that happening, but it still could’ve happened, and if it did, I wouldn’t be surprised. Ancel Keys wasn’t directly implicated, but he is mentioned in a New York Times article showing how scientists did allow large food corporations to unethically influence research to make fat, not sugar, the bad guy in heart disease.
Then think about how many restaurant cooks and owners started to think, “Wait a second, you mean I don’t have to cook with animal fats (like all humanity has done for thousands of years.) Instead, I can use vegetable and seed oils with less fat, which the latest scientific research says is better for our hearts. And to top it off, vegetable oil is cheaper! Okay, I’m in. Let’s use vegetable and seed oils for cooking everything.”
Mr. Skeptical glares at me.
“That’s just the food companies. I’m sure many pharmaceutical company executives thought, “We already have drugs that lower cholesterol. If we link lowering cholesterol to less heart disease, we can create a patented drug and make billions.”
“You don’t have proof that any pharmacy executives thought this.”
“No one has proof of anybody’s thoughts, but look at the billions Lipitor has generated over the years.”
Practical Suggestions and Conclusions
Maybe Ancel Keys was good-hearted and did what he thought was best for America’s health, or perhaps he was paid off by large pharmaceutical and food corporations. It doesn’t matter now.
The point is to think for yourself. Make up your own mind. You can find on the internet that Ancel Keys is hailed as a hero, and in other parts, he’s hailed as a villain. Nevertheless, keep in mind that what you’re eating is what really matters.
Realize that most of the scientific information you get through the media has corporate influence and money behind it. Most of the info is just brainwashing the masses to feed corporate greed.
Consequently, if someone even remotely believes that ‘your health is your greatest wealth.’ Then they should dive deep into what information they believe, for cholesterol-lowering drugs have consequences and side effects.
Be aware.
PS Links in Facebook and Instagram. Full disclosure: Chat GPT was used to research and enhance this post.
PSS For those in the Miami area: Welcome those from the farmers market at Legion's Park and a special thanks to Simon from Cleaverandhog.com.
Great article. I didn’t know anything about him before this!