What Happens When You Eat Just One Fatty Meal?

Responsible academic departments of nutrition actually question the accuracy of many of the claims about fat. And new research, combined with older findings, provide interesting insight into what happens to the human body—your body—with even just one fatty meal. So consider the following before becoming infatuated with the most current wellness trend.

Researchers in Germany recently studied1 14 healthy subjects after receiving a meal of palm oil—a tropical oil similar to coconut oil and almost as high in saturated fat. A single meal high in saturated fat reduced insulin sensitivity, which drove fatty lipids to be stored in the liver. The authors concluded that dietary fat ingestion may contribute to the epidemic of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Telomeres are the tips of our chromosomes, and their length may be a marker of longevity—meaning the longer they are the better. In a study2 of nearly 2,000 Finnish men and women, those consuming the most butter had the shortest telomeres, while those eating the most vegetables had the longest telomeres.

Bacteria contain dangerous endotoxins that, when released in the blood stream, may contribute to obesity3 and other diseases. In a study4 of healthy volunteers, a single meal high in saturated fat released endotoxins while meals with vegetables and marine oils did not cause this release.

Blood clotting is an important factor in heart attack, stroke, and pulmonary embolism. After fatty meals rich in saturated fat, measures of the tendency to clot increased in a study5 of healthy volunteers. In another study6 of the impact of different types of fatty meals on the body, measures of blood clotting were activated.

For people with type 2 diabetes, studies7 have shown that measurements of arterial health dropped significantly with consumption of saturated fat.

The potential for a fatty meal to trigger heart attacks has been discussed frequently in medical literature8. In a classic study9 measuring the impact of fat ingestion on patients with serious heart disease, a single meal rich in butter fat resulted in EKG changes and angina chest pain in nearly half of the patients.

A group of healthy men were fed10 a meal high in saturated fat, blood samples were taken, and results showed that after the meal, total and free testosterone levels dropped significantly.

I don't know of any studies that demonstrate an improvement in health by adding butter, eggs, and other high-saturated-fat foods into our diets, which are already congested with excess salt, oils, and sugar. The wisdom of eating unprocessed foods that are mainly (or completely) plant-based remains the wisest path to health.