In this YouTube monologue, Dr. David Perlmutter critiques the common belief that dietary fat increases the risk of stroke and heart attack. He cites a February 2013 New England Journal of Medicine trial that randomized over 7,000 participants to either a standard low‑fat diet or a Mediterranean‑style diet enriched with extra‑virgin olive oil, nuts, fruits, vegetables, legumes, sofrito, and modest wine. The trial was stopped early because the Mediterranean group experienced a roughly 30% lower incidence of major cardiovascular events (stroke, heart attack, or death) compared with the low‑fat group. Perlmutter contrasts the foods encouraged on each diet: the Mediterranean plan promotes olive oil, nuts, plant‑based foods, and even fatty fish, while the low‑fat plan emphasizes bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, and discourages fatty fish and sofrito. He argues that these findings validate re‑introducing healthy fats into the diet and challenge the low‑fat recommendations common in his Grain Brain program. The talk ends with a call to “welcome good fats back to the table.”
Chapters
You know, clearly one of the biggest pushbacks to the idea of eating more fat is that somehow it's going to cause a stroke or heart attack. And this was actually recently looked at in the New England Journal of Medicine where they compared the standard low-fat diet that everyone still recommends to a diet that has a lot of extra added fat, and we'll look at the study in a moment, but It is so incredible that this study was actually halted midway through because there was such a dramatic disparity. Those people eating the most fat had an incredibly improved outcome. Let's take a look. So here's the study from the New England Journal of Medicine in February of 2013. Over 7,000 individuals either on a low-fat diet or a Mediterranean diet with added fat. Olive oil, nuts, and the endpoints of the study are either having a stroke, a heart attack, or actually becoming dead. What are the foods that were encouraged on the Mediterranean diet? Things like olive oil, nuts, fruits and vegetables, legumes, sofrito— we'll look at sofrito in a moment— and actually even some wine. The low-fat diet, since you're not eating fatty foods, encouraged things like Bread, potatoes, pasta, and rice. And these are foods that, you know, we really discourage on the Grain Brain program. The foods that you were discouraged from eating on the Mediterranean diet were things like soda, bakery goods, sweets, pastries— really good recommendations. And on the low-fat diet, you were told not to eat things like fatty fish and even something called sofrito, which is this wonderful— Oil. A sauce made from tomatoes and onions, aromatic herbs, and lots of olive oil. And as I mentioned, this is a profound study. Those individuals eating the most fat in the form of extra virgin olive oil or added nuts had a 30% reduction in the risk of major events like stroke, heart attack, and even death. And so compelling were these results that the study, again as mentioned, was halted halfway through because the researchers could not in good conscience let the people on the low-fat diet continue. It was that scary, it was that detrimental to their health. They said, we've got to stop the trial and tell the people who are eating low-fat that this is risky business. The message here is let's welcome good fats Back to the table. That's what our most well-respected researchers are telling us. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter.
