In October, the primary colors of the season are orange and yellow as autumn gives way to winter. But watch any football game, read the comics section of your newspaper or walk down any grocery aisle, and you’ll know the new color of the month is pink.

Obviously, that pink is in promotion of October as breast cancer awareness month.  As a woman and a dietitian, I’m certainly in support of raising awareness (and, more importantly, funds) for breast cancer research. Having lost a brother-in-law to cancer last year, I know first-hand the impact it can have on individuals and their loved ones.  Cancer is a devastating disease in many ways. 

However, as I watch my hometown Minnesota Vikings and notice the pink cleats, pink sweatbands, and pink pom poms, I can’t help but hope we have the same unified message this coming February, when we look to wear red in observance of  “American Heart Month” to drive awareness of heart disease.  It’s the number one killer of women (more than breast cancer).

This isn’t to play one-upmanship on breast cancer. Both are serious and in need of public awareness and support. Publicity of any and all serious conditions motivates women to take charge of their health – quitting smoking, living an active lifestyle, and eating better – and that is a good thing. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed, and hope that come February, we see hockey and basketball players across the country wearing red.

Visit www.nuval.com to learn about a nutrition guidance system where nutrients that increase your risk of heart disease and cancer lower a food score and nutrients that lower your risk of heart disease and cancer raise a food’s score.

It is a consistent theme that you’ll hear from me again and again in this blog – nutrition is both a young science and a complicated science.  I bring this up today in follow-up to an article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that hit many professional list servs and blogs yesterday.

In essence, the article suggested that eating saturated fat might not really increase your risk of heart disease.  This, of course, contradicts everything you’ve heard, and now you’re left frustrated and confused.

But stay with me here.  In the 1970s, we believed all fat was bad.  In the 1980s and 1990s, we learned there are good fats (mono- and polyunsaturated, omega-3s) and bad fats (saturated).  In the 2000s, we added trans fat to the “bad” list.  What’s happening now in the science community is that they’re looking at the various types of saturated fat to see if they impact the body differently.  This research is dropping the understanding of fats down a whole other level.  We’ve gone from the 10,000 foot level (limit the amount of fat you eat) to the 1 foot level (different types of saturated fat may impact the body differently).  It’s all part of the complexity of food and nutrition.

So what’s my advice?  Don’t jump ship and gorge yourself on sausages and cheese the rest of the day.  Let the scientific process play out, and in the meantime, stick to known advice.

Visit www.nuval.com to see how saturated fats and all fats drive scores up or down.