I have to agree with bluesmoke. According to my reading (Enig and others) poly- and monounsaturated fats in the absence of saturated fat can create health problems. When the anthropologist Stefansson lived with Eskimos, eating nothing but meat and fish, he got sick when all he could eat was lean meat. Eating fat cured him quickly.

The Eadeses, authors of Protein Power LifePlan, are advocates of saturated fat, although they advise cutting back if you are not losing weight. Otherwise, they are all for it.

Diane Schwarzbein is also in favor of saturated fat. So are most low-carb authors.

One or two are not, such as Loren Cordain, author of the The Paleo Diet.

Seeing the benefits of saturated fat, of course, does not mean one should gorge oneself with it or make it 100 percent of the diet. It just means it should be part of a balanced-good-fat program.

The other thing to keep in mind is that there is less saturated fat in beef than you may think. More than half of a porterhouse steak is monounsaturated fat. Of the saturated fat, most is stearic acid, an antioxidant. Steak also has some polyunsaturated fat.

One last thing: even the fat-phobes at the Berkeley Wellness Letter say coconut and palm oils, which are mostly saturated fat, are harmless or good for you

Sheldon