Genius Foods

(John Hannent) #1

How do you avoid Frankenfood when even today, a trip
to the modern supermarket is the equivalent of skipping
across a field of land mines? Shop around the perimeter of
your supermarket, which is usually where the perishable,
fresh food can be found; it’s the aisles where Frankenfood
usually lies in wait. And stick to the Genius Foods as well as
the extended shopping list in the Genius Plan in chapter 11.
(You can find a comprehensive guide to surviving the
modern supermarket at http://maxl.ug/supermarkets.)


Eventually, Keys published the Seven Countries Study, a
landmark research achievement albeit with similar flaws to
his earlier work. In it, Keys shifted focus from total fat
consumption to saturated fat. Saturated fat is solid at room
temperature and is found in foods like beef, pork, and dairy.
As anyone who’s ever poured grease down a drain knows,
this type of fat can clog pipes—and to an America at the
dawn of nutrition science, it made perfect sense that this
would happen in the body as well (spoiler alert: it doesn’t).
Newly focused on these “artery-clogging” fats, Keys
was able to influence a little-known organization (at the
time) called the American Heart Association. With an
investment from a massive manufacturing conglomerate
called Procter & Gamble that produced, among other things,
polyunsaturated vegetable oils (which are highly processed
and, unlike saturated fats, liquid at room temperature), the
organization finally had the ability to become a national
powerhouse. It bought up TV and magazine ads alerting

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