In this episode of the Be Well podcast, investigative journalist and author Nina Teicholz talks with Dr. Frank Lipman about dietary fats — and why everything Americans think they know about them is wrong. She explains how misinformation about saturated fats, along with the erroneous idea that a low-fat diet is best, is causing numerous health problems.

Author of the best-selling "The Big Fat Surprise," Teicholz has spent more than a decade researching the history of how we came to believe that dietary fat is inherently bad for health. She makes the argument for why saturated fats are actually not bad for health, despite what researchers, the government, and conventional wisdom have told us. We’ve been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, eggs, and she assures us we can welcome these whole fats back into our lives.

In addition to the bias against saturated fat, Teicholz and Dr. Lipman discuss topics including the dangers of vegetable oils, misplaced concerns about cholesterol, the pros and cons of coconut oil, and the problems with observational data in nutrition science.

Tune in to find out why everything you’ve been told about fat is wrong.