Most of what people believe about fat is wrong. Not just a little bit wrong, but turn-the-world-upside-down wrong.
And can you wonder? Ads barrage us with misinformation every hour we’re awake. Sometimes ads blurt out lies or quote bogus studies that lie for them, but mostly they show happy people, living a life we’d like to live, and using a product that leads to disease. Equating the happiness with the product, we pick it the next time we go to the grocery store.
Doctors and diet gurus jump into the mix, adding to our mountain of mistaken beliefs.
So let’s look at the complicated subject of fats.
Unsaturated fats first. Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. Except for olive oil, most are polyunsaturated fatty acids, aka PUFAs. They contain omega-6 acids, with some omega-3.
What are the PUFAs? Soybean, corn, safflower, canola, sesame seed, peanut, flaxseed, etc. oils. No matter how they’re processed–or not processed–these oils interfere with our health.
They stomp all over the thyroid and beat up on the rest of the endocrine system as they go. They generate estrogen, which can put us into estrogen dominance (Yeah, men, too). They kill white blood cells, messing with our immune system. They speed up aging. They’re toxic to our hearts and brains. And so on. PUFAs are nobody’s friend.
And the thing is, we don’t need them!
Our bodies make any unsaturated fats they need–unless we include PUFAs in our diet. PUFAs kill the enzyme that does the job. How’s that for self-defeating?
But hark! There’s more!
Food manufacturers shoot hydrogen through PUFAs to make them solid at room temperature (oleo, anybody?) and voila! Partially-hydrogenated PUFA, also know as transfats. Transfats do all the damage liquid PUFAs do, but faster and more powerfully. And they have a few tricks of their own.
Lord have mercy, these things are murder. Literally, unfortunately.
So let’s talk about saturated fats, which are usually solid at room temperature.
You’ve all heard the doom and gloom about saturated fats. But did you hear the part about the fact the studies that started all the ruckus assumed all solid-at-room-temperature fats were the same? Saturated fat took the blame for transfat problems!
Saturated fats, mostly animal fat, are what your body expects to come down the chute when you eat. Your body knows what to do with saturated fats, and good things happen.
Saturated fats lower cholesterol levels, help build muscle, provide energy to your cells, and on, and on. Bless your endocrine system, too.
But it’s hard to hold on to saturated fat benefits.
First, factory farms have created a problem. Rather than let chickens, cattle, pigs, etc. live and eat naturally, they pen them up and feed them corn and soy. And when we drink the milk, scramble the eggs and eat the meat, we get corn and soy PUFAs, and we lose the benefits of saturated fat.
So how to handle fats?
- Don’t add to the unsaturated fat level by using liquid oils or their even uglier partially-hydrogenated cousins. Zero, zilch, nada.
- Eat grass-fed meat and free range chickens. Fortunately, as more people head in this direction, prices are coming down some. Check out eatwild.com for grass-fed meat in your area. (I have no connection.)
- PUFAs do less harm when most of the fat in your diet is saturated. The wider the ratio, the better. Since you can’t help getting unsaturated fat, make sure saturated fat has the upper hand.
- Add coconut oil to your diet daily. This saturated fat protects the thyroid, stabilizes blood sugar, increases metabolism and counteracts a lot of PUFA damage.
- Cook with butter and don’t be shy. Besides all the benefits of saturated fat, butter contains butyrate, which controls stress, raises metabolism and lowers inflammation. Try Kelly Gold Irish butter for a great taste sensation!
- And, to repeat, it’s all good because saturated fat lowers cholesterol levels–if you don’t add junk carbs.
Well, I’ve probably made your head spin by contradicting everything you’ve been taught, but that’s what I’m here for.
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