Fats for Health

Our bodies are beautifully designed, intricately woven machines made of innumerable parts and pathways. All of these parts and pathways rely on each other to remain balanced, whole and healthy. They also depend on inputs and materials from the world around them in order to function optimally. It is a delicate dance between molecules that has been interchanging since the beginning of time.

My fascination with the biology of living things began in seventh grade, when I had an eccentric science teacher who opened my eyes to processes that seemed to me at the time to be harmonious and intuitive. Fast forward to college where I got a degree in biology, and the professors taught authoritatively and proudly about all the different cycles and systems scientists had discovered, and wasn’t I impressed?

After I graduated, I worked in mammalian genetics (this was during the early stages of the Human Genome Project), and I remember there was a moment when scientists were giddy with the thought of sequencing the entire human genome and what that would do for our fight against disease. With its completion, they thought for sure that all of that information would give us the tools to cure cancer, heart disease, you name it. Because humans are super smart, right?

That was over 10 years ago.

Since then, chronic disease numbers have continued to rise. Heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer rage in or around us, and many of our aged struggle with dementia and other brain diseases.

Maybe we’re not so smart after all.

Maybe we don’t need more data, more knowledge, or more information. I agree those things are exciting and as a scientist at heart, I love those things. 

But I go back to my original reaction as a middle schooler: biology is harmonious and intuitive. In other words, it makes sense. It was designed to work in a balanced way. 

It really shouldn’t be this hard.

One of the problems of the science and medical communities is that they don’t look at the body as a single unit. One guy looks at the heart. One looks at the gut. Another the brain. One studies the insulin pathway. Another the cholesterol levels. Or the BMI. Or cancer cells. They love data. They all become experts. But sadly, there are few doctors out there that understand how all these systems work together as one unit and how treating one system affects them all.

And whatever you EAT feeds them all.

So I challenge you to take control of your own future, your own body and your own health. Use a doctor when you must, but don’t rely on him or her to fix your life. Only you can do that. Don’t wait for a scientist to find the next great cure. Take responsibility for what you have done to your body.

I already gave you one tool for your toolbox. It took me a few posts and a lot of words to explain, but the bottom line is pretty simple: 

REMOVE ALL VEGETABLE OILS FROM YOUR DIET. 

From now on, I will call them what they actually are:

SEED OILS

There is no trace of “vegetable” in these oils. Food manufacturers just labeled them that way to make you think they are healthy. 

What to replace them with? Animal fats, especially saturated fats. Gloriously-tasting and rich fats like butter, beef tallow, and pork lard (preferably all these are grass-fed or pasture-raised) are what you should be cooking ALL your food in, just like your ancient ancestors. 

In addition, when you bake your cakes and cookies, when you cook your pie crusts, when you mix up your casseroles, when you make your pancakes, when you make your sourdough bread, use ONLY saturated fats.

If you are looking at ingredients in things like pre-made natural bars and cereals, look for the saturated fats made from fruits, like coconut or palm oil, or (the best) cocoa butter. Dark chocolate, anyone? Truly the best energy bar, in my opinion.

The most amazing thing about saturated fats is that they are extremely satiating. You will eat less when you include more of these foods, as I have already explained.

You will have trouble when you go to restaurants, because sadly restaurants all use the cheaper seed oils to cook almost everything. My husband and I love to visit farm-to-table, local seasonally-inspired chef-owned restaurants in our hometown and whenever we travel. It is one of our favorite adventures as a couple and with our best friends. But even these places usually use seed oils, especially canola oil, to cook all their food. So we obviously have to limit our visits (plus we take charcoal — which you can get here — when we go and lots of antioxidants). We mostly avoid fried foods at these places. But honestly, if you are chronically ill and not in prime health, you may want to completely avoid eating out until you get well. If you can find a chef that will just cook you a steak and some veggies in butter only, that would be fine. Tell your waiter you are on a “cleanse” and they may oblige. Completely avoid chain restaurants.

Your saturated fat will also come from the animal foods that you eat. Ruminant animals are the best sources: cow, lamb, bison, goat, etc. Why? Because ruminant animals have special systems that can convert all the fat they consume (even PUFAs) into saturated fat. Humans do not have this ability. Hence the extremely high importance of what type of fat you consistently eat.

MOST OF THE ANIMAL FOODS YOU CONSUME SHOULD BE RED MEAT FOR THIS REASON.

Non-ruminant animals that we typically eat (like pork and chicken) are like humans and do not have the ability to convert fat. So be extremely aware of the foods fed to these animals you are eating. You can avoid corn oil and soy oil all day, but if you are eating pork or chicken that was fed corn and soy, you have completely nullified your efforts. Always get pasture-raised pork, poultry or eggs. And, except for eggs, only eat them on occasion.

Finally, you can get saturated fat in whole dairy products, like raw whole milk, whole yogurt, full-fat cottage cheese, full-fat sour cream, and heavy cream (my personal morning life-blood with my coffee). And yes, I said RAW milk. Unpasteurized and un-homogenized. Like your ancient ancestors drank. Not squeezed nuts juice - gross! The Bible says, “the land flowing with milk and honey” for a reason. Don’t know the difference? Read this website and use this resource to find clean, local, grass-fed raw milk in your area. If you can’t even go there, make sure you are at least buying grass-fed whole milk that is un-homogenized, which you can find at your local health food store.

If you are vegan or a vegetarian, this will be hard. If you are relying on processed materials to get an adequate amount of protein, avoiding things that are NOT FOOD will be a huge task. So my advice to you would be the same: check ingredients religiously, get rid of all the seed oils, and concentrate on saturated fat.

To summarize, here is a list of saturated fats that will promote whole health, and yes, you should be consuming these liberally:

Best:

Butter or Ghee

Cream

Beef tallow

Ruminant fat

Good:

Pork lard

Non-ruminant fat

Coconut and palm oil

Cocoa butter

Not only are these richly satisfying, they will clear your brain, feed your gut, fuel your cells, and soothe your soul.

Here again, are the seed oils to remove:

Corn oil

Canola oil

Soy oil

Sunflower oil

Cottonseed oil

Safflower oil

Rice bran oil

Grapeseed oil

I kid you not: This switch could be the biggest win of your life.

Next up: Sugar is bad (but not as bad as seed oils).