Healthy fats are essential for good health. However, some fats can be extremely unhealthy. When incorporating fats into your diet, it is important to distinguish between healing fats and toxic fats. Healing fats are nutritious fats that are anti-inflammatory and provide the body with energy and building blocks for various tissues.
Toxic fats are highly inflammatory and can contribute to a series of health problems. Learning which fats to avoid and what healthy fats to include in your diet may be one of the most important dietary strategies you implement into your life.
The Truth About Fat
Fat came under scrutiny in the 1960s when the sugar industry paid Harvard researchers to publish a review on sugar, fat, and heart disease. The sugar industry funded the research to cover up warning signs, which emerged in the 1950s, that sugar caused heart disease. Shifting the blame away from sugar, the researchers singled out saturated fat as the cause of heart disease.
In the decades following the Harvard study, the media, public health authorities, and the food industry promoted the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. This misleading nutrition advice was touted as the healthiest diet to prevent heart disease.
Food manufacturers flooded the market with processed foods containing hydrogenated fats and processed sugar. The replacement of saturated fats in the diet with trans fats and sugar resulted in epidemic rates of obesity and its related health complications. Rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer have risen since Americans adopted the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet.
Healthy Fats
Healthy fats can be found in many sources. Healing non-animal fats are in avocados and avocado oil, nuts and nut butters, coconut, coconut milk, and coconut oil, and olives and olive oil. Healing animal fats are found in grass-fed butter, ghee, and dairy, grass-fed meats, organic, pastured chicken and egg yolks.
Incorporating healing fats into your diet has many health benefits. Healing fats provide building blocks for cell membranes and hormones. They also function as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E, and K and aid in the absorption of minerals. Healing fats are essential for a healthy body and lifestyle.
Omega 3 Healthy Fats
Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats found in fatty fish such as salmon and sardines. They are also found in walnuts and some seeds, such as chia seeds. They are liquid at room temperature.
Omega-3 fatty acids promote health in several ways. They reduce inflammation and lower the risk of chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. Omega-3 fatty acids can help lower triglycerides and apoproteins (markers of diabetes), and raise HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels. Omega-3 fats are also essential for brain and eye health.
Monounsaturated Healthy Fats
Foods rich in monounsaturated fatty acids include olives and olive oil, nuts and nut butters, and avocados and avocado oil. Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, but start to harden when chilled.
Consuming monounsaturated fatty acids may protect you from heart disease by lowering LDL and total cholesterol, improve the function of blood vessels, help prevent depression, improve body composition, and improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control. Monounsaturated fats have even been shown to reduce cancer risk. Oils rich in monounsaturated fats also contain the antioxidant vitamin E which has many health benefits.
Saturated Healthy Fats
Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. They are found in animal fats such as grass-fed beef and dairy and in coconut, palm, and MCT oil.
Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of our cell walls and offer protection against unwanted materials invading the structural integrity of the cell wall. Saturated fats promote bone health by helping utilize calcium. Saturated fats also protect the liver from toxicity, help fight off fungal and other infections, and boost our immune systems.
There are many great sources of saturated animal fats. Grass-fed beef and dairy (including cheese, butter, and ghee) and organic, pasture-raised chicken (meat and eggs) are excellent sources and increasingly available in grocery stores. Grass-fed beef and dairy are rich in a number of nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids, CLA, healthy proteins, vitamin E, B12, thiamine, riboflavin, creatine, iron & zinc.
Coconut oil is an amazing healing fat. It has numerous health benefits, including aiding digestion, strengthening the immune system, preventing and fighting candida and other infections, balancing blood sugar levels, nourishing the skin and hair, and improving bone health.
Toxic Fats
The most common sources of unhealthy fats are man-made saturated fats and highly processed unsaturated fats. Man-made saturated fats, including trans fats, are extremely harmful. Unsaturated processed oils, such as vegetable oil, canola oil and corn oil, oxidize easily and are never healthy.
Ironically, these are the types of fats that are often in processed foods like margarine and marketed as heart-healthy alternatives. These fats are not only highly inflammatory, but also offer zero benefits to the human body. On top of that, they come from factory farms that are extremely detrimental to the environment.
Conclusion on Healthy Fats
Dietary fat is essential for health and wellbeing. The key is to consume healthy fats and avoid toxic fats. Healthy fats include coconut and MCT oil, and animal fats from grass-fed and organic sources. Other healthy fats are in avocados and avocado oil, coconut and coconut oil, olives and olive oil, and nuts and seeds and their butters.
To incorporate healthy fats into your diet, you should cook with healing oils and fats, consume proteins that have healing fats, and add healthy fats to vegetables, smoothies, and snacks.
Toxic fats are hydrogenated oils and trans fats. Margarine, shortening, and other man-made oils are particularly harmful. Other toxic fats include canola, corn, vegetable, soybean, cottonseed, safflower and other oils that are highly processed and oxidize easily.
To avoid toxic fats, you must read nutrition labels carefully. You must also avoid all processed and fried foods as these usually contain hydrogenated oils. Choose real, grass-fed butter or ghee over margarine and spreads.
It is critical for good health to incorporate healthy fats into your diet and to avoid toxic fats.
Adapted from Dr. Jockers