The Big Fat Lie

Myth: Fat makes you fat

Fact: You need fat to burn fat

Our choice of fats and oils is one of extreme importance for our overall health.

Most people, including infants and growing children, benefit from more fat in the diet rather than less. Fat is our main source of long-burning fuel, like logs on a fire, whereas carbohydrates are the quick burning fuel, like kindling on a fire. We also need a balance of saturated and unsaturated fats for optimal health.

Healthy fats are imperative for optimal cholesterol levels. We are taught to fear cholesterol, but it plays key roles in the body. Cholesterol is the precursor to our sex and steroid hormones, so if our fat intake is too low, our body struggles to produce important hormones.

Dietary fats are a big component of our cell membranes as well. If we are overconsuming saturated fats, our cell membranes become overly rigid, and nutrients cannot enter cells easily and waste struggles to exit. If we do not consume enough saturated fat, our cell membranes become flaccid, and nutrients and waste are moving in and out of the cell without regulation.

One job of our liver is to produce bile which is then stored in the gallbladder awaiting dietary fats to be released for digestion. Bile helps us absorb and assimilate the dietary fats and corresponding nutrients, binds and escorts toxins out of the digestive tract, and helps with peristalsis which is the contractual movements that move food and waste through our digestive tracts. So, often with clients, I see that a low-fat diet results in constipation as not enough bile is present to help move food through the digestive tract.

And the question of the century, does fat make us fat?

The answer is generally no unless you do not digest fat well or are not eating clean sources of fat. Just look at the Keto diet and see how many are losing weight by increasing dietary fat.

Fat supports blood sugar regulation as it slows the absorption of glucose, and this is one way it can help to support weight loss for some. Certain fats, think of the essential fatty acids found in cold water fish and plant foods like flax, produce anti-inflammatory prostaglandins that support a healthy inflammation response. A body that is inflamed will struggle to have good metabolic health.

Also, fats help with body wide nutrient sufficiency as they are an important source of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Moving forward, acquaint yourself with the merits of coconut oil for baking and with animal fats for occasional frying. Eat eggs and other animal fats with the proteins to which they are attached.

Use good quality butter, especially butter from grass-fed cows, with the happy assurance that it is a wholesome and essential (a source of vitamins A, D, E, K) food for you and your whole family.

The fats we eat must be chosen with care:

Avoid all processed foods containing hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats as well as trans fats.

Polyunsaturated oils such as soy, cottonseed, canola, soy, safflower, and sunflower oil have a short shelf life, go rancid easily, and form free radicals in our bodies when consumed in processed foods, and they are too fragile to be heated for cooking.

Unfortunately, our food supply is littered with polyunsaturated oils, so Americans are getting way too many of these bad oils into their systems and incorporated into their cell membranes. The only way to avoid this is to read labels and look for healthier options. For example, many salad dressing brands like Braggs and Primal Kitchen are using avocado or olive oil and keeping the industrial seed oils out of our food supply.

The difference between good fats and bad fats is also in the way they are processed. Unhealthy fats are extracted from their sources using high heat and/or chemical solvents.

Pro Tips: Read Labels and look for these terms when shopping

• Cold Pressed (avoid cold processed oils, this is a trick on words)
• Unrefined
• Expeller pressed
• Organic
• Extra virgin

Moving forward, acquaint yourself with the merits of coconut oil for baking and with animal fats for occasional frying. Eat eggs and other animal fats with the proteins to which they are attached.

Use good quality butter, especially butter from grass-fed cows, with the happy assurance that it is a wholesome and essential (a source of vitamins A, D, E, K) food for you and your whole family.

What fats to use:

Healthy monounsaturated oils: Use medium low heat only

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sesame oil (raw)
• Peanut oil
• Avocado oil

Saturated fats: Use at higher heats just avoid smoking the oil

• Palm oil
• Coconut oil
• Butter
• Ghee
• Animal fats from pastured animals (e.g. Bacon Fat)

The one class of fats that I did not cover in detail is essential fatty acids. There is another blog post specifically dedicated to this topic: Fatty Acid Deficiency is Epidemic.