NOT ALL FAT IS BAD Bad fats are bad, AND good fats are good, more than good actually, good fats are essential. Most people associate fat with being bad for our bodies and as a result, stay away from fats in their diet all together. But what really is fat? And why are bad fats bad? And why are good fats good? What is fat?
Fat is a macronutrient. It is an elemental building block of all foods and as such is essential to human survival. Our bodies burn two kinds of energy for fuel: carbohydrates and fat. Most people are aware of how carbohydrates provide us with energy when they are broken down but they have no idea what fats can do for us in that respect. It is a common belief that fat makes us fat. Although that does hold some truth, it would be more accurate to say that eating too much of the wrong types of fat, makes us fat. Not all fats are created equal. There are bad fats, questionable fats, and good fats.
What fats are bad? Trans fats (hydrogenated fats), refined oils (omega-6 fats) like corn oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil) are all bad fats. Trans fats (aka hydrogenated fats) are the worst type of dietary fat. They are a byproduct of a process that turns healthy oils into solids to prevent them from going rancid so that they can withstand a longer shelf-life. Trans fats have been banned in the United States but are still very much so present in our foods. Trans fats are bad because: they raise your bad cholesterol and lower your good cholesterol, they increase inflammation in the body, they slow your metabolism, they increase weight gain, and they can cause many diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and dementia. Refined oils are highly processed, unstable, and inflammatory oils. Many people believed that refined oils were good and safe to use as an alternative to traditional saturated fats like butter, lard, and coconut oil because that’s what the government and the food industry said. They told us that traditional saturated fats caused high cholesterol, which would ultimately lead to heart disease. Boy were they wrong. With the government and food industry sharing the narrative of traditional saturated fats being bad for us, we began consuming an increased ratio of omega-6 fats to omega-3 fats. We started to consume more refined oils and moved away from things like wild fish and grass-fed beef.
If we take a look at our ancestor’s diets and what they ate when it came to fats, we would see that they consumed more omega-3 fats than omega-6 fats, as they would consume an abundance of wild fish and wild meat, which are naturally high in omega-3 fats. Not only have we become consumed in highly inflammatory omega-6 fats, but we have also become more deficient in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats (good fats). Moreover, omega-6 fats feed the inflammatory pathways in our bodies, while also reducing the bio-availability of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats in our bodies, which ultimately causes more inflammation within us. As such, consuming too many omega-6 fats can lead to a plethora of inflammatory diseases. Moreover, over consuming omega-6 fats and under consuming omega-3 fats can increase things like: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, IBS, cancer, and asthma.
What fats are good? Extra-virgin, cold-pressed, organic coconut oil, extra-virgin, cold-pressed organic olive oil, avocados, grass-fed meats, grass-fed butter, nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts), and fatty fish (sardines, mackerel, herring, wild salmon) are all good fats. Why are good fats good? Did you know that your brain is made up of 60% fat? Did you know that every cell wall of every single cell in your body is also made of fat? Did you know that heart health can be determined by the consumption of anti-inflammatory fats? Your body is built to run and function on high quality fats. The higher the quality of fat you consume, the higher you will be able to function. When it comes to the brain, high quality fats boost things like cognition, memory, learning, and mood. As aforementioned, high quality fats are also used by our bodies to create flexible, high quality, responsive cell walls that are able to communicate and respond better and faster to messages they are receiving from the body. Your heart also benefits from high quality fats. High quality fats, like omega-3 fats, keep cholesterol under control by decreasing levels of bad fats, all the while raising levels of good fats in the blood. Omega-3 fats alter the viscosity of the blood, making it more slick, which reduces the likelihood of arterial disease. If the above reasons were not enough to convince you that fats are good and essential, here are a few more reasons: Good fats help make prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are hormones that regulate inflammation in the body. This is important because the root cause of almost every chronic disease is inflammation. Eating good fats helps you shed fat. The high quality fats that make up the cell walls are able to better metabolize insulin, which in turn regulates blood sugar better. Without good blood sugar regulation, the body stores fat.
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