5 Truths About Fat
Fat is confusing. We’re constantly bombarded with conflicting guidance about how to eat fat (or whether we should eat it at all), and the results have been pretty disastrous for our health.
Here, I’ll do my best to set the record straight as succinctly as possible:
Saturated fat is not bad for you. It’s a highly stable, traditional fat that’s critical for making hormones, building healthy cell membranes, and maintaining bone health. Because it has no double bonds in its structure, it’s far less likely to become oxidized when cooking, e.g. it won’t promote free radicals in your food. And most importantly, there is just no evidence that saturated fat leads to heart disease. Truly. This myth is simply the result of some very poor research in the early 1900s, and a lot of financial influence from the sugar industry. In fact, a recent systematic review showed no association between saturated fat intake and all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease (CHD), CHD mortality, ischaemic stroke, type 2 diabetes. Check out these articles by Chris Masterjohn and John Briffa to learn more.
Vegetable oils are. “Vegetable oils,” aka industrial seed oils, have a creepy history. Until the early 1900s, food was primarily cooked in butter, tallow and lard. Then the soap makers Procter & Gamble discovered they could turn an industrial waste product, cottonseed oil, into a substance that resembled lard, by adding hydrogen. It worked for soap, and they figured it should work well for cooking, too. The world’s first trans fat, Crisco, was born. Canola, soy, corn, and safflower oils followed soon after--the perfect “heart healthy vegetable” alternatives to the animal fat. The problem is, these oils go through some pretty nasty processing on their journey from seeds to grocery store shelves. Extreme heat, chemical solvents, deodorizing agents...all of which turn unstable fats into oxidized, inflammatory, toxic food products. Not surprisingly, as more and more people turned to vegetable oils, inflammatory diseases like CVD began to rise.
Healthy fats come from obvious sources. A general rule of thumb: the less processed the fat, the less likely it is to be poison. Trans fats like Crisco and margarine are the most deadly, and thank god they’re finally been banned from the US food system. In contrast, oils from naturally fatty things like olives, coconuts and avocados require minimal processing and pose no threat to human health.
What you do with the fat matters. A fat’s “stability” refers to its ability to withstand heat and light without oxidizing. Saturated fats like coconut oil, tallow, and ghee are highly stable and great for cooking at high temperatures. Avocado oil (which is mostly monounsaturated, if you’re still wary of saturated fats) has the highest smoke point of all, and it should be your go-to for searing or grilling meat. Extra virgin olive oil, nutritional powerhouse as it may be, is incredibly fragile and should only be used for cold preparations or very light, quick sauteing. Store extra virgin olive oil away from the stove, and only buy it if it’s in a dark colored bottle to protect it from light.
We need to be eating more omega-3. Omega-3 fatty acids from fish and algae are anti-inflammatory superfoods that will protect you from heart disease, cancer, depression, and metabolic syndrome. This is in direct contrast to omega-6 fatty acids, which are pro-inflammatory and increase your risk of chronic disease. Where do we get omega-6? You guessed it, vegetable oils (and the processed foods that contain them). Ancestral diets contained an omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of 1:4. Today’s modern diet contains a whopping 1:16 ratio of the good guys vs the bad. Importantly, the omega-3 that comes from plants like chia and flax does not convert well to the specific fatty acids the body needs (DHA & EPA). Opt for fatty fish, fish oil or algae oil to reap the benefits in a meaningful way.
I hope this clears up some confusion about the fats you should be savoring in your healthy, nourishing diet. If you’re still unclear on any of the above, feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll happily expand on any of the above!
TLDR: Cook with coconut oil, avocado oil, pasture raised tallow/lard, and grass-fed ghee. Use extra virgin olive oil for cold things. Eat more fatty fish and fewer processed foods.