Loving Fat
The quick answer: Most of what you were told about dietary fat was crazy wrong. You need fat, so here’s a simple rule: Enjoy traditional fats; avoid modern factory fats.
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Fat Review
Word of Wisdom Living—so wisely named—presents 52 Healthy Changes based on 13 themes visited once per quarter (card players know that 4 x 13 = 52).
For this week’s theme of “fat” here's the healthy change history:
#2: Never buy deep fat fried foods. This isn’t just because most are still cooked in hydrogenated oil—though that’s reason enough—but also because the oils are damaged (oxidized, etc.) by protracted heat exposure. Read more here and here.
#15: Include omega-3 fats in each meal. It’s crazy that omega-3s are the most abundant fats on the planet (they’re in everything green, even algae, and in whatever eats those green plants) yet are the most deficient fat in our diet. It’s just crazy. Read more here
#28: Limit chips to national holidays, or for scooping a healthy dip or salsa.
#41: Eat traditional fats like butter and (California) olive oil—today's topic.
Traditional Fats
The two fats we eat most in our home are butter and olive oil. Each has an honored place in food tradition, they’re even Biblical, yet both were shoved aside in the last century by factory food-like products. Butter was displaced by margarine, which was falsely claimed to be healthier. Olive oil was replaced by “partially hydrogenated vegetable oils”, a chemically refined product also wrongly advertised as healthy. The world was tipped upside down through modern advertising.
Olive Oil
Read more about the anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and pro-cardiovascular benefits of olive oil in the post titled Olive Oil 101. I prefer the U.S. olive oils (mostly from California) because they’re usually fresher and less adulterated. Taste or smell the imported stuff—I fear those sneaky Europeans are sending us their trash.
Butter
We enjoy butter and eat it without guilt. In a past post I made an eye-opening visit to the butter aisle of our local grocery. The newest products in this aisle are the "spreads" that try to replace margarine—I avoid both.
Here’s another reason to enjoy butter—butyric acid, a short-chain, 4-carbon, saturated fat (also known as butyrate) offers anti-cancer properties. Butter is the main dietary source of butyric acid, containing 3-4%.
Worried about getting fat from butter? When certain rats are fed high-fat diets they get real fat. But if butyrate is included, even though it’s a fat, they don’t. Pretty interesting because who would have thought that eating butter might help humans avoid adding fat? Butyrate also reduces inflammation, insulin levels (while improving insulin sensitivity), and the risk of metabolic syndrome.
Low-Fat Milk?
While on the subject of butter, we should address the fat in dairy products. I like milk—the more natural the better—but shun the low-fat varieties. It’s revealing that America got fat while eating low-fat food substitutes. It’s just Orwellian. A Harvard study noted in this post on milk linked consumption of low-fat dairy with increased infertility in women. My thinking is anything that reduces women’s fertility can’t be healthy.
Please comment: Want to know what makes us fat? It's not from eating fat, but from our addiction to sugar in processed foods. Share your thoughts on healthy fats.
Friday, December 6, 2013 at 11:42AM | by Skip Hellewell | 10 Comments | 30 References | Share Article | Email Article
Reader Comments (10)
Did you mean "decreased" fertility with low fat milk?
Hi Ms. Tueller
Yes. I said "increased infertility" which is correct, but "decreased fertility" reads more clearly. Thanks.
I have started using really good coconut oil, butter, and tallow as my fats for everything. I have never been into low fat dairy (although I am not a milk drinker anyway), and my children only drink full fat milk (not the same as whole milk from the store, as no cream has been skimmed off of it at all). I especially love popcorn with the coconut oil we use, because it gives it such a lovely flavor.
Love this post! This is one area where the government involvement in telling us what to eat has been particularly harmful. It has been so ingrained in the public mind that it's really hard for people to believe that fat won't make you fat.
Over the past three years, I have dramatically increased the amount of fat we eat (most people would be shocked at how much butter I slather on my sourdough bread ;) and I haven't gained any weight. I feel so much better and I feel like the extra fat helped me have a healthy pregnancy and helps me produce healthy breast milk. I really feel like the key to weight loss and health is to cut the sugar and add the fat to our diets.
On another note, I was talking to a friend the other day about the Word of Wisdom and she had an interesting insight. She feels like the word "sparingly" in reference to meat doesn't necessarily mean to eat very little meat, but to use the whole animal (the meat, the bones to make stock, and the organ meats). I thought this was interesting as I have felt that I needed more meat while pregnant and breastfeeding and also that my growing children need meat. It's not that we eat a lot of meat, but we do eat one serving most days and plenty of eggs.
Hi Lindsey
One thing that stands out from your comment is you are actively involved in a process of building food wisdom. I'm proud of what you're doing. Word of Wisdom Living lives to help this process and I love it when people reach conclusions contrary to what is advertised by Food Inc. It's not easy going against the conventional wisdom but it may save your life.
It's true that most of what the government has supported regarding fats was terribly bad for us but good for Food Inc. I think it will always be this way—we need better sources of nutrition information.
Best to you.
Love this post! People act like I'm crazy for eating as much healthy fat as I want--and then they wonder why I think they're crazy for eating (what has been pushed as healthy) fats like canola oil. Sugar, though, is my weakness that I am working to overcome...
As a broad comment, I find the "organic" label a bogus fraud. No study has found a significant benefit for the higher priced organic foods. More, all natural food should be healthy; the idea that the rich can enjoy healthier food than the poor is offensive.
So I was interested in a new study of organic milk (see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/health/organic-milk-high-in-helpful-fatty-acids-study-finds.html?_r=0) that finds healthier fats in organic milk
The bottom line is that cows used for "organic" milk must eat more pasture grass (high in omega-3 fat), during the grass growing season. Cows producing conventional milk may never see a pasture and eat mostly corn (low in omega-3 and high in omega-6 fat). Basically the omega-6-to-3 ratio is 2.3 for organic milk and a less beneficial 5.8 for conventional (non-pastured) milk.
One minus for organic milks is they're usually "ultra pasteurized" and the additional cooking makes them less "pro-biotic".
For reduced fat milks, you get less of both omega-3 and omega-6—a reason to choose full fat milk, preferably pasture-fed.
The short story: if you drink milk, try to get whole milk from pastured cows, whether organic or not.
If you drink unpasteurized whole milk, please tell us about your source, and your experience.
We drink unpasteurized whole milk from a local farm. Since switching to it from pasteurized milk, my daughter's terrible eczema patch on her arm cleared up. My husband hadn't drunk milk in years because he had become lactose intolerant, but one day he made chocolate milk (I know, terrible thing to do to good milk) for the kids and made too much. He drank the extra and waited for his usual reaction to milk. It never came. He now drinks raw milk regularly with no problems. He also drinks a glass of raw milk when he has eaten something high in pasteurized dairy (cheesecake or pizza that isn't from home) and it helps in digesting those as well.
I enjoyed this post. My wife is great about buying traditional fats for the healthier benefit. I found your thoughts on olive oil interesting about American produced olive oil versus something produced in Europe.
I buy raw milk from grass fed cows from my local farmer. It is a splurge at 7.50/gallon so I only buy 1 gallon every two weeks. But we sure love it! It's creamy and delicious.