Sorry I did not post yesterday, I had no internet. Living out in the sticks and having flimsy, fickle cellular internet means that whenever a good rain shower or thunderstorm comes through (like it did here on Sunday night) it’s not unusual for us to lose internet for a few hours or a whole day even…but don’t worry, we always find it again! 😉
Today I wanted to talk about fats and all the misconceptions about fats in our society. So, first lets talks about different types of fat:
The most common and naturally occurring in nature is saturated fats, we find this fat in most meats, full fat milk, butter, lard, beef tallow, coconut oil and palm oil, just to name a few. These fats remain solid at room temperature and are very stable, needing to be heated up to a very high temperature in order to turn rancid, therefore these fats are the best fat to use for deep frying food.
The next most common and naturally occurring fat is mono-unsaturated fats. Some examples of this kind of fat are olive oil, peanut oil and canola oil. These fats are not as stable as saturated fat, but more stable than polyunsaturated fats, these fats remain liquid at room temperature but will solidify when refrigerated.
Then there is polyunsaturated fats which are always a liquid and very unstable, going rancid very easily at high temperatures. Some examples of this type of fat are corn, soybean, safflower and sunflower oil.
And the last category is what I like to call “FrankenFats” but you probably know them as trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils. These fats are a man-made artificial saturated fat, and they are formed by taking a polyunsaturated fat and bombarding them with hydrogen gas and a metal catalyst (usually nickel or platinum) for several hours at temperatures between 250 and 410 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah, that sounds sooooo yummy 🙄 (I also like to call ’em the “Tranny Fat” the polyunsaturated fat that thinks it’s a saturated fat but is really neither and worse than both! bahahahahahahahaha..don’t mind me..)
So what is a fat molecule exactly? Well, the most primary form of fat is saturated fat, your brain is made entirely of saturated fat and it is the preferred fuel of your heart, your joints, your ligaments, your eyes…almost everything in your body is made of saturated fat. If some predator killed you and ate you they would be getting a meal high in saturated fat, yet the mainstream medical community will tell you that saturated fat is bad for you and that you should reduce your intake of it…why?
Because back in the 1950’s they did a study on saturated fat trying to link it as the culprit behind the recent increase in heart disease, only problem is, back then they didn’t distinguish between different types of saturated fat and used a man-made artificial saturated fat (yup, you guessed it! TRANS FATS) in their experiment and ever since then saturated fats have been given a bad rap when it was really trans fats all along that were responsible. Yet they then went on to promote things like shortening and margarine as a healthy replacement for butter or lard, telling people they would prevent heart disease when they were the thing responsible all along! (For more on this, read the book “Good Calories, Bad Calories” By Gary Taubes) But I digress, moving on..
Fat molecules are basically chains of carbon atoms linked together and surrounded, or saturated, by hydrogen atoms. In some fatty acids the carbon atoms are double bonded, fatty acids with only one double bond are called monounsaturated (mono=one..and unsaturated because the double bond in the carbon prevents complete hydrogen saturation).
Fatty acids with two or more double bonds are called polyunsaturated (poly=many..and unsaturated because, again, the many double bonds in the carbon prevent the molecule from becoming completely saturated with hydrogen)
H = Hydrogen C = Carbon O = Oxygen
In saturated fat, each carbon atom maintains a single bond with a hydrogen atom and with each other, thus fully saturating the fat molecule with hydrogen which creates a very stable and strong “building block”, which is why our bodies are made of saturated fat, it’s the strongest and most stable building material available…God don’t make no junk! 😉
I’ll let this quote from Dr. Jan Kwasniewski’s Book “Homo Optimus” explain the rest:
Unsaturated fats, we are told – essential unsaturated fats – are present in mother’s milk at the concentration of 0.4%. No one can dispute that mother’s milk is the ideal nutrition, as far as the biochemical composition is concerned. It contains 3 grams of fat per 1 gram of protein. The conclusion is obvious – if nature included such a minute quantity of that constituent in such a wonderful food, then we should respect it.
Meanwhile, people are being persuaded that plant-derived fats containing polyunsaturated fatty acids which do not exist in mother’s milk, are healthy. Nothing is more misleading – in the body they participate in reactions by binding oxygen. Peroxides, superoxides and various other poisons accelerating the formation of atherosclerosis are formed; aging of tissues, mechanical damage, cancer formation occurs. Some time ago, experiments wereconducted investigating the effects of the replacement in a diet of saturated fats with unsaturated fats. What was concluded? Patients who were fed unsaturated fats were getting cancer 3-4, or even 5 times more often than patients on the same proportion of saturated fats. It is obvious why. Peroxides, which I have already mentioned, induce inflammations in the body, disease states, they simply degenerate tissues and whole organs. This concerns polyunsaturated fats only, those not present in butter, but instead present in plant-derived oils.
That is not the end to it. In the bodies nourished with polyunsaturated fats the chemical compound called malate aldehyde is formed – terrible stuff. Technical gases such as ethane and pentane are also formed,excreted by the body, defending itself against the poisoning. However, together with these gases we also excrete hydrogen – the best fuel for our tissues.
The less saturated with hydrogen the fatty chains, the more inferior the “fuel”. One has to remember that when buying fats. Margarine is made from unsaturated fats by inserting hydrogen into them. Metal ions are used as a catalyst and some remain in the margarine. These are not neutral to our health. Furthermore, hydrogen inserted into unsaturated fat in that process does not bind to the carbon atom in the same formation in which it is present in natural fats. Half of hydrogen binds in the so-called cis formation, and the other half in the trans formation. In natural fats all of the hydrogen is bound in cis formation. Our bodies are set up for the metabolism of such fats. The necessity of “utilization” of hydrogen attached in the trans formation (as in margarine) constitutes a large burden on our bodies, a burden which is not without an effect on our health. The best fats are of animal origin, solid fats, eaten within natural animal tissues.
The trans fat molecule looks similar to a saturated fat molecule because it is a man-made artificial saturated fat.
The health of the body depends upon the health of each individual cell, the healthier each cell is, the healthier the body. Cells are made up mostly of saturated fat! Saturated fat, being saturated with hydrogen, allows for the fluid flow of electrons through the cell. In the trans fat and unsaturated fat molecules, where there is a bend or “kink” in the molecule is like a dead space where the flow of electrons is slowed or, in the case of trans fats, stopped altogether. Sort of like a chain of Christmas lights with a few bulbs burned out here and there, and if the electrons cannot flow freely the health of the cell is compromised. It’s that simple.
Polyunsaturated oils are MAN MADE fats. You take somethings like genetically modified corn or soybeans or rapeseeds and put it through an intensive multi-step industrial process to extract the oils. These oils are NOT naturally occurring God given fats!
graphic depicting the multi-step industrial process used to create vegetable oil… remember the oil is heated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit during this process which is why deodorizing is the final step, so that you can’t taste that it’s rancid…ewwwwwww
God given natural fats come from animals (meat, eggs, milk and milk products) and vegetable products that are naturally oily like coconut, olive, or peanuts. These things do not have to be heavily manipulated in order to extract their oils, all it takes is a simple pressing in a simple machine to harvest the fat that they naturally contain.
The benefits of saturated fats
The much-maligned saturated fats—which Americans are trying to avoid—are not the cause of our modern diseases. In fact, they play many important roles in the body chemistry:
1. Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes. They are what gives our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.
2. They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated.
3. They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease. They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol.
4. They enhance the immune system.
5. They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
6. Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues when the diet is rich in saturated fats.
7. Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated. The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.
8. Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.
And if you’ve got the time and are interested to learn more, I can recommend two awesome movies to you:
The first is called “The Oiling Of America” and is a more researched based intellectual approach to the subject
And the second is a more lighthearted comedic take on the subject, a documentary called “Fathead”
Musings Of A Mountain Mama 