Newsletter ~ March 2011

Hello everyone,

How did you read the above title? Did you read it with 1 ‘Fat’ or 2? If your the optimistic type, you read the above title the way it’s written. Which fats are making you? Which ones are building you? But, If you’re the pessimistic type you read it as ‘which fats are making you…Ehem…(fat)’ anyways, something to think about!

One of the most misunderstood food subjects, now-a-days, is the subject of fat. In a world full of ‘low fat’ this and ‘no fat’ that and many people worried about ‘losing fat’. Its not a hard stretch of the imagination for the average person to think fat = fat…But nothing else could be farther from the truth.

Today I will share with you the difference between mono-unsaturated fats, saturated fats, poly-unsaturated fats and the dreaded trans fats!

Prepare yourself…because the truth may just surprise you!

Mono-unsaturated fat:
(Best fats)

Mono-unsaturated fats are mostly found in olives, olive oil and avocados.

Unlike poly-unsaturated fats, mono-unsaturated fats have traditionally been used liberally by some ancient cultures. Olive oil was originally pressed with a large grinding rock and was highly prized.

Mono-unsaturated fats are very good for you and help raise HDL cholesterol transport proteins. AKA good cholesterol (Proteins which take the cholesterol back to your liver to be processed and reused…It helps prevent the cholesterol from getting stuck and rancid in the body, which would be bad.)

Mono-unsaturated sources: olives, olive oil and avocados.

How to tell if it’s mono-unsaturated? Liquid at room temperature BUT semi-solid in the fridge.

Saturated fat:
(Good fats…source dependent)

Saturated fats are mostly found in ‘animal fats’ such as: milk, meat, butter and animal fat. It is also found in some plant sources, like coconut oil. Saturated fats are very important to health.

Also the cholesterol is extremely important for sex hormone and stress hormone production. without stress hormones, we wouldn’t be able to function in every day life and without sex hormones neither you or I would be here…So, you get the idea how important these are!

Saturated fat sources: including, but not limited to;  meat, milk, butter and coconut oil

How to tell it’s saturated? Stays solid at room temperature and in the fridge. (melts with warmth/heat)
Poly-unsaturated fat:
(Good fat/Bad fat)

(mostly bad fat except if it’s in its whole food form)

Naturally found in nuts and seeds. healthy when eaten as a whole food, but harmful when taken in large amounts via ‘vegetable and seed oils’.

Unlike most mono-unsaturated fat sources (like olive oil), many poly-unsaturated fat sources (like soybean oil & corn oil) are extremely hard to press and traditionally were not pressed until modern technology created the tools to do so.

When pressed out of it’s whole food form, it is extremely susceptible to rancidity and very sensitive to high temperatures.

Lucky for us, In the 20th century they figured out a way to keep it from going bad so quickly. Some genius decided to hydrogenate the poly-unsaturated fat to make it more stable like saturated fats… Sadly this process made what is known today as ‘trans-fats’.

note: If you were to freshly press a nut oil and were just adding a bit for flavoring…it would be okay, but if you were to heat it or store it, that would be bad.

Poly-unsaturated fat Sources:  safflower oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, most seed and nut oils.

How to tell if it’s poly-unsaturated? It stays a liquid at room temperature and when it’s in the fridge.

Trans-fat:
(very bad fat)

Dum, dum, dum… The dreaded trans-fat! Trans-fats are made from an unnatural mixture of poly-unsaturated fats and hydrogen. The brain child of some mad scientist no doubt…Trans-fats are toxic to the body, unusable junk the body has to process and eliminate. Sadly it’s not that simple, on the way out they can cause some serious problems and disrupt many delicate processes…Avoid these at all costs!

Trans-fat Sources: butter substitutes (aka margarine), processed foods, fast food…(do not believe them if they say “no trans-fat” In America they can legally have 1 gram of trans-fat per serving without marking it!)

 How to tell if it’s trans-fat? It acts like saturated fat (stays solid at room temperature and in the fridge)

but it isn’t from animals or coconut oil. It’s not always easy to tell…

The Debunking:

Well the fats…Ehem…FACTS are in! Contrary to the popular belief that was passed around some 50-60 years ago, Poly-unsaturated fats turned into ‘fake saturated fats’ by hydrogenation* are NOT healthier than saturated fats…This ‘lab made’ fat can be found in margarine, butter substitutes, most restaurants, fast food places, especially with fried foods and in most, if not all, processed foods.

*[one of the main differences between saturated fats and poly-unsaturated fats, is that saturated fats are ‘saturated’ with hydrogen.. This is what makes them solid at room temperature. The reason poly-unsaturated fats are bad when unnaturally coupled with hydrogen is because the body does not recognize it.. Because is an UNNATURAL combo!]

Luckily this common belief has been debunked the past several years in the form of “trans-fat awareness”… Yep, it’s trans-fats that I’m talking about! Believe it or not, it used to be thought of as a healthy alternative! Even now with that fact quite widely known. There still is one equally crazy theory that’s been hanging around, that needs to be debunked, that is this relatively ‘new finding’ that saturated fat is bad.

Not many people realize it now-a-days, but human kind has relied on saturated fats throughout all history. Milk, eggs, coconut oil and animal fats. All of these food items have been found to be consumed in the most healthiest of cultures, ancient and ‘traditional modern’! But in America this type of fat is now condemned as the cause of many health problems.

But, what some people have missed is this. The decline in health has not been due to the rise of the use of saturated fats, which have been shown to be going DOWN. Instead it has been the rise of poly-unsaturated fats, food processing, hormones, pesticides, herbicides and all the other tragedies which have followed the ‘modern mans’ new ways of growing, harvesting and processing food that has brought on this new quick degradation of health we are seeing.
The tragedy of modern ways:

One of the worst modern inventions for health, has been the feed-lot raised and confined animal processing operations. Where animals are fed an unnatural diet and injected with hormones. If you ask me, I would say it wasn’t the saturated fats found in these animal products (dairy & meat) that cause the health problems, but the hormones! (keep an eye out for my future newsletter on hormones)

What about the studies, you say? Most of what we know about the ‘health safety of saturated fats’ has been based upon studies which demonize cholesterol as a cold blooded killer. Which, by the way, has been disproved both by new studies and looking back into the past.

The answer isn’t in new studies, but looking into the past.

The way I look at it…If you do a study with people who are eating the typical American diet.. (standard American diet = s.a.d.) you are not going to get very ‘clean’ results! Just look at what people are eating! How are you suppose to find out what’s healthy when your testing it out on a chronically unhealthy population? If you take away the junk and made them eat vegetarian, of course they’re going to feel better! By doing that you take away a huge load of toxins and hormones.

But that doesn’t mean it’s the best diet for those who seek optimum health. For that, I believe, you must look back into the past…into whole cultures.. Who were the healthiest and longest lived people? No, Our ancient ancestors did not die in their 40s! That is based off of ridiculous statistics that included newborn baby deaths, which sadly was high due to unclean conditions and other complications. Many lived and WORKED well into their hundreds, Yes that’s right! Many were physically active well into their old age. (which sadly is not the case for many people now-a-days.)

And that’s the ‘skinny’ on fats.. ::grin::

Your Personal Organic Coach,

Brittni