Do You Know Your Fats? Humans have used and consumed nutrient-rich fats for thousands of years including:
- Butter
- Chicken, goose, and duck fat
- Coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Tallow and suet from beef and lamb
- Lard from pigs
- Expeller-expressed sesame and peanut oils
- Expeller-expressed flax oil
- Fish liver oils such as cod liver oil
But what about the following fats that were introduced in the last century including:
- Industrially processed liquid oils such as soy, corn, safflower, cottonseed, and canola
- Fats and oils (especially vegetable oils) heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying.
- All hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils
These are now known to cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, sterility, learning disabilities, growth problems, and osteoporosis.
The real role of saturated fats
Saturated fats have almost been demonized. In the very least, manufacturers of modern industrial oils have spread the myth that saturated fats are harmful to your health. Let’s take a deeper dive into the topic.
Saturated fats, such as butter, meat fats, coconut oil, and palm oil, are typically solid at room temperature. According to nutritional myths, these fats are the cause of our modern chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, obesity, malfunction of cell membranes, diabetes, and even nervous disorders like multiple sclerosis.
However, actual scientific studies show that industrial processed liquid vegetable oils and artificially hardened vegetable oil (trans fats) are the real cause of our modern chronic illnesses.
Humans respond better to saturated fats because we are warm-blooded mammals. Saturated fats provide the right structure to our cell membranes and tissues. Industrial trans fats hurt the structural integrity of cell membranes and interfere with proper functioning.
In addition, saturated fats do not clog your arteries or promote heart disease. Saturated fats lower a substance called Lp(a), which is a very accurate marker for a propensity to develop heart disease.
Saturated fats are involved in intercellular communication. They promote the proper functioning of cell membrane receptors. They strengthen the immune system. They help the lungs function properly, which helps explain why children who consume full-fat milk and butter have less asthma than children who consume reduced-fat milk and margarine. Saturated fats help hormone production and kidney function.
Saturated fats are necessary for the nervous system to function properly, and over half the fat in the brain is saturated. Saturated fats help suppress inflammation. Finally, saturated animal fats contain vital fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K2.
Humans have consumed saturated fats for millennia. Industrially processed trans-fats are associated with the epidemic of modern chronic illnesses. Let’s bust that myth.
The fat-soluble vitamins need activators
There are certain vitamins found in the fat and organ meats of grass-fed livestock and some seafood like shellfish, oily fish, fish eggs, and fish liver oil. These are vitamin A, D, and K2. In the diets of our ancestors, these nutrients were about 10 times higher than our modern diets filled with processed foods containing white flour, sugar, and vegetable oils. They act as catalysts for mineral absorption, which the body needs in order to utilize certain necessary minerals.
Vitamin A is crucial in the prevention of birth defects, the development of infants and children, protein metabolism, production of hormones, thyroid function, and protection against infection. Vitamin A is depleted by infection, fever, stress, exposure to environmental toxins, excess protein consumption, and heavy exercise.
Vitamin D is necessary for healthy bones and nervous system, mineral metabolism, insulin production, reproductive health, and protection against chronic illnesses like heart disease and cancer.
Vitamin K plays an important role in growth and facial development, normal reproduction, development of healthy bones and teeth, protection against calcification and inflammation of the arteries, myelin synthesis, and learning capacity.
Vitamins A, D, and K work synergistically. Vitamins A and D tell cells to make certain proteins; after the cellular enzymes make these proteins, they are activated by vitamin K. This synergy explains reports of toxicity from taking vitamins A, D, or K in isolation. All three of these nutrients must come together in the diet or the body will develop deficiencies in the missing activators.
The vital roles of these fat-soluble vitamins and the high levels found in the diets of healthy traditional peoples confirm the importance of pasture-feeding livestock. If domestic animals are not consuming green grass, vitamins A and K will be largely missing from their fat, organ meats, butterfat, and egg yolks; if the animals are not raised in the sunlight, vitamin D will be largely missing from these foods.
Final thoughts
The unsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, when they’re heated, tend to oxidize. In this form, they’re more dangerous to body tissues and can trigger inflammation, a known risk factor for making blood-vessel plaques unstable enough to cause a heart attack.
So, switch out your vegetable oil and hardened shortening to butter and extra virgin olive oil. Other oils that you can use include avocado oil, coconut oil, or chicken fat. Consider it a return to how humans really ate for thousands of years.