What are healthy fats? Why will it always be a key topic within health and nutrition? Let me just ramble on here as this is one of my favourite topics.
Most, if not all of us, have eaten fish, poultry, and/or meat in our life. If vegan, you have consumed vegetable and nut oils, perhaps coconut oil or olive oil. Fats or lipids or fatty acids is all around us! Pun intended as every cell membrane in our body is mostly put together with lipids (a lipid bilayer).
At this micro level, the cell membrane has been said to be the brain of the cell; letting things in the cell, keeping things out, keeping things in, letting things out. Whew! got that? That is not all. The membrane holds information in the form of energy between the lipid bilayer. It communicates with other cells and its environment, like a radio signal. There is more, for another blog.
On a macro level, fats support every system in the body especially the brain and nervous system. Our brain runs our body. No fat, think dry skin. Water hydrates. Fat lubricates. Both keep things flowing and functioning optimally. Fat and water don’t mix unless you shake it up! Each have their place in the needs and makeup of our body alongside amino acids (proteins), carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals.
Types of Fats
Guaranteed if you read about fats in an article or that book, you will read there are three main types of fats; saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
Saturated Fats
Saturated is solid at room temperature and fats that contain a rich source of saturated fats are butter, tallow, lard, and coconut oil. These sources contain other fats as well over and above saturated fats.
For example (approximates), butter is 70% saturated fat, 25% monounsaturated fat and 5% polyunsaturated fat. Butter is the most complex of fats with 400 different fatty acids. Everything tastes better with butter (grass-fed please!).
Do you really need to learn this?
The most important are the essential fatty acids, Omega-3 and Omega-6. Why? Because our body doesn’t make them. I feel all types of fats are useful (good quality ones in wholesome whole unprocessed foods and not refined bleached oils like most vegetable oils).
On the other end of the spectrum is seal oil, healthy fats for your brain (if raw and unrefined). Seal oil is 100% fats with key benefits of all kinds (as it contains a good amount of the essential omegas); 33% is polyunsaturated fats, 47% monounsaturated fats and 11% saturated. Worth noting that omega-3 is in abundance but balanced with omega-6 in seal oil. Both essential and beneficial to have enough of each of them. Omega-3 brings down inflammation (a part of every injury, infection and chronic illness) while omega-6 causes inflammation. So why is omega-6 essential and beneficial?
Good question. We need an inflammatory response to heal and detoxify. An inflammatory response in an injury is the swelling, redness and heat – initial health saving response and healing. A fever which is burning away that which doesn’t belong is our bodies and our body’s natural response to foreign microbes. Burn baby burn! A fever that is. Appreciate a fever and keep hydrated. More for another blog.
Monounsaturated Fats
Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature for example olive oil. Olive oil is 70% monounsaturated fats, 13% saturated fats and 10% polyunsaturated fats.
At body temperature, saturated fats would be soft and not solid like at room temperature just so we can erase the image of solid fats floating around in our bodies. Remember what the butter looks like in the butter dish when it is 85 degrees F or 30 degrees C? Well, our body temperature is closer to 98 degrees F or 37 degrees C.
You may also think that plaque or clogged arteries is mostly saturated fats and cholesterol but it is not. It also includes calcium, cellular waste products and fibrin (a tough insoluble protein). A whole book can be written on the cholesterol myth. Misleading research and it misled many a doctor which equated to misleading governments (Food Guide) and other professions (dieticians). And this filters down to the good men and women looking for guidance – all ages included and programmed as to what is healthy. Butter rules!
A balanced diet with 20-35% fat intake of your daily calories is recommended by many health professionals so where did the no fat diet come out of? Good question. Eat less fat and you will loose body fat or weight (think stress as the root cause.) You will yoyo from that recommendation. You need healthy fats.
Polyunsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated fats are most fluid with more double bonds in its chemical structure (like that means a lot to most of you!) Polyunsaturated fats include omega-3s and omega-6s but not limited to these. These are the two common ones, essential too as in our bodies do not produce them. We have to get them from outside sources so the research and discovery showed (late 1920s).
Sources include seeds (seed oils), nuts (nut oils and butters), fish livers/heads/under skin, and seal blubber. Top for nuts is walnut while flaxseeds for seeds but all nuts and seeds would be a source of essential omegas. What matters here is the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6. I will always come back to quality which can be thought of as how are the oils processed. Omega-3 has a strong affinity to oxygen which means it will go rancid quickly (a form of decomposing back to the earth.) Walnut oil will not have the same shelf life as other nut oils so be aware of the expiry date and when you open the bottle.
Healthy Fats
Fats reside in a lot of foods just in various amounts and different types – good for their food’s longevity and health as well! Some foods like butter is 81% fat (81 gms per 100 gms of butter) while peanut butter is 50% (50 gms per 100 grams) and cheddar cheese is 31% (31 gms per 100 gms). Seal oil is 100% fat.
Healthy or unhealthy fats is what makes the difference to our health. Going out on a limb here. If someone is yelling at you, unhealthy. If someone is smiling at you, healthy. One would be high vibration/energy. The other low vibration/stressful. Stress equals changes in your chemistry with a cascade of unhealthy waves of chemicals, such as cortisol.
Quality of Healthy Fats
Quality is key for all fats (its natural or undenatured state). If you burned fat in a frying pan, you would not likely want to eat it. If fats were in their natural state, they would be just like taking a spoon full of butter or coconut oil. Tallow is a wee bit hard and like butter, a little salt to taste. Seal oil in its natural state may not look so pretty but the Inuit enjoy it fresh. Tallow has to be rendered down in an oven on low temperature to remove the oil part (best for storage.) Same with seal blubber to oil. Essentially, oil to one side while the non oil substances go to the other side. Important to remove the milk liquid when making butter so it doesn’t go rancid. The Mennonites will massage it out while there are gadgets to help drain the liquid out.
However, with seed oils that make up our global vegetable oils (lubricant of the food industry), the industry created a process that makes the oils shelf stable (cupboard stable for many many years). Worth noting that they are cheaper than butter and seal oil so many restaurants do not have a choice (oh…there is a restaurant in Alliston Ontario called Gust that cooks fries in duck fat.) We would not accept rancid oils so refining, bleaching, and deodorizing is the standard commercial process. This would not give you the same health benefits as unrefined oils. Fish oils are also mostly refined (purified, molecularly distilled.) Fish oil also goes rancid quickly whereas raw seal oil is naturally more stable. The seal is mammal and not fish. Mother’s breast milk is mammal too.
Olive oil can be cold pressed or not, and even cold pressed can be done differently where some cold pressing creates friction (so generates heat.)
Keep on Learning
For further reading, short article https://cherylmillett.com/omega-3-fatty-acids-for-prevention/.
Your choice is to take a little time every week to read about health. One book that speaks to The Seven Stages of Disease or as Dr. Tilden calls it Toxemia Explained is the book All Guts, All Glory (2020). Dr. Tilden tuned into the root causes of disease over 100 years ago and all I did was put it into a book and add some quality information that would assist you in building your knowledge in today’s health landscape – simplify it for you and build confidence.
Best of health,
Cheryl
Cheryl Millett
Champion for your better health…
Before the age of 20, it never dawned on me that what I chose to put in my mouth would have such a dramatic effect on my well being.
On my path of discovery, I learned that our eating choices directly affected how much energy we have first thing in the morning or that it would build our immune system strength during flu season. Part of it was coming to understand how gentle nutritional cleansing directly helped overcome my health challenges. People keep telling me how beautiful my skin is or how I look younger.
As my studies continued, it became obvious that there is an intrinsic connection between the mind, body, and spirit which directly affects our health and happiness. Omegas are another critical piece of the wellness puzzle. The Auum omegas alone turned on some switches in my brain in just one day.
I have developed a deep appreciation for the wonderful miracle workers our bodies are in the recovery process. Our bodies have natural intelligence. I am passionate to share the connection between nutrition and wellness in my practice and my presentations.
Book All Guts All Glory 2020 on Amazon
References
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/19/pfas-toxic-forever-chemicals-study
