Big Fat Truths

Before I crawl into my cave and drift off to a land of prancing antelope, I just want to get the conversation on fat going.

Omega-3s and Omega-6s

Most nutritionists (whom I don't usually trust, but I'm not finding much argument here) believe that one of the culprits of our deteriorating health is the balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The body needs both and can't manufacture either, but our modern diet has way way too much omega-6 from soy, corn, seed, and nut oils. The animals we eat also have this imbalance because we mainly feed our animals grain and industrial foods. Omega-6 causes inflammation, blood clotting, and cell proliferation, while omega-3s suppress those responses.

Part of the Paleo approach (and other more mainstream dietary approaches) seek to up the omega-3 intake by eating fatty fish, fish oil supplements, omega-3 eggs, and fat from grassfed animals (butter, lard, gristle, tallow, marrow... yum!). There are vegetable sources, but the omega-3s in them are precursors to the ones we need - eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) - and the body has to synthesize them out of those precursors. Therefore, while vegetable sources are better than nothing, they aren't as effective in balancing fatty acids.

Saturated Fat
Contrary to PC nutritional wisdom, saturated fats are actually really good for you. They are stable when heated and they are easily metabolized by the body. There are no consistent results from scientific studies that suggest that saturated fat is bad for you, but there are more consistent results from scientific studies that show that fructose and corn oil are. In fact, Americans actually consume LESS saturated fat than we did 100 years ago. Look at it this way: if you were in the wild, the most easily procured types of fat would be saturated - animal fats, coconuts and avocados in tropical places, fish fats, eggs, etc. If you found civilization and stumbled into a corn field and you tried to eat enough corn to ingest the amount of corn oil in an average fast-food meal, you'd literally explode. Even a century ago, most people had only lard, butter, tallow, chicken fat, etc. The vegetable oils commonly used now are only possible because of heavy industry.

Cholesterol
Dietary cholesterol has no impact on blood cholesterol, and overall blood cholesterol has nothing to do with coronary disease. Your body manufactures cholesterol. Your blood cholesterol can fluctuate quite a bit throughout the day due to countless things in your environment. Your cell membranes, the sheath around your nerves, and a lot of your brain are made out of cholesterol, and cholesterol is a key building block in hormone production. Without it, you would die. Of course, analyzing the many different kinds of cholesterol and their levels in your body may be more useful, but read Gary Taubes' book if you want more detail - the key thing to note is that SUGAR actually has a direct impact on your blood-lipid profile. Don't worry about cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol is good for you and won't impact what's going with your blood, eggs are good for you, butter is good for you. The myth that cholesterol is bad just serves to sell more cholesterol-lowering drugs. If you're worried about heart disease... DON'T EAT SUGAR.

Anyway, I'm trying to keep it brief in the hopes that this doesn't overwhelm you.

Fats to Use:

Olive Oil - use extra virgin for salads, and light olive oil for cooking. Extra virgin oxidizes when heated. This is bad.

Coconut Oil - get the unhydrogenated pure stuff. It should smell like coconuts. Supposedly magical. It's mostly saturated fat. Buy it from Punjab.

Butter - get grassfed when possible. LOOK ON THE LABEL. It should just be butter, no "natural flavoring" or anything else.

Ghee - make your own out of butter (ghee is just clarified butter) or buy it from Punjab. Again, make sure it's not hydrogenated.

Bacon and Bacon Fat - I sometimes just chop up some bacon and fry it in a pan to cook veggies rather than reaching for a bottle of oil. If you have bacon in the morning, bake it (350-degrees for about 15 minutes) so that the grease doesn't burn and you can pour it into a little jar or something to use for cooking later.

Duck Fat - get it at Wegman's or scoop it out of the bottom of a pan next time you roast a duck.

Lard - again, get good quality, non-hydrogenated, no preservatives. I have yet to find a good source in Maryland, but I haven't asked at the farmers market yet. A good butcher can get you leaf lard, which is the leaf-shaped deposit of beautiful fat along the inside of a pig's back, inside the ribcage.

Tallow - this is beef fat. You can get a few good grassfed beef or bison marrow bones and roast them at a low-ish temperature (275?) to render out all the fat to use for cooking.

Peanut oil and sunflower oil are acceptable if you really really have no other choice. Whatever you do, avoid corn, soy, and canola oils.


Oh, finally, FATS DON'T MAKE YOU FAT.