Issue 124: Fats & Oils - Ditch Old Diet Myths!

Ten bucks says you are confused about how to include fats and oils healthfully in your food choices. Am I right? Folks of a certain age especially grew up being hammered with the “necessity” of eating low or no fat foods in order to have healthy arteries.

And it just ain’t so.

Let's talk about it!

In Wellness, Mary Virginia

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Fats and Your Body

Believe it or not, oils and fats are hugely important to how your body functions. These are some reasons your body will be glad you ate them:

• Provide the structure of cell and mitchondrial walls. We need these to be both flexible and hold their shape.
• Protect your brain and your larger sensory and motor nerves. Myelin is a coating made of cholesterol and fats that both protects the nerves and speeds up communication along them. That means you can think and react faster.
• Make hormones, including growth hormone, thyroid hormone, and sex hormones.
• Make and store energy. Fats are the most concentrated forms of energy in our food. They are a critical contributor to our energy production between meals and overnight.
• Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation (whole body, including joints), keep your blood to a more fluid viscosity (stroke prevention, heart health), support balanced cholesterol, support a healthy skin barrier, and are one of the nutritional preventatives for macular degeneration, among other things.
• Omega-6 fatty acids support your organs, skin barrier, and brain cell structure. In the right proportion they contribute to the protective, healing nature of inflammation, e.g. when wounded or sick.
• Omega-9 fatty acids are instrumental in healthy eyes, liver, skin, and the intestinal tract. They also contribute to healthy LDL cholesterol levels and the right amount of inflammation at the right time. Extra virgin olive oil is a great source of omega-9 fatty acids.
• Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K all require oils or fats in order to be absorbed and put to work in the body.
  
  

Consuming health promoting fats and oils helps to protect the brain from diseases of cognition and memory, like Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. Children especially need higher amounts of fats in their diets as an indispensable pillar of normal growth and brain development. Note that the omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids are called “essential fatty acids” for a reason.

I bet you have questions...

Fat Makes You Fat, Right?

Nope. In fact, balanced well with protein, complex carbohydrates, and fiber in a food plan using foods that have no or limited processing, health supportive fats and oils very much support the size your body wants to be.

In the 1950’s a physiologist named Ancel Keys brought scientists together to perform a huge research program called the Seven Countries Study on the effects of diet on cardiovascular health and longevity. Yadayadayada…the results got limited interpretation by folks not part of the study, so our understanding devolved into a highly oversimplified popular belief that dietary fat was bad for you, i.e. it made you fat and clogged your arteries.

By the 1970’s, as growing commercial food manufacturers began to crowd grocery store shelves, low- and no- fat products dominated the market based on this misunderstanding. Anyone remember Snackwells? The rich flavor of fats was replaced by the thin flavor of sweet. We found ourselves increasing our carbohydrate and sugar intake to support taste satisfaction and energy levels. Our bodies don’t know what to do with such an excess of foods that spike blood sugar. This shift in our food messed with our metabolism, cardiovascular health, and waistline.

Dietary fats and oils contain 9 calories per gram, compared to 4 calories per gram in carbohydrates and protein. Typically the fats we eat are first utilized for all of the health benefits described at the start of this article, including our energy production. Only then is any excess stored as adipose tissue (aka, fat).

But then there’s this: Picture yourself eating a higher fat meal - a drizzle of olive oil on your veg, a pat of butter on your sweet potato, some delicious chicken thighs... How well do the flavors satisfy your palate? How quickly do you feel full? How long do you feel full afterward? Fat/oil (along with protein and fiber) is very slow to digest, and therefore meals that include some fat/oil satiate us more quickly and keep us feeling full longer than low fat meals. It adds flavor and enhances mouthfeel, which increases our pleasure.

While fat/oil might have more calories per gram, we tend to eat relatively small amounts of it (many fewer grams) in proportion to the rest of our food. Its long-lasting satiating effect leaves us feeling nourished until it’s time for our next meal.

Well-managed moderate to higher fat food plans may have the effect of reducing adipose tissue (fat stores), even without pursuing ketogenesis (where fat is actively used for energy in place of glucose). Getting the balance right is imperative, so work with a nutritionist, most especially if you choose a ketogenic food plan. Note that for most people, ketogenesis is best used short term therapeutically, not as a full time forever way of eating.

Adipose tissue accumulation (getting fat) or sustainably making the body smaller is not at all straightforward - it’s never, ever as easy as “calories in, calories out.” Don’t let anyone persuade you of that. It’s a total lie.

The nutrient density of our foods, stress resilience, generational and personal trauma, hormone status, health status, digestion, medications, life stage, movement, sleep, mood, and the body’s natural preference all intricately contribute to body size way beyond merely the number of calories.

Frankly, not eating enough calories can ultimately lead to a bigger body. This is where learning how to read your body and eat intuitively proves crucial.

What’s the Deal with Saturated Fat?

I remember years ago when my brother sent me a New York Times article that declared that saturated fat was safe to eat. “Now what am I supposed to do?” he lamented. This was news to him—and to a lot of people!

Back to the popular understanding, everyone “knows” that saturated fat will cause a rise in total cholesterol and “bad” LDL cholesterol. What a relief to find out, then, that daily dietary saturated fat from healthy sources is not only unlikely to affect your arteries, but can contribute to better health?

Check out this recent “well-done randomized controlled trial” (per Dariush Mozafarrian of Tufts University) from the University of Cambridge that describes that both butter and coconut oil do not cause the “bad” LDL cholesterol to rise and does increase good “HDL” cholesterol.

The data for saturated fat and cardiovascular health is so interesting. For example, I provide this list of standard blood work to consider when you want a deep dive into your health status and risks. On that list are several tests for types of cholesterol. It turns out that including some saturated fat may have a beneficial effect on certain types of cholesterol (e.g., see LP(a) on that list). The upshot? Balance and food choices are key.

Most interesting to me is that how our individual health responds to saturated fat has a strong genetic component. There are those who really do need to reduce saturated fat intake in order to protect their blood vessel, heart, and brain health. And there are those who actually need to increase their saturated fat intake. This can be determined by a 3x4 Genetics test (my code is MCOF001 when you register your kit. I can interpret your results and support you to better health using them).

Here’s your reminder that good quality saturated fat in the diet also supports cellular health, mitochondrial health, and brain health. Ghee and butter even contribute to the health of your intestinal wall and a better mood. That doesn’t mean you should eat a vat of butter every day! But some saturated fat daily via real, whole food is health supportive for most people.

Where will you find saturated fats?

Butter & ghee, coconut oil, MCT oil, full-fat dairy (milk, cream, ice cream, sour cream, cheese), processed & cured meats (bacon, sausage), fried foods, meat (beef, pork), poultry dark meat, processed snack foods, and baked goods & pastries.

Some of these have strong inflammatory effects, so eat the following rarely: processed/cured meats, fried foods, fatty cuts of meat, sugary foods, processed snack foods, and baked goods & pastries.

Surely You Have Nothing Nice to Say About Trans Fats

You’re right. I don’t. And don’t call me Shirley.

By now we are all aware that trans fats cause damage: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, allergy, and more. These are a type of unsaturated fatty acid that absolutely clogs arteries and causes nearly 300,000 deaths annually. Unlike saturated fats, there is no healthy level of trans fats. That said, if you have a healthy body and you eat them very rarely (movie popcorn? potato chips? crackers?) your body will be able to clear them. Avoid them, though, if you have a higher risk or a disease diagnosis.

Trans fats are found in industrially made products, such as margarine, shortening, fried foods, and many commercial baked goods and snack foods. One way to ID it on a label is to look for partially hydrogenated oil (PHO).

What About Cholesterol in Food?

Normally consumed amounts of dietary cholesterol, like what’s found in eggs, shellfish, or red meat will not cause your bodily cholesterol levels to rise.

Cholesterol balance and heart health risk are most affected by: refined carbohydrates and sugars (i.e. blood sugar status); oils that contribute to inflammation (see below);  high intake of saturated fats; digestive health (esp. constipation); and hugely affected by stress - both physical and mental. There can also be a familial (genetic) risk of high cholesterol that is also still not affected by dietary cholesterol. Hormone changes that come with age also increase bodily cholesterol. Sex hormones are made from the cholesterol made by your liver, so when that stops then cholesterol rises. There is some evidence that well balanced higher cholesterol levels are actually brain protective as we age.

Should We Lean into Poly- & Mono- Unsaturated Fats?

I won’t argue with you about the value of these flexible unsaturated fatty acids. They do indeed support healthier blood vessels, less sticky blood, and lower LDL and triglycerides.

The place to be cautious, though, is with some cooking oils that are touted for their supposed heart-healthy benefits because they are high in polyunsaturated fats, such as soy, corn, canola, safflower, sunflower, and “vegetable” oils. These highly refined seed oils are deodorized and bleached to promote shelf life, stripping away all other potential nutritional benefits. Moreover, they are high in inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. A diet that is rich in these oils will contribute to poor health.

Ideally we’d consume a ratio of 1:1 omega-6 to omega-3 (anti-inflammatory) fatty acids via food, fats, and oils. However, Americans eat more like a 10:1 ratio! This contributes to the chronic inflammation that we see in heart disease, arthritis, depression and other mood disorders, gut disease, brain diseases, and other illnesses.

→ The most health-promoting cooking oil sources of poly- and monounsaturated fats are found in extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil. ←

Scroll to the bottom of the newsletter for a primer on reaching this 1:1 ratio!

Whew! That Was A Lot to Take In

Many of my clients are surprised to learn that I actually encourage them to include oils and fats in their cooking! Given the health benefits and pleasures of good quality oils and fats, I would be doing them a disservice by not promoting them.

One aside: if you don’t feel well when you eat fats and oils, you may have trouble digesting them. There are several possible reasons, from a sluggish gall bladder to no gall bladder to low digestive enzymes or stomach acid. Your friendly clinical nutritionist (me!) can help you digest them well again.

I hope you’ll save this newsletter for reference, check out the fats & oils primer below, and please reach out with your questions!

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How to Include Healthy Fats & Achieve the 1:1 Ratio

Cook at home most of the time

• Eat out occasionally - it’s fun and social! And a little seed oil occasionally will not make a difference.
• Be aware that even fine restaurants mostly use seed oils.
  
  

Primarily use extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and avocado oil

• These oils have limited processing so that they maintain their nutritional value, such as vitamins E and K and phytonutrients.
• EVOO has a low smoke point, so use it for low- or no-heat dishes.
• Avocado oil has a high smoke point and can be used for high heat cooking.
  
  

Use butter, ghee, MCT oil, and coconut oil in moderation

• These support a healthy mood via short chain fatty acids, nourish the cells of the digestive tract, support energy production with medium chain fatty acids, and provide those necessary rigid saturated fats for cellular structure.
• A little goes a long way.
  
  

Choose whole foods that contain a balance of healthy fats

• Wild caught fatty fish, pasture raised beef and chicken, lamb
• Eggs (from pasture raised chickens or other fowl when possible)
  
• Avocados, olives
• Nuts (walnuts, pistachios, and almonds top the list)
• Seeds (flax, chia, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds are all terrific sources)
• Organic/grass fed full fat yogurt and milk, hard cheeses  (if you tolerate dairy)
• Organic tofu.
  
  

Significantly reduce “fast,” sugary, and ultra-processed foods

• Also know that having some chips at a gathering, an ice cream with your sweetie, or an occasional piece of fried chicken will not throw off your health if you are mostly following this guide.