Before we go any further in this Real Food Journey together, I must let you know that I believe {minimally processed, unrefined} fat and oils are good for you and that we cannot be properly nourished without them. ~gasp~ I also believe that low-fat processed diet foods are terrible and should be avoided. And I further believe that fat doesn’t cause heart disease, trans-fat does. It was not difficult for me to get on board with these two ideas since they align with my filter.
Since many people wiser than I have written extensively on the subject I will simply quote others and provide links to books and articles on this subject.
In her book Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon has an exhaustive chapter on fats, which I highly recommend. She writes -
Fats from animal and vegetable sources provide a concentrated source of energy in the diet; they also provide the building blocks for cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone-like substances. Fats as a part of a meal slow down nutrient absorption so that we can go longer without feeling hungry. In addition they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Dietery fats are needed for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A, for mineral absorption and for a host of other processes.
Further down she says -
…let us consider the French. Anyone who has eaten his way across France has observed that the French diet is loaded with saturated fat in the form of butter, eggs, cheese, cream, liver, meats and rich pates. Yet the French have a lower rate of coronary heart disease than many other western countries.
In his book Take Control of Your Health, Dr. Joseph Mercola says -
Besides grains and sugars, there is no category of food that the public has received more dangerous half truths about than edible oils.
To understand just how dangerous this misinformation is, you need to know that before the 1920′s heart attacks did no exist; but by 1950, heart disease was the cause of 30 percent of all deaths in the U.S. What happened?
Prior to 1910, Americans ate traditional natural foods such as meat, eggs, butter, and cheese. But in 1910, hydrogenated vegetable oils such as Crisco and margarine, were introduced into the U.S. These were designed to replace lard….The problem with hydrogenating oils is that they process turns the fat into trans fat. The word “trans” refers to the artificial chemical configuration of the fat after it is hydrogenated.
Trans fats are linked to heart disease and cancer, because your body does not know how to process these artificial chemicals.
As I said, I’m no expert, so I’ll point you to people who are. Here is an exhaustive article on fats worth reading by Real Food Digest.
In this article from Nourished kitchen Jenny writes about fats for cooking.
This post by Food Renegade features a link to a video and a podcast and deconstructs the cholesterol myth.
Here is an article by Cheeseslave showing how much money companies are making selling us heart disease causing hydrogenated fats.
And because I think my kids are cute and because no post is complete without a photo, here is a photo of my kids.
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