Summary

Your Body Needs Fats

Some fats are essential for optimum life function, while others are detrimental to your health. Many factors determine whether the fats you eat will help you or harm you, with chemistry differentiating good fats from bad fats.

If you’ve ever dieted, you know all too well how efficiently the body can make fat from food, even from proteins and sugars. However, it cannot make omega-6 (linoleic acid or w6) or omega-3 fats (alpha-linolenic acid or w3), which must be obtained from food. These “essential” fats provide the basic materials that make up the fatty structures in your brain, eyes, ears, sexual organs, and membranes that surround all the cells in your body. When you don’t get enough of these essential fats, related functions decline.[1-4]

Good Fats, Bad Fats

Fatty acids go by many names. The more science discovers about fats, the more complex it becomes to classify them as “good” or as “bad.”

A simple rule of thumb: avoid saturated fats. Your body uses them for limited purposes, but can make them in sufficient quantities. Anything extra that isn’t burned for fuel immediately is likely to be deposited as plaque along arterial walls and as body fat. Some studies suggest that toxins in saturated fats contribute to cellulite[5].Beef, lamb, egg yolks and dairy products contain an abundance of these “bad” fats. Avoid palm, palm kernel, and coconut oil – all loaded with saturated fats. Limit intake of these foods.

Healthy sources of fats include: organic flax oil, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed oil, walnuts and walnut oil, almonds and almond oil, virgin olive oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, sesame oil, and rice bran oil. Buy fresh, unprocessed oil, and keep it refrigerated. Choose fresh, raw, unsalted seeds and nuts. Borage oil, blackcurrant seed oil, evening primrose oil and cold-water fish oils (such as salmon, mackerel, sardines, and trout) also provide healthful benefits.

Use minimal amounts of added oils in cooking, opting for canola oil, which withstands moderate (not high) heat better than other oils. Buy fresh, unroasted nuts and seeds, and all natural or organic nut butters (no added ingredients and low or no salt). Keep all nuts, seeds and butters refrigerated, or freeze nuts and seeds to keep the oils from going rancid. For additional health precautions, opt for “certified organic” products to prevent contamination from pesticides and fungicides.

How Good Fats Turn Bad

Processing, heat, and light can alter the chemical composition of fatty acids. Some processing methods yield particularly bad fats called trans-fats. US food labels don’t yet require identification of trans-fats. Common foods to avoid include baked and fried foods. Margarines and certain oils contain some trans-fats. Terms to watch for on labels include hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, processed, bleached, or any other hint of chemical alteration. As previously mentioned, keep EFA food sources refrigerated.

Good Fat Facts

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) provide many vital health benefits. EFAs promote the flow of nutrients into cells and allow waste products to escape from the cells. This efficient transport system reduces cellular inflammation to enhance joint health and promote cardiovascular health[6-12] As oxygen goes from the lungs into red blood cells, EFAs support oxygen delivery to the muscles to optimize physical performance and boost energy levels.[13]

Essential fats reduce bodyfat by increasing metabolism to promote fat-burning, enhancing insulin metabolism to prevent insulin resistance, and controlling production of hormone-like compounds that regulate production of body fat (and other biological functions).[14-16]

As with anything good, essential fats should be consumed in moderation. Use the tools in our book Turn Up the Heat to identify your metabolic type and to find out what percentage of your daily caloric intake should be consumed as fats. Then, focus on EFAs as your primary fat source for optimum health and longevity.

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