Saturated fats have been vilified in modern nutrition lore yet ever since the beginning of our evolution, humans have subsisted primarily on dietary fats. This was when fat was simply considered to be food and the richest source of energy found in food, by far. There was no reference to dietary fat or even the types of fat one was eating.

Basic nutrition understanding teaches that:

·       Every gram of carbs yields 4 calories (energy)

·       Every gram of protein yields 4 calories

·       Every gram of fat yields 9 calories

Simply from the perspective of pure nourishment and survival, you’re going to get a much bigger return for your calorie seeking efforts by eating foods high in fat. Ancient humans understood this, and based their diets on this as much as possible.

When looking at anthropological records it is clear that early humans were actually more robust, fit, and largely unafflicted by the degenerative diseases common today.

You may, mistakenly think modern humans live longer. Technically, we do but this is dependent on your definition of living. Depending on which time period you’re talking about, humans of the past had to deal with things ranging from dangerous climates, to invasions, to predation, to trauma, to lack of clean water, and many other imminent threats. Many of these things are no longer a part of modern life, or there are sound advancements that support successfully surviving them.

But the food…

You would probably agree that wild buffalo meat is healthier than boxed macaroni and cheese. That might be too logical of a conclusion though.

You may believe that humans are living longer, but in reality, many are, sadly, dying longer. Though medical advancements, pharmaceutical drugs, and cozy living conditions can keep someone alive, many people have a quality of life that deteriorates significantly into old age.

You might be wondering how this has anything to do with anti-dietary fat paradigm. To get straight to the point, this concept that fat is dangerous for your health was created up by something called the “lipid hypothesis” and spread widely only a few decades ago by a diet researcher named Ancel Keys.

Keys was paramount in influencing government dietary standards, and promoting the idea that suddenly, in modern times, fats are bad for you. Gradually, eating low-fat foods became the medically prescribed and trending way to eat, and human health declined in epic proportions as a result.

Since dietary fat has been demonized in the human diet, there have been alarming increases in obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and countless other chronic and preventable diseases. This makes little logical sense if it was fat that was contributing to all the ill health seen previously.

What Keys and many proponents of his recommendations failed to do was differentiate between naturally occurring saturated fat and man-made, industrially processed trans fat.

Could the recommendations to eliminate or reduce saturated fat in the diet be mistaken? How could such smart people still make the mistake of following outdated science that has very weak corroboration. The reality is, if you take smart people and teach them the wrong thing, they become very good at doing the wrong thing.

Oils made from crops and seeds are highly processed and industrialized. Many of these fats have been hydrogenated to create a heat and shelf table product. Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. When eaten hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils do the following

·       Lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol and raise LDL (“not-so-good”) cholesterol

·       Increase free radical activity and cause DNA damage

·       Cause inflammation and potential autoimmune responses

·       Generate faulty lung surfactant leading to allergies and asthma symptoms

·       Depress liver function leading to poor insulin breakdown and potential insulin resistance.

Additionally, the ground-breaking Nurse’s Health Study of 80,000 women found that a 2% increase in trans-fat consumption increased a woman’s risk of heart disease by 93%.

This means that if you are consuming margarine and other trans fats, you are not supporting your health. You may believe that trans fats have been banned from restaurants and manufactured foods over the last decade. This is not 100% correct. Food labelling is also misleading as small amounts are permitted in foods (0.5 grams or less per serving). These fats should be avoided at all costs. Read your ingredient lists and ensure the words hydrogenated or modified do not appear in any way!

If your food comes in a package, it most likely contains trans fats. The bread, crackers, cereal, macaroni & cheese, frozen pizza, donuts, cookies, and hundreds of other processed food products on grocery store shelves (including many low-fat, whole grain, heart healthy products) contain these dangerous trans fats. Be sure to keep an eye out for them.

You might be wondering about the naturally occurring saturated fats mentioned previously.

In fact, these fats are incredibly healthy and supportive of optimal functioning in the body.

The Critical Benefits Of Saturated Fats:

Brain Health

The majority of your brain is made up of fat and cholesterol. This might sound odd, but it’s true. Furthermore, the vast majority of that fat is saturated fat. If you are trusting in a low saturated fat diet, you are missing out on an essential raw material your brain needs to grow, regenerate, and stay healthy. Telling someone they have a big fat brain is, in reality, a great compliment.

Cardiovascular Health

Saturated fats provide so many wonderful benefits for your heart and circulatory system. For example, lauric and stearic acids found in saturated fats can actually help regulate cholesterol levels. In addition, dietary saturated fats can reduce levels of lipoprotein(a), a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Bone Health

Saturated fat is necessary for calcium to be effectively incorporated into bone. Without fat, your bones become less-dense and brittle. When bone density is poor, the risk of degeneration and injury is greatly increased, especially into middle and old age.

Immune Health

Without sufficient saturated fats in white blood cells, their ability to recognize and destroy foreign invaders like viruses, bacteria, and fungi is impaired.

Nervous System Health

Think of saturated fat as the “insulation” coating for your nervous system (which can be thought of as your internal wiring). When you lack this insulation you become more susceptible to external and internal stress. Certain saturated fats, like stearic acid, even function as signaling messengers themselves. A low saturated fat diet can cause poor communication between the cells of your body and result in several catastrophic problems.

Coconut oil, grass-fed butter, ghee, naturally raised animal fats, avocados, olives, nuts and seeds, and numerous other natural foods that contain saturated fats are all foods to incorporate in your eating plan. It is true that, the amount of saturated fats that are right for you may vary and is very dependent on your individual goals, needs and metabolism. Certain people require as much as 50% of the fats in their diet to be saturated fats whilst for others 20% can be incredibly healthy.

Regardless of where you lie in the spectrum, there is no need to lose your faith in the natural foods that your ancestors thrived on. The hope is to, indeed, live longer, better, enjoying a lifetime of health and vitality along with it. Including these fats in your diet is one of the pillars to doing just that!