I have linked some interesting articles below.
if you are at all interested in health/nutrition, I recommend reading these articles in entirety, though parts are very science-y and boring.
basically...Americans are killing themselves. not with fat but with FAKE fat.
some nuggets to chew on:
from here
The following nutrient-rich traditional fats have nourished healthy population groups for thousands of years:
For Cooking
Butter
Tallow and suet from beef and lamb
Lard from pigs
Chicken, goose and duck fat
Coconut, palm and palm kernel oils
For Salads
Extra virgin olive oil (also OK for cooking)
Expeller-expressed sesame and peanut oils
Expeller-expressed flax oil (in small amounts)
For Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Fish liver oils such as cod liver oil (preferable to fish oils, which do not provide fat-soluble vitamins, can cause an overdose of unsaturated fatty acids and usually come from farmed fish.)
The following newfangled fats can cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, sterility, learning disabilities, growth problems and osteoporosis:
All hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils
Industrially processed liquid oils such as soy, corn, safflower, cottonseed and canola
Fats and oils (especially vegetable oils) heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying.
Saturated fats, such as butter, meat fats, coconut oil and palm oil, tend to be solid at room temperature. According to conventional nutritional dogma, these traditional fats are to blame for most of our modern diseases--heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, malfunction of cell membranes and even nervous disorders like multiple sclerosis. However, many scientific studies indicate that it is processed liquid vegetable oil--which is laden with free radicals formed during processing--and artificially hardened vegetable oil--called trans fat--that are the culprits in these modern conditions, not natural saturated fats.
Humans need saturated fats because we are warm blooded. Our bodies do not function at room temperature, but at a tropical temperature. Saturated fats provide the appropriate stiffness and structure to our cell membranes and tissues. When we consume a lot of liquid unsaturated oils, our cell membranes do not have structural integrity to function properly, they become too "floppy," and when we consume a lot of trans fat, which is not as soft as saturated fats at body temperature, our cell membranes become too "stiff."
and from here
Vegetable oils are more toxic when heated. One study reported that polyunsaturates turn to varnish in the intestines. A study by a plastic surgeon found that women who consumed mostly vegetable oils had far more wrinkles than those who used traditional animal fats.
The hydrogenation process was used on both cottonseed oil and lard to give "better physical properties"—to create shortenings that did not melt as easily on hot days. (Do we really want our food altered merely for convenience?)
Although trans fatty acids are technically unsaturated, they are configured in such a way that the benefits of unsaturation are lost.
The particular mix of fatty acids in soy oil results in shortenings containing about 40% trans fats, an increase of about 5% over cottonseed oil, and 15% over corn oil. Canola oil, processed from a hybrid form of rape seed, is particularly rich in fatty acids containing three double bonds and the shortening can contain as much as 50% trans fats.
Foods containing trans fat sell because the American public is afraid of the alternative—saturated fats found in tallow, lard, butter, palm and coconut oil, fats traditionally used for frying and baking. Yet the scientific literature delineates a number of vital roles for dietary saturated fats—they enhance the immune system, are necessary for healthy bones,provide energy and structural integrity to the cells, protect the liver and enhance the body's use of essential fatty acids. Stearic acid, found in beef tallow and butter, has cholesterol lowering properties and is a preferred food for the heart. As saturated fats are stable, they do not become rancid easily, do not call upon the body's reserves of antioxidants, do not initiate cancer, do not irritate the artery walls.
Disclaimer: Don't go out and eat a stick of butter. There are still appropriate percentages of fat which you should consume. This details what kind. And that you should be consuming fats.
I will stand on my little soapbox about wheat. Too many diets target FAT as the culprit of weight problems. Know this: while you may lose weight on a low-fat diet, you probably are losing important muscle mass as well. Those high-glycemic foods like white breads, rice, pasta, potatoes, corn, etc do much worse things for your body...they cause malabsorption in your intestinal tract , cause insulin spikes (and crashes), cause bloating and fatigue...and alot of other things. And don't confuse this with the idea of a low-carb diet. Carbs include grains AND fruit, vegetables, and legumes. We like the latter 3 carb sources. Grains have only been consumed for 500 generations – that is, only since the transition out of the Paleolithic into the Neolithic era approximately 10,000 years ago. They are MODERN (relatively).
Anyway, I'm not an expert. And while I agree, I still drink my Diet Coke everyday (only 7.5 oz) and occassionally we have to splurge on potatoes or pasta. While we do make sandwiches we use whole wheat (with no partially hydr. oil).
That's my soapbox. Try eating this way...it feels great!
if you are at all interested in health/nutrition, I recommend reading these articles in entirety, though parts are very science-y and boring.
basically...Americans are killing themselves. not with fat but with FAKE fat.
some nuggets to chew on:
from here
The following nutrient-rich traditional fats have nourished healthy population groups for thousands of years:
For Cooking
Butter
Tallow and suet from beef and lamb
Lard from pigs
Chicken, goose and duck fat
Coconut, palm and palm kernel oils
For Salads
Extra virgin olive oil (also OK for cooking)
Expeller-expressed sesame and peanut oils
Expeller-expressed flax oil (in small amounts)
For Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Fish liver oils such as cod liver oil (preferable to fish oils, which do not provide fat-soluble vitamins, can cause an overdose of unsaturated fatty acids and usually come from farmed fish.)
The following newfangled fats can cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, sterility, learning disabilities, growth problems and osteoporosis:
All hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils
Industrially processed liquid oils such as soy, corn, safflower, cottonseed and canola
Fats and oils (especially vegetable oils) heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying.
Saturated fats, such as butter, meat fats, coconut oil and palm oil, tend to be solid at room temperature. According to conventional nutritional dogma, these traditional fats are to blame for most of our modern diseases--heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, malfunction of cell membranes and even nervous disorders like multiple sclerosis. However, many scientific studies indicate that it is processed liquid vegetable oil--which is laden with free radicals formed during processing--and artificially hardened vegetable oil--called trans fat--that are the culprits in these modern conditions, not natural saturated fats.
Humans need saturated fats because we are warm blooded. Our bodies do not function at room temperature, but at a tropical temperature. Saturated fats provide the appropriate stiffness and structure to our cell membranes and tissues. When we consume a lot of liquid unsaturated oils, our cell membranes do not have structural integrity to function properly, they become too "floppy," and when we consume a lot of trans fat, which is not as soft as saturated fats at body temperature, our cell membranes become too "stiff."
and from here
Vegetable oils are more toxic when heated. One study reported that polyunsaturates turn to varnish in the intestines. A study by a plastic surgeon found that women who consumed mostly vegetable oils had far more wrinkles than those who used traditional animal fats.
The hydrogenation process was used on both cottonseed oil and lard to give "better physical properties"—to create shortenings that did not melt as easily on hot days. (Do we really want our food altered merely for convenience?)
Although trans fatty acids are technically unsaturated, they are configured in such a way that the benefits of unsaturation are lost.
The particular mix of fatty acids in soy oil results in shortenings containing about 40% trans fats, an increase of about 5% over cottonseed oil, and 15% over corn oil. Canola oil, processed from a hybrid form of rape seed, is particularly rich in fatty acids containing three double bonds and the shortening can contain as much as 50% trans fats.
Foods containing trans fat sell because the American public is afraid of the alternative—saturated fats found in tallow, lard, butter, palm and coconut oil, fats traditionally used for frying and baking. Yet the scientific literature delineates a number of vital roles for dietary saturated fats—they enhance the immune system, are necessary for healthy bones,provide energy and structural integrity to the cells, protect the liver and enhance the body's use of essential fatty acids. Stearic acid, found in beef tallow and butter, has cholesterol lowering properties and is a preferred food for the heart. As saturated fats are stable, they do not become rancid easily, do not call upon the body's reserves of antioxidants, do not initiate cancer, do not irritate the artery walls.
Disclaimer: Don't go out and eat a stick of butter. There are still appropriate percentages of fat which you should consume. This details what kind. And that you should be consuming fats.
I will stand on my little soapbox about wheat. Too many diets target FAT as the culprit of weight problems. Know this: while you may lose weight on a low-fat diet, you probably are losing important muscle mass as well. Those high-glycemic foods like white breads, rice, pasta, potatoes, corn, etc do much worse things for your body...they cause malabsorption in your intestinal tract , cause insulin spikes (and crashes), cause bloating and fatigue...and alot of other things. And don't confuse this with the idea of a low-carb diet. Carbs include grains AND fruit, vegetables, and legumes. We like the latter 3 carb sources. Grains have only been consumed for 500 generations – that is, only since the transition out of the Paleolithic into the Neolithic era approximately 10,000 years ago. They are MODERN (relatively).
Anyway, I'm not an expert. And while I agree, I still drink my Diet Coke everyday (only 7.5 oz) and occassionally we have to splurge on potatoes or pasta. While we do make sandwiches we use whole wheat (with no partially hydr. oil).
That's my soapbox. Try eating this way...it feels great!
