Confused About Fats?

The following nutrient-rich traditional fats have nourished healthy population groups for thousands of years:

Butter
Beef and lamb tallow
Lard
Chicken, goose and duck fat
Coconut, palm and sesame oils
Cold pressed olive oil
Cold pressed flax oil
Marine oils

The following new-fangled fats can cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, sterility, learning disabilities, growth problems and osteoporosis:

All hydrogenated oils
Soy, corn and safflower oils
Cottonseed oil
Canola oil
All fats heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying

info from www.westonaprice.org

Insightful post Gary. Thanks! =D>

The good old butter, lard, and tallow! Butter is still the best option when it comes to holiday baking. My mom still use lard when making pastry.

We now are avoiding these good old fats because of their cholesterol content. Unless we can all go back to the agricultural-based society and start doing more exercise (ie farming ), we should avoid some of these good-old foods in our modern lifestyle :wink:

Agreed about the "exercise" part. but good old lard just taste so good, especially in baked goods! /

Hi Gary,

Could you give me more information on the 2nd half of your post? I've heard of some negative aspects of hydrogenated oils, but I don't remember it being THIS bad :?

I thought soybean and many other seeds have been a stable food supply in many cultural too.

Cake

It is a huge lie the edible oil industry told the public. These oils are very bad. They contain trans fats as well as free radicals. I spoke to Edo about it and he agrees totally. The makers of these oils have given them shelf life. Shelf life means they have been altered so they won't go rancid for a long period of time. Coconut Oil on the other hand is very stable since it is made up of medium chain fatty acids and can stay in room temperature for over a year without going rancid.

As far as cholesterol is concerned Dr. Walter Willett from Havard says eggs are one of nature's near perfect foods, why do all the other animals steal eggs. Cholesterol numbers are about selling drugs especially the statins. Eat lots of anti-oxidants to minimized the oxidation of the cholesterol. Cholesterol has many very important functions through out our bodies.

The processed food industry is behind many of the lies about good and bad fats and the Pharmacuetical companys take full advantage of it. Eat foods that spoil quickly and not handled by man for processing.

Hi Gary,

I agree with part of your posts, but disagree with other part of your posts.

I agree that all oils in their natural form is better than their processed/hydrogenated counterparts. Mother nature rules!!!

I disagree that we don't have to put a restriction on how much of a food/nutrient we consume. Cholesterol is critical to many of our biological functions, but "too much of anything" is simply not right. Egg is an excellent source of nutrient and our great-grandparent probably treated eggs as a luxury in their diet. But again, in the modern society where we are not getting enough exercise and spoiled with an adequate supply of high-quality foods, we just have to be careful with our food choice.

Cake

Hi Gary,

Wanted to thank you for all the info you are providing to our users

Let me try and address a few of the issues in your post.


Who is lying and what are they lying about? And how are they lieing? Do you have any info or instances to back this up?


Agreed. Cholesterol does play important roles in our bodies. But I am not sure where you are going with this. As for cholesterol numbers being used for selling drugs, that, in my opinion, may be so. Or maye not. From what I know, high blood cholesterol has been linked with atherosclerosis and heart disease and so these numbers are what doctors use to determine if a patient should or should not take prescriptions to control their cholestrol levels.


Again, is there a particular instance that you can reference that would lead you to think that the food indsutry lies about good and bad fats?

I like your thought provoking posts but I know I also speak for other members when I say that I also like to educate myself with as much information and facts as I can.

I agree =D>

sometimes i feel that i've heard too many people saying that the food industry is lying or the pharmaceutical industry is lying. it is almost as if only the big international giants are guaranteed to lie and the small companies can't. well the bottom line is everyone wish to sell more of their own products and make their products sound the best and somehow the best way to prove that is to show reliable, published and educated proof.

one of the funniest thing i sometimes hear is that people accuse medical doctors and university professors of being influenced by big corporations. somehow they probably have never gone thru such intense education and that they don't really know how these MDs/Profs receive their PhD and how much regulations/code of ethics they have to abide by. I often hear people accusing scientists of bending the truth because the study is funded by big corporations - these people probably also don't know all the strict regulations or they probably don't understand statistics either. They also forget (or they fail to realize) that these MDs/Profs are highly trained professionals - and they are very likely more educated than anyone else, including the accusors.

anyway, it is always good to be skeptical towards marketing gimmicks and i enjoy reading everyone's posts!!!

happy holidays!

I'm going to have to disagree with part of this. While lots of oils really aren't good for you, like regular Canola oil, and hydrogenated oils, etc..., it is more of the WAY they are processed that makes them bad for you. There are ways to process these oils, using organic measures, and not cooking out all of the nutrients, that make these oils safe. The main method of safe processing that I'm referring to is Cold Press. Organic, ColdPressed Canola oil is MUCH better for you than the typical store bought kind. While I agree that these oils listed above, in general, are bad for people, they aren't all the time. Most oils available to the public are processed in way that doesn't protect or preserve the oils. That is why these oils are commonly called unsafe.

The processing method makes all the difference. Go organic, and go coldpressed! It's a little more expensive, but a lot more healthy.