Fats: Friend Or Foe?

Here at the-Coaching Blog-run by Gerard O’Donovan, our aim is to constantly bring value to those seeking to improve their lives. Therefore we have a policy of publishing articles and materials by guest authors whom we value and appreciate. Today’s guest author is Marc Manklow (UAE).

If like me, you are interested in getting the best from your ‘bio computer’, think about the quote from Buddha: ‘To keep the body healthy is a duty… otherwise, we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear’. But what of the mind today? Isn’t it true that Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are at epidemic levels?

What’s causing this?

My research of the past 30 years as a Clinical Nutritionist has led to some startling conclusions around the thorny subject of fat: that decades of government health advice, particularly in regard to heart disease, cholesterol levels and the consumption of fats and oils, have been plain wrong.

Over a 100 years ago a German scientist discovered what we now know as margarine, but what he didn’t realize was that an American company called Procter and Gamble and a scientist Edwin Kayser were going to take this discovery and use it to replace the animal fat for their soap and candle business!

With the discovery of electricity and the advent of the light bulb, the candle market started to go into a downhill slide, so P&G decided to try and market this artificial fat as it looked like lard. This product became known as Crisco margarine and was dyed pink to stop any confusion between it and butter.

P&G then undertook a massive marketing campaign to promote their margarine by giving away cookbooks that demanded the new artificial fat be used in recipes. They sponsored radio shows that targeted female audiences and this coined the phrase ‘Soap opera’!

So are there health benefits with Margarine? Let’s see how it’s made first.

Margarine is made by hydrogenation where plant seeds are cleaned and bleached to remove all color, taste, and smell. The oil is removed from the seeds, then heated to high temperature, a metal such as nickel, is added to the oil to act as a catalyst and then hydrogen gas is added. The mixture is then filtered to remove all the metal and rancid odor and this produces a solid artificial fat called a trans-fat, and without colorings, margarine isn’t yellow at all, but actually an appetite-crushing shade of sludgy grey!

From a health perspective, these trans-fats do not circulate in the blood or move through your tissues as liquids; instead, they disrupt the permeability of the cells and this disrupts the transport of nutrients in and out of your cells. Over time the repeated use of these types of fats will cause a deficiency of essential fatty acids, contributing to heart disease, cancer, bone problems, hormonal imbalance, skin disease infertility, difficulties in pregnancy and problems with lactation, low birth weight, growth problems and learning disabilities in children.

The good news is these heart-clogging trans-fats have been slowly disappearing from our grocery aisles and fast food menus in the last decade. Now, in America, the Food and Drug Administration is to ban them. The FDA has passed a law that requires the food industry to phase out all trans- fats, saying they are a threat to people’s health.

Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the move could prevent 20,000 heart attacks a year and 7,000 deaths in the USA alone, and that’s very conservative I believe.

As to prove a point in Australia, Government Nutritionists and the food processing industry teamed up to prove margarine really was better for you, as they have been claiming for decades. They took a group of middle-aged Australian men who had either experienced a heart attack or suffered from angina, half were advised to cut their animal fat intake and replace it with safflower oil and safflower oil margarine, while the other half continued to eat as normal: — you would expect the men who switched to safflower oil to live longer and have better health outcomes. Right?

The exact opposite turned out to be true. Those who ate the safflower-derived products were almost twice as likely to die from all causes, including heart disease!

Finally, it has such a long shelf life that if you placed a piece of pure margarine on a plate and left it outside your window for a few weeks you would notice that no insect would eat it or mold grow on it, yet we consider ourselves the species with the highest IQ! Hmmm?

The Truth About Butter?

Raw Organic Grass-fed Butter has been a dietary staple of many cultures for thousands of years, with no evidence of adverse health effects. From the dawn of time, people around the world, prized butter for its wonderful health benefits, not to mention culinary appeal. So is it good for you?

Butter is a rich source of easily absorbed vitamin A, and in the summer months, it is also a rich source of carotenoids, one of which is beta-carotene, a powerful anti-oxidant. This gives butter its wonderful yellow color and is all that is needed for a wide range of functions, from maintaining good vision to keeping your hormonal system and lung function in top shape.

Butter also contains all the other natural food state fat-soluble vitamins (D, E, and K2), unlike the synthetic vitamins found in margarine.

Grass-fed Organic Butter is rich in important trace minerals, including manganese, chromium, zinc, copper, and selenium (also a powerful antioxidant). Butter provides more selenium per gram than wheat germ or herring. Butter is also an excellent source of iodine.

Butter provides appreciable amounts of short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which support immune function, boost metabolism and have anti-microbial properties; that is, they fight against bad microorganisms in your GI tract.

Grass-fed Butter also provides the perfect balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats. Arachidonic acid in butter is important for brain function, skin health, and prostaglandin balance.

When butter comes from cows eating green grass, it contains high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid that gives excellent protection against cancer and also helps you build muscle and burns fat!

These are a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in the very young and the elderly.

Despite all of the propaganda you have heard, cholesterol is needed to maintain intestinal health and for brain and nervous system development in the young and you need more as you age!

A hormone-like substance that prevents arthritis and joint stiffness, ensuring that calcium in your body is put into your bones rather than your joints and other tissues is present only in raw organic grass-fed butter and cream; it is destroyed by pasteurization! This is a fat-soluble vitamin similar in structure to Vitamin A called Activator X and it helps you absorb and use minerals and is a missing factor in the western diet.

It’s amazing isn’t it how most of us have been duped by the government, medical bodies and the media into believing this was bad for us?

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA’s)

Remember the men who consumed safflower oil in the Australian study and their poor outcome? PUFA’s are good right? The truth is Omega 6 is found in all PUFA’s such as sunflower oil, corn oil, etc and these create inflammatory proteins in the body called prostaglandins. Admittedly these are essential to human health, but the real problem lies in the amount we are consuming in relation to Omega 3. The ratio between Omega 6 and Omega 3 in today’s Western diet can be as high as 200:1 causing massive inflammatory problems which lead to heart disease, joint pain, obesity, etc. Researchers discovered that COX-2 enzymes become more active and cause more joint and muscle inflammation when your consumption of Omega 6 far outweighs your intake of Omega 3.

All this excessive intake comes predominantly from animals fed a grain-based diet, which is often contaminated with GMO corn and soya. This meat and dairy yield all sorts of health-related problems. This feed is designed to fatten up the animal as fast and as cheaply as possible to achieve maximum profit often with complete lack of empathy or care for the animal’s well-being and yours too!

Since sheep and cows are ruminants it makes sense to purchase only grass-fed lamb and beef as their proportion of omegas compared to grain fed animals is far more synergistic to human health. Also, crisps grained-based snacks and ready meals are just some of the processed foods that these vegetable oils appear in!

In summary, start being a food detective and read the labels. I would also recommend you supplement with Krill oil or a high quality purified fish oil that’s had the heavy metals removed. These are good sources of Omega 3 which are anti-inflammatory fats to help work towards keeping your ratio at a healthy 3:1.

And finally, here is my list of healthy fats:

• Avocado (very high in fat, so I’m including it here)
• Avocado oil
• Almond oil
• Beef tallow, preferably from grass-fed cattle
• Butter: try to find raw organic sources
• Chicken fat, organic
• Duck fat, organic
• Ghee (butter with milk solids removed)
• Lard such as organic lard (make sure it is NOT hydrogenated)
• Macadamia Nuts
• Macadamia oil
• Olives
• Olive oil, organic
• Organic coconut oil, coconut butter, and coconut cream concentrate
• Organic Red Palm oil
• Organic Peanut Butter: make sure to use unsweetened products, and limit due to Omega 6 content.
• Seed oils: Sesame oil, Hemp oil, Chia seed, Flaxseed but don’t heat them or expose them to light or air for long.
• 85-90% dark chocolate can be used in small amounts or raw chocolate nibs.

Enjoy!

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