Good fats, bad fats. Which is it? As my regular readers know, the myths surrounding healthy fats and oils drive me crazy. Be sure to check out any of the following posts about fats & oils that you may have missed.
***Scroll down past the video to look over the posts about cholesterol and cholesterol medications (statins)!
- Fat Head Movie Review - great YouTube clips here that explain how obesity begins and how the saturated fat myth took hold.
- Fats & low fat diets with Jimmy Moore & Andrew Weil
- Somebody pinch me: a doctor speaking to doctors: Enjoy saturated fats, they’re good for you!
- Organic grass-fed ghee and why grass-fed is so important
- A great post from Sarah: 5 Fats You Must Have in Your Kitchen
- The Oiling of America – Sally Fallon talks about how the Saturated Fat myth took hold
- Reasons why many still believe the saturated fat myth
- Margarine, then and now…
- The History of Heart Disease by Nina Planck
- Responses to “How difficult was it to give up the low-fat mentality?” Including responses from Nina Planck, Sally Fallon & more!
- Frying with tallow, a healthy, traditional fat
- The importance of the FAT-soluble vitamins
- How difficult was it for you to give up the “low-fat mentality”?
- Get Rid of the Bad Fats in Your Kitchen! - find out what to use for cooking, baking, etc. Why not use Canola? One more on Canola. What about Grapeseed oil?
- Does fat make you fat? Part 1: Saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease issues (and one little tid-bit about the role of fats related to sexuality)
- Does fat make you fat? Part 2: Specific principles related to fats & dieting
- Healthy Milk – Find out why you should NEVER buy anything but WHOLE milk!
- Organic Coconut Health Benefits – Dieting, Lice, Eczema & More – yes, coconut oil is a saturated fat…keep reading the posts listed here so you can learn that things are not all that “they” have made them seem…
- Smoking point for fats & oils
- Trans fat dangers – read what to look for on food labels!
- Eating healthy, without sacrifices! – you don’t have to feel deprived! This post also has a link at the bottom to one of the best articles I’ve seen about healthy fats and why they’re important.
- Are you a “Butterton”?
- Why Butter is Better & Tallow is Terrific
- 20 Health Benefits of Real Butter
- How to render fat for a healthy cooking oil-how to make tallow & lard
- What about saturated fats, oxidized cholesterol, and healthy milk? (Sally Fallon answers a reader question.)
- Great video from Ann Marie that asks, “Does Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease?”
- Is Lard Really Good For Us?
- Healthy Beef Tallow for Guilt-Free Frying
- Read about how I almost got into a “Butter Fight” with someone…
- A great video tutorial from Food Renegade on healthy fat!
- The video on healthy fats in this post (scroll down) is surprising but true!
- Can doctors pressure you to eat low-fat?
***INFO ON CHOLESTEROL and STATINS/CHOLESTEROL MEDS:
- Is cholesterol good for us?
- What should my cholesterol BE?
- Cholesterol drugs for kids – do kids need to lower their cholesterol?!
- Side effects from statins/cholesterol medications
- Are cholesterol medicines safe? What about LDL & HDL? You’ve got to read the info toward the bottom of this post about the movie Fathead!
- Another good one from Dr. Eades
- History of Heart Disease
- Statins after a heart attack? – read about my brother-in-law’s heart scare
- Read about Mike’s follow-up appointment at the heart doc.
- More pharmaceutical bull crap – read why the pharmacy contacted my sister
- A burger, fries and a side of Lipitor please!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I attended a conference in Vancouver, BC about 4 years ago and listened to Sally Fallon and Dr. Cowan. It was very different nutrition information to say the least. It’s taken me 3 years to practice , believe, and integrate it!
I’d been brainwashed with the “low fat dogma” of Ornish and McDougall for 30 years…and it didn’t work.
I’ve starved my brain/mental health for years and suffered. Now my body is craving what it needs: good fats. I’ve lost 21 pounds~ so far. And, I’m nourished!
Thank you for getting the word out. It’s not easy to go against the grain: bravo! for doing so!!!
Best,
Karen
karenferguson@compuserve.com
Hey Kelly–can you give a good percentage of fats/ proteins/ carbs that is the best for our bodies? I’d like to find some sort of balance. When I say carbs, too–I mean veggies and very little grains.
Thank you!
Katrina,
I don’t know a specific answer to that, but I don’t think it’s important to know, either. And even if there was an “ideal” %, it would be different for everyone. Similar to counting calories: it’s just not necessary. (In my opinion, anyway.)
I’d just say keep your carbs (even healthy, properly prepared, whole grain carbs) on the low end, like you mentioned (sorry, I know this is vague, you have to see what works for you), and get plenty of healthy, local (when possible) proteins and fats and produce…
We don’t need to make it tricky, it can be simple. Something interesting, though, I’ve heard some NT’ers say that we should flip the FDA food pyramid upside down, and eat according to that!
I think the trick is to listen to your body and how it responds to food. I used to think that going as raw as possible would do wonders for my health. Obviously while going raw I had increased my raw fruits and veggies. This increased my hunger so much that I was craving and thinking about food from waking in the morning till evening. I was still eating fats and meats, limiting my sprouted grain breads to 1x day and eating lots of raw produce. My main source of carbohydrates was from fruit.
Although fruit is known to be healthy with all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants it can also be high in sugars. I never thought that fruit can be harmful. But once I eliminated fruits (and my bread), I felt so much better. I dropped weight without trying and I felt like a broke the chain to my refrigerator.
I thought I needed carbs. I read Dr. Mercola’s newsletters and thought that I was a “carb type”. But it turned out that when I eliminated those fruit sugars and bread then I felt more like a “protien type”
You may just have to experiment with carb levels and see what is right for you.
Catherine
Catherine, I agree, everyone needs to tweak things for their own body.
Is it safe to use lighter olive oil for things like sauteeing onions or baking chicken or boiling rice? the extra virgin olive oil tastes very strong and very weird on the chicken and even the rice sometimes – it’s hard to explain the smell too. the extra light version has a higher smoke point but am I in danger of it oxidizing? sometimes a liquid oil is easier to use in certain things – that’s why I’m asking.
I do use it sometimes If I need an oil and if I don’t want that strong taste, but mostly I use the E.V. stuff, especially on salads, since it has so many more nutrients. Also, depending on the cooking temp, I use melted butter in a lot of stuff such as baked goods or baking chicken or rice.
Kelly
Have you tried the new Green Pastures coconut ghee yet? I only just got it, but it did a fine job with some stir-fry, and smells yummy. Think raw spring butter smell with light coconut undertones. I’ve been thinking of different places to try it.
The package also just looks bigger than the tubs of coconut oil I’ve purchased elsewhere.
Yes, I use it in popcorn and love the power-packed punch of nutrition from pastured ghee AND coconut oil.
You can find it on my resources page: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/resources
Kelly
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