Eat Important Fats! « Health Now, Wealth Forever

Spread the love

By Marilyn, on August 10th, 2011

Last time I wrote, I ranted about the very misleading information given by the USDA dietary guidelines about fats.

In The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle by Doctors Michael and Mary Eades, they encourage us to make important fats a regular part of a healthy diet. Why?  Doesn’t the USDA say no fats?  The USDA is wrong — here’s why:

Improved liver health

Shown in medical research, if you add saturated fats to your diet it encourages the liver cells to dump their content.  Also, saturated fat has been shown to protect the liver from toxins, alcohol, and medications.  Our liver is the “lynchpin” of a healthy metabolism.  Polyunsaturated vegetable oils, recommended by the USDA, do not offer this protection.

Improved cardiovascular risk factors

When saturated fats are added to the diet, they reduce the levels of lipoprotein (a), abbreviated Lp(a)—that correlates strongly with the risk of heart disease.  There are currently no medications to lower this substance and according to the book “THE ONLY DIETARY MEANS OF LOWERING Lp(a) IS EATING SATURATED FAT.”  Eating saturated fats also raises the level of the good cholesterol, HDL. According to research, women who added the highest percentage of saturated fat to their diet lost the most weight.

Strong bones

Did you know that saturated fat is needed for calcium to be effectively incorporated into the bones?  Mary Enig, Ph.D. has made the case that as much as 50% of the fats in your diet should be saturated fats for the benefit of your bones.

Proper nerve signaling.

Saturated fats like butter, coconut oil, lard and palm oil function as signaling messengers that influence metabolism like the proper release of insulin.  Not just any old fat will do the signaling—it is only these fats that send the correct signals to the organs and glands what to do.

Healthy lungs

Lung surfactant is 100% saturated fatty acids.  Lung surfactant is a thin layer that coats the air spaces of the lungs.  Replacement of these critical fats by other types of fats makes a faulty surfactant potentially causing breathing difficulties.  The fear of including saturated fats in your diet leads many people to replace them with polyunsaturated vegetable oils which may be unhealthy for your lungs.

Healthy brain

Your brain is made up mainly of fat and cholesterol.  We know and have been told that we need highly unsaturated essential fatty acids found in cold water fish (EPA and DHA) to have healthy brain and nerve function.  BUT we also need healthy saturated fats to function optimally.

Strong immune system

Coconut oil and butter play a key role in our immune health.  Our white blood cells need the myristic acid and lauric acid found in saturated fats to help them recognize and destroy foreign viruses, bacteria and fungi.  Including these fats in our diet help our immune system to function.

The Drs. Eades back up these statements in the book mentioned above.  There is an extensive bibliography at the end of The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle.  As I’ve said before, I have not found any references on the USDA’s nutrition pages nor do I have a name to find out what research has been done to prove what they want us to follow.  I have read several papers that have detailed how they came to the conclusion that saturated fats were unhealthy, but these studies are sponsored by members of the food industry that benefit from the exclusion of saturated fat from your diet (canola, corn, and soy oil producers, among others).