The "Healthy Fat" Debate

Google "healthy fats" and you will get a wide range of opinions of what is healthy and what is not. But
you will certainly see a trend, even among the "natural foods" people, warning against the dangers of saturated fat. A very few nutritionists/health experts are willing to go out on a limb and give a complete and hearty thumbs-up to saturated fats like butter, lard, and tallow.

But setting aside opinions for the moment, let's look at the science... because science doesn't have an agenda.

Dr. Mary G. Enig has been a renowned expert in the field of lipid (fats & oils) research for over 30 years. Her book, Know Your Fats, is among many published works, which include numerous journal publications, dealing with the effects of fats and oils on health and nutrition. And she's not connected to any special interest groups whose purpose is to promote one type of fat over another. I believe we are safe to accept Dr. Enig's definition of a healthy fat:

"Healthy fats and oils are the ones that don't oxidize readily, or that are usually consumed before they can oxidize."(1)

Simple and to the point. She goes on to say that oxidized oils are no good because they "are either (1) not available for use as energy or for structural purposes because they are either in a polymerized unusable form; or (2) they contain toxic components." In other words, when fats and oils are damaged, the worst case is they are toxic; the best case is they are useless. In either case, the body has to struggle to get rid of them.

The job of nutritionists and health experts is to translate the available scientific information into advice on what foods we should be eating. That's why they go to college to become food "experts." So then if the benchmark of a healthy oil is that it doesn't oxidize readily, presumably those are the fats and oils the experts should be telling us to eat. Right? More on that later.

There are essentially four kinds of fats. They are

• saturated fat
• monounsaturated fat
• polyunsaturated fat
• trans fat

These fats are defined primarily by their molecular structure. It's all very scientific. Fats are made up of three fatty acid molecules attached to one glycerol molecule. This collection of molecules is called a triglyceride and the triglyceride is the form in which fat molecules travel around in our body to be deposited in the cells where they're needed.

The first thing to get straight is it doesn't matter whether these fatty acids come from plants or animals, the molecules are the same. (Translation: Just because a fat comes from an animal doesn't make it bad.)

The next thing to understand is that fatty acids are formed from carbon(C), hydrogen(H) and oxygen(O) molecules. Stay with me -- I promise not to get TOO technical. The fatty acids are defined by the length of the carbon chain and the number of carbon bonds in the carbon chain. The atoms that form the carbon molecule portion of the fatty acid connect to each other by means of a carbon bond. The carbon bond is the sharing of one, two, or three electrons. A carbon bond that shares only one electron is called "saturated." A double or triple carbon bond is "unsaturated." And finally, triglycerides may contain both saturated fatty acids and unsaturated fatty acids. The number of carbon bonds in a fatty acid determine how stable the molecule will be. When there are extra carbon bonds, the molecule is susceptible to damage because the extra ones make it unstable. Dr. Enig explains it this way...

"...since the unsaturated bonds are up for grabs, another element could come and 'steal' one of those electrons and form a new bond. this makes unsaturated bonds relatively reactive and chemically unstable. If a fatty acid molecule has several unsaturated bonds it is called polyunsaturated and is generally very reactive chemically."(2)

These are the chemical reactions that break down the fatty acids making them useless or toxic. (I promise...this is the end of the science lesson.) Since saturated fats have only one carbon bond, that would make them the most stable of all the fatty acids and the least susceptible to oxidation.

So what are healthy fats, again?

"Healthy fats and oils are the ones that don't oxidize readily, or that are usually consumed before they can oxidize."

Remember that old logic axiom? "If A equals B, and B equals C, then A must equal C." If saturated fats are the most stable, and stable fats are the healthiest, then saturated fats must be the healthiest.

But what about the fact that saturated fats contribute to heart disease? As it turns out, there is no such fact. Believe it or not, there is no evidence to support this very popular, but wrong, idea. The studies done years ago implicating saturated fat were skewed by a number of things, including the practice of combining trans fat, which does contribute to heart disease, in with saturated fat in their data. No studies using only saturated fat have ever been able to show a cause-connection to heart disease. The most famous study that started the whole fat-is-bad-for-you theory was done by Ancel Keys in 1953 (out of the U of M)-- known as the Seven Countries Study, wherein he took data from seven out of twenty-two countries, created a graph that supported his hypothesis and proceeded to convince the government that animal fat (which is all mostly saturated) causes heart disease. We can refer to another well known saying - "garbage in, garbage out." If the data is bad, the results will be bad. Mr. Keys chose to disregard any data that didn't fit his hypothesis and somehow, all challenges to his faulty results were summarily ignored. He must have been a heck of a salesman!

The really stunning part is that the health professionals swallowed his garbage hook, line and sinker. And for the past sixty years we have been suffering from it in the form of rising chronic illness.

Saturated fat not only does not hurt you, but in fact your body requires quite a lot of it.

• Human milk from a well nourished mom contains about 54% fat, nearly 26% of which is saturated (that's about half), and roughly 21% is monounsaturated-- leaving only 6.5% or so as polyunsaturated. Babies and children need a high fat diet to support their rapid growth and brain development. 
• Fat plays a very important role in maintaining the structure of all the cells in our bodies. 
• Fatty acids also regulate our hormones.
• The fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) are transported through the body and absorbed by way of fatty acids.
• Saturated fats aid the immune system and many have antimicrobial properties.
• Fats are more satiating than carbohydrates because they are more slowly digested. You're not as likely to overeat on a diet high in fat (and low in carbs).

The body will make its own saturated fat by breaking down (digesting) the fatty acids we consume in our diet. If all we eat is low fat food consisting mainly of polyunsaturated and trans fats, we are depriving it of the building blocks it needs to nourish the cells!

Why aren't we being told these important facts about the role of fat in our diet? Good question. I wish I knew. You would think by now, the brainiacs in the CDC and the FDA and the universities that keep pumping out new batches of nutritionists would get a clue that there must be something wrong with their assumptions.

Perhaps it has something to do with the food industry. Most of the vegetable oils we eat are made up primarily of polyunsaturated or hydrogenated fats-- shortening, margarine, corn oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, and canola oil. These are the most unstable of all the fats and the most susceptible to damage. Anything that says "partially hydrogenated" on the package contains trans fats, which are known to be toxic.  Food industry lobbies have a powerful influence on the government, and the government (along with industry) funds the research. There is very little in the way of independent research in our day and age.

Humans have consumed mostly saturated fats like tallow (beef lard), pork lard, butter, coconut and palm oils, along with that very healthy monounsaturated olive oil, for thousands of years with little or no heart disease--until old age, at least. Only since the advent of commercially produced oils that are mostly polyunsaturated has cancer and heart disease skyrocketed. It doesn't make any sense to attribute these chronic illnesses to the consumption of saturated fats.

We have been indoctrinated into believing a lie about our diet. Low fat diets are not healthy. Saturated fats are not "bad fats." And polyunsaturated fats are not "good fats." The healthiest diet will be higher in the stable saturated and monounsaturated fats, low in polyunsaturated fats, and will contain little or no trans fats.

Next time you hear or read something about "healthy fats," remember this and use it as your guideline:  "Healthy fats and oils are the ones that don't oxidize readily, or that are usually consumed before they can oxidize."


For more information on truly healthy fats, see the Weston A. Price website.
More about saturated fats by Dr. Mercola.
Fats: The misunderstood food group.

(1)  Enig, Mary G., Know Your Fats, p. 104
(2)  Enig, Mary G., Know Your Fats, pp. 9-10