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To Your Health

Fat: The good, the bad and the ugly
Fat: The good, the bad and the ugly by Que Areste, N.D.- SGN Contributing Writer Fats, proteins and carbohydrates are the three nutrients we need to live. We are made of fats, proteins and carbohydrates and minerals. Vitamins and minerals are the keys that turn on our metabolic engines. What we eat is what we are. Until the late 20th century most of the fat and protein in our diet came from grass fed animals or fish. Now most of our protein comes from factory farmed animals and fish fed grains and other foods they weren't meant to eat. Most of the carbohydrates came from vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Now most of our carbohydrates are extremely processed, yes, even when we buy them from the co-op or health food store. The fats we ate had a healthy ratio of saturated and unsaturated fats. The unsaturated fats were omega 3 and 6 fats in equal amounts and omega 9 fats like the oleic acid in olive oil. In fact they are called essential fats because although we need them, we cannot make them in our bodies. We have to eat them... Grass fed animals and wild cold water fish are full of healthy fats. They have a lot of good omega 3 fats, like EPA and DHA. They have healthy saturated fats. Vegetable oils have omega 6 fatty acids. We need to eat the types of fat called omega 3 and 6 in roughly equal amounts. Most Americans eat 25 times more omega 6 fats because most of the fat we eat is highly processed vegetable oil. Oil from corn and soybeans is extracted with chemicals like hexane. It is unstable and should never be used in cooking because heat breaks it into free radicals. They are too high in omega 6 fats to be included in our diets. Olive oil is high in oleic acid. It is more stable than corn, safflower, soy or sunflower seed oils, less stable than butter or coconut oil so do not use high heat when you cook with olive oil. Fats, proteins and phosphorus make up our cell membranes. The quality of the fats determines the quality of our cell membranes. Healthy fats make healthy cell membranes. Unhealthy fats make brittle cell membranes. Brittle cell membranes make unhealthy tissues. Our nervous system is about 60 % fat. For best brain function we must eat good fats. EPA and DHA are the fats our brains need the most. Recent research found that supplemental EPA reduced depression. DHA alone did not, but EPA with DHA was most effective. Cold water fish oils are your best source of EPA and DHA. Fish oil reduces atrial fibrillation. EPA also increases calcium absorption and it increases calcium deposition in our bones. Maybe all that cod liver oil people used to take wasn't such a bad idea after all! And now& to the ugly side of fats, trans fatty acids. What are they? And why are they bad for us? Animal fats have a very small amount of trans fats in them. This is not a problem. We have been eating animal fat including the small amount of trans fats for millennia and done just fine. The problem is the very processed fats we are eating now, margarines and shortenings and processed vegetable oils. When you have two molecules with the same chemical formula but different shapes, they will behave in different ways. A fatty acid has 3 chains of carbon atoms which have hydrogen ions attached to the carbons. A saturated fat has all the hydrogen ions it can hold. Saturated fats are stable and solid at room temperature. An unsaturated fat has some missing hydrogen ions. They are less stable and they are liquid at room temperature because the hydrogen ions are missing on the same side of the chain, bending it at that place. If you want an unsaturated fat to be solid at room temperature, like margarine or shortening, you add some hydrogen to it under pressure. The hydrogen ions will be missing from opposite sides of the molecule, giving it a stair step shape. This makes it solid at room temperature. This is a trans fatty acid. Lots of trans fatty acids make brittle cell membranes. Trans fats have been implicated in heart attacks, strokes, cancer and obesity. They are not real food. Healthy food is less processed food. Butter is just shaken cream. Margarine is extremely processed even when it is low in trans fatty acids and is not really a food. If you want to avoid butter, use olive oil instead. Take care with your fats and oils and they will take care of you. Areste is a naturopathic doctor with a private practice on Capitol Hill in Seattle.