Fats, Oils, Omega’s Oh my

The inclusion of good fats in our diet is essential for overall health and longevity. But the wide array of fats available to us, along with a constant barrage of conflicting information in regards to which fats are good and which are bad is overwhelming. I am going to attempt to provide a simple overview of fats and which ones to focus on when cooking, baking and snacking.

There are four broad categories of fats; saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans fats. For those of us between 30 and 75, we were taught that saturated fats were the enemy. With this came the increased popularity of highly processed industrial seed oils (a category of polyunsaturated fats) that can be argued to have had a more detrimental effect on our health than saturated fat. These oils include canola, corn, cottonseed, safflower, sunflower, peanut, and soybean. In general, they are the yellow oils you find in large plastic bottles. Margarine and Crisco are the other highly processed fats that should be avoided. These oils are processed from seeds that are often harvested from genetically modified and highly chemically treated mono crops. They are heated to extreme temperatures, making them unstable and likely to oxidize, creating free radicals. Additionally they are high in Omega-6 fatty acids, which will be discussed in more detail below. The addition of these oils to almost all packaged foods means that our consumption of them is significantly higher than you might assume. The next time you are in the store and buying packaged snacks, try to find one that doesn’t have one of these oils listed as an ingredient. I have found it extremely challenging and while I would prefer to avoid them, I also feel the need to provide a balanced household (Next week’s blog topic!!).

I will return to polyunsaturated fats (PUFA’s), but lets get back to saturated and monounsaturated. Saturated fats from high quality sources, such as grass fed beef, wild game, organic, cold pressed coconut oil, butter and ghee from grass fed animals and even lard and tallow from grass fed animals are good choices, especially for high heat cooking. These fats are extremely stable, easily converted to energy and loaded with antioxidants.

Monounsaturated fats (MUFA’s), such as olive oil, avocado oil and some nut oils have been proven over and over to contribute to healthy diet, but be sure to find the ones that are cold pressed, unrefined and sold in dark bottles. Keep these oils away from heat and light when storing in order to avoid oxidation. They can be used for medium heat cooking and baking, but should be avoided for high heat cooking and broiling.

Omega fatty acids are a required component of our diet because we cannot synthesize them from anything else, but the ratio of Omega-6 fatty acids to Omega-3 fatty acids is critical in the battle against chronic inflammation and possibly a much wider array of chronic medical problems. The recommended ratio is 4:1 of Omega 6 to Omega 3, but studies have shown that many Americans consume a ratio closer to 20:1. Omega 6 fatty acids are found in red meat, poultry, eggs, nuts, seeds and the industrial seed oils mentioned earlier. Omega 3 fatty acids are found in much more limited foods such as deep water fish, krill, flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts and soybeans* and rapeseeds*(the seed for canola oil). Unfortunately soybean and canola oils are not good sources of Omega-3 fatty acids due to their industrialized processing for use by big food companies.

Trans fats are generally known to be detrimental to our health, but food labeling does not always give us the information we need to avoid them. It is not necessary to list trans fats on a label if the serving has less than .5 grams of trans fat. For this reason, always look ‘partially hydrogenated’ in the ingredient list. While hydrogenated oils have had the trans fat removed, they are still a highly processed fat that should be avoided as often as possible.

It’s important to remember that while fats are important for our overall health, over consumption of fat can lead to unwanted weight gain. With this in mind, I try to encourage people not to fear fat, but to understand the fats they are consuming and to consume them in moderation as you should most anything! The two links below are to blog posts that go further in depth on this topic, but also are easy to read and understand. As always, please feel free to email me with questions, concerns, comments and corrections. I will look forward to when commenting is available.

https://pamela-grant.com/blog-ss/know-your-fats

How Industrial Seed Oils Are Making Us Sick

References

Ananth, D. et al. (2019). Phytochemical composition and antioxidant characteristics of traditional cold pressed seed oils in South India, Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology, Volume 17, Pages 416-421, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcab.2018.12.018.

Rakel, D. (2017). Integrative medicine (4th ed). New York: Saunders.

Simopoulos A. P. (2016). An Increase in the Omega-6/Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio Increases the Risk for Obesity. Nutrients, 8(3), 128. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8030128