Fat - Part 3
Healthy Fat in Real Life
In this part, we’ll be looking at how to decipher a glorious fat from an inflammatory one. Let’s start with an important question: are you enjoying enough glorious fat?
Causes of a fat deficiency:
Fat deficiencies are surprisingly common, I’d say they’re the most common macronutrient deficiency I see (although I think carb deficiencies will be much more prevalent in the next few years).
There are three major reasons for a fat deficiency:
1. You’re not eating enough fat
2. You’re not absorbing the fat in your diet (often due to a gallbladder issue)
3. You’re not consuming certain types of fat (like omega 3s or saturated fat)
Reasons #1 & #3 can be solved by adding more fat, but reason #2 is a bit trickier. Symptoms of not absorbing fat are having fatty stools (greasy or sticky poops) and many have pain with fatty meals.
If you have your gallbladder, digestive bitters are very helpful. If you’ve had your gallbladder removed, then it’s pretty much guaranteed that you have a fat deficiency . Taking bile salts with each meal is wonderfully helpful :)
Symptoms of a fat deficiency:
There are two major signs of fat deficiency that I look for when meeting with a new client:
1. dryness (dry skin, eyes, hair, sinuses)
2. an imbalance in your immune system.
Fat also plays an important role in inflammation in your body. If your skin is dry or you’re dealing with chronic inflammation, then you might just be deficient in fat.
The best news is that adding lots of glorious healthy fat moisturizes your skin from the inside out, making it all glowy and wonderful (yes, glowy isn’t a word, but it should be :)
Adding more healthy fat to your diet is also a very effective way to balance your blood sugar. We tend to land on protein as the blood sugar balancing macronutrient, but fat is MUCH more effective.
This chart shows how fat and protein blunt the spike in insulin after a meal, and that fat is the clear star. It doesn’t take into account fibre in carbohydrates or it doesn’t talk about what types of macros that were tested (ie. Sweet potatoes and refined flour would affect the body very differently), but this info can be used in general ways.
When you add some healthy fat to your carbohydrates, like butter on your toast or popcorn, it helps create more of a trickle of glucose instead of a deluge.
How much fat do I need?
So, you’ve got a few symptoms of a fat deficiency…so now what? Let’s talk about how to correct it.
Like with everything, your body is unique, and your fat needs are unique. My body is particularly fat-loving, but I rarely find anyone else that needs as much as I do :)
Start:
- add 1 tsp more of healthy fat to each meal. MORE is key, this is on top of what you usually have.
- next, increase slowly over the next few weeks until your skin and dryness go away. That could be up to 2 – 3 tbsp per meal (the Lisa-style dose), but most sit around 1 tbsp.
What about being in ketosis? Using fat for energy?
The body always needs a steady supply of energy. First, it prefers a slow drip of glucose from fibrous carbohydrates. If there aren’t enough carbs to sustain energy, then the body can convert 50% of the protein you eat into glucose.
As a very last resort, it can use ketones from fat instead of glucose for energy. Yes, it’s a last resort, and in nature, the body will try its best not to do this. This can be seen in the Inuit people, who have a traditional diet that’s close to the ketogenic diet. But, what’s really surprising is their bodies don’t switch to ketones easily. Instead, their bodies have become better at utilizing glucose.
https://nutritionstudies.org/is-the-ketogenic-diet-natural-for-humans/
I’m still surprised that the medicinal diet, the ketogenic diet, which had only been used to treat hard-to-treat epilepsy is now as popular as it is.
Please keep this in mind - Fat Is Nutrient Poor
It might seem counterintuitive that although I’m a huge fat lover and promoter, I’m not a fan of a super high-fat diet (like the 60 to 80 percent fat ketogenic diet). Fat is mega important to the body, but it’s also nutrient-poor. Dietary fat lacks vitamins, minerals, and many antioxidants. Over time, a very high-fat diet can result in many nutrient deficiencies, which is the reason balancing all macronutrients is key.
For these reasons I prefer to stick to the method the human body has perfected over time, which is burning glucose and using ketones only when there’s no glucose available. Call me crazy, but I think the human body is pretty amazing, and you don’t need to hijack your body’s preferences.
What is a healthy fat?
I think we, collectively, need to look at fat in a very different way. Instead of judging them by their chemical structure (saturated vs. unsaturated), we need to see that all types of fat are good for us.
A healthy fat and oil can be summed up in one word – unprocessed.
Glorious fat, which your cells crave, doesn’t tolerate time and processing.
It’s not about saturated vs. unsaturated. It’s about fresh and unprocessed vs. long shelf-life and processed. Therefore, this section will talk all about finding sources of healthy fat that are fresh and unprocessed.
I like to think of it on the avocado to margarine spectrum.
Avocado to Margarine Spectrum
Avocado is the epitome of a healthy fat. It’s entirely unprocessed, full of essential nutrients and antioxidants, and wildly healthy. The only processing it goes through is with a knife or spoon in your kitchen. It’s anti-inflammatory and glorious.
Margarine is the epitome of a highly processed fat. Especially the old-style trans-fat margarine…although the new “no trans-fat” version isn’t much better. This end of the spectrum is where inflammatory fat lives.
The oils in margarine start off as seeds, like cottonseed, sunflower and canola. Liberating the oil from these tightly packed seeds is quite the process and involves lots of heat and lots of solvents (think hexane).
The oil is refined so none of the pesky vitamins or antioxidants get in the way of its shelf-life. This pure oil is yellow, has barely any smell or flavour, and can sit on the shelf for years before showing any sign of rancidity.
But, it’s still liquid at room temperature. To make it solid, it needs to be saturated with hydrogen, straightening out the fatty acid and allowing it to stack and be solid.
Today, most margarine products are attempting to be made without hydrogenation. What they actually do is hard to know since it’s very proprietary…but I’m always suspicious of highly processed products that don’t tell us how they’re made.
Side note: most countries labeling laws allow 0.5g of trans-fat per serving and still be labeled as 0g of trans-fat. A teaspoon is 4g, which makes 0.5g a decent amount in serving.
The most glorious fats are found in completely unprocessed foods, like:
Avocado
Raw nuts
Raw seeds, olives
Wild cold-water fish (if cooked under 350degrees)
Dark chocolate (YUM!)
Free-range eggs
Good quality cheese made from grass-fed milk
Grass-fed or free-range animal products
Next are fats and oils that have been mildly processed and still retain their colour and smell (a sign the antioxidants and nutrients are still included :)
Cold-pressed oils like:
Extra-virgin olive oil
Almond oil
Hemp seed oil
Flaxseed oil (but use hemp or flax oil only for cold applications; don’t heat them)
Virgin coconut oil and organic butter are beautiful saturated fats.
Next are neutral fats and oils. These are ones that have been through some processing and have lost some of their goodness…but, overall, they’re not too bad. These are ones that are great for cooking, but I wouldn’t drench my food in them:
Avocado oil
Grapeseed oil
Olive oil (not virgin)
Coconut oil (also not virgin)
Most cold-pressed seed oils.
Keep highly processed and refined oils very low in your diet:
Vegetable oil
Canola oil
Refined palm oil
Refined sunflower and safflower oils (although cold-pressed sunflower or safflower oil is okay)
All types of margarine.
In Conclusion
I’d like to invite you to look at fat a little differently. From this masterclass you can see just how valuable all types of fat are (especially saturated fat), but quality matters.
How fat is processed and stored is what determines how healthy it is; its type isn’t a determining factor. Fat is very intolerant to industrial processing, so fat sources that are as close to natural as possible are always the best.
Is your body craving something gloriously fatty right now? Ya, mine is too. I think I’m going to grab that avocado in my fridge and make something yummy. Enjoy!
Got any questions or comments? Comment below, jump to our private Facebook Group, or the Ask Lisa page :).