Healthy fats: Why eating fat= getting skinny

By Catherine on December 20, 2011 | Last Updated November 28, 2016 | 18 Comments | Medical Disclaimer | This Post Contains Affiliate Links - I may receive a commission if you purchase through links in this post.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about healthy fats. “Fat makes you fat” is the most commonly accepted notion, but where did this actually come from? Natural and healthy fats such as butter, coconut oil, cream, egg yolks, lard, etc., have been used for thousands of years with no “fattening” effect. The low-fat craze of the early 1990’s had a huge brainwashing effect on the perception of healthy foods. When you choose fat-free foods, you naturally choose higher sugar/higher carb and lower protein foods, because protein in its natural state comes with a healthy dose of fat! You also then eat more of these foods because low-fat equals low satiety, meaning you must eat more to get full than those who eat fat liberally.

Another major plus of eating healthy fats is something called fat-soluble vitamins. They are abundantly found in healthy animal fats, and actually require fat for absorption. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all fat-soluble vitamins that help keep your body in tip-top shape. Vitamin A specifically is actually very important for your metabolism and thyroid health, so make sure you include foods like liver, butter, and egg yolks in your daily diet.

So what do healthy fats (the right kind) do for you? They can actually help keep you slim!

Healthy fat is a source of energy in the body (think of your body as a fire, fat are the logs, carbs are kindling)
Healthy fats are required for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K (which Americans are SURPRISINGLY deficient)
Healthy fats are used to construct tissue to both line and protect your internal organs
Healthy fats are essential for a healthy liver, bile function, and the inflammatory healing process
Healthy fats contribute to food tasting good
Healthy fats lubricate the digestive system, and helps with removing toxins from the body

Choosing healthy fats: Eat saturated fat instead of unsaturated fat!

Unsaturated fats are also known as PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) and are found in largely in oils- including vegetable, corn, canola, peanut, flax, soy and fish oils. The cheapness of these oils makes them an essential ingredient for most processed foods (especially sauces, mayonnaise, candy). These fats are often highly processed, unstable, and oxidize very quickly in the body! They are also a huge burden to the liver and can block or slow hormone synthesis. According to Dr. Ray Peat, “Unsaturated fats cause aging, clotting, inflammation, cancer, & weight gain.” Not the kind of food you want in your diet!

Choose saturated fats like butter, coconut oil, and lard as the main fats in your kitchen. Olive oil can be a good choice in moderation, but it is not very heat stable, so it’s best to use after cooking.

To summarize:

-Ditch the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and just say no to fake food!
-Use coconut oil to cook and bake with. Refined coconut oil is nearly flavorless, and is stable for cooking at higher temperatures, where as virgin coconut oil is best for popcorn or desserts you are okay with having a coconutty flavor.
-Use butter for lower heat cooking and baking
-Use olive oil on foods AFTER cooking (olive oil goes rancid when heated)

What are your favorite fats? Please share in the comments!

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Still not convinced? Further reading:
The Oiling of America by the Weston Price Foundation
Smokin’ hot or unsafe? Is cooking with grapeseed oil a good idea? by Eat Naked
Healthiest Cooking Oils by Healy Eats Real

References:
Peat, Raymond. From PMS to Menopause: Female Hormones in Context. Eugene, OR, 1997.

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Comments

Shu Han says
January 5, 2012 at 7:35 am

great roundup on the importance of not being afraid of fat! sharing this with a friend. “think of your body as a fire, fat are the logs, carbs are kindling” nice analogy. it’s not just fat-phobia these days, it’s also carb-phobia. we need all these in our diet to be healthy! most of all, we just need to enjoy food in it’s real, unadulterated state and stop discriminating any nutrient group.

Reply
- butternutrition says
  February 12, 2012 at 8:55 pm
  
  Thanks Shu! I agree. Including all of the macro-nutrients are of supreme importance for keeping our metabolism, body and mind healthy! The best diets include the greatest diversity of foods 🙂
  
  Reply
  - Leal says
    November 26, 2013 at 11:15 am
    
    And not just the macro-nutrients but we need to eliminate as many chemicals from our food source that we can. Our bodies were not meant to live on chemicals.
    
    Reply
    - 60.242.196.158 says
      August 4, 2018 at 7:24 pm
      
      you mean certain harmful chemicals like hydrogen cyanide, for example because you just cannot avoid chemicals in our food. Think of it this way: foods are complex things and a little goes a gigantic way.
      also, most so called ‘natural’ foods are ingredients that contain little chemicals with water being a chemical itself! Examples include: bananas contain: water, glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, starch, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, histidine, leucine (yep, proteins are chemicals!), lysine, phenylalanine, arginine, valine, alanine, serine, glycine, threonine, isoleucine, and this is only the first 1/10th of the list of chemicals in a banana. a heart candy contains: sucrose, malic acid, stearic acid, sodium bicarbonate, starch, magnesium stearate, magnesium carbonate, anthocyanin, beetroot red dye, copper colour, curcumin, lucein and paprika for the whole entire list of heart candy chemicals! a candy has 13 chemicals wheres a banana has more than 60 chemicals.
      
      Reply
- Synovec says
  February 9, 2018 at 11:33 am
  
  Humans are heavily exposed to pesticides used by Farmers. Over time humans are getting ill of all types of sickness.Especially CANCER whether you smoke or not. Youngsters also developed CANCER. and none in families Smoked! Stay clear from soft drinks – read INGRIDIENTS AND CHECK IT OUT ! Sign off!
  
  Reply
nancy says
March 29, 2012 at 9:08 am

hi love, very informative i have told people i work with about your site. 🙂 its great!
love you

Reply
Cindy says
August 19, 2013 at 4:51 pm

We can’t afford grassfed, raw butter. Is it still okay to eat store bought butter?

Reply
- Catherine says
  August 19, 2013 at 7:09 pm
  
  I think any butter is better than none. However, do read the ingredient list, and avoid a butter with natural flavors, and additives other than cream, salt, etc.
  
  You can read more about butter here: https://butternutrition.com/secrets-of-butter/
  
  Thanks for reading!
  Catherine
  
  Reply
Alyssa says
September 18, 2014 at 8:40 am

Where are you getting your sources? I was pretty sure that fish and flax seed oils are really good for inflammation. How are they bad for you? I can understand the whole mercury issue with fish oils but other than that , it’s a great source of omega-3’s . Just wanted to also mention I have colitis and have found that fish oil has helped me tremendously as far as inflammation goes. Please site your sources because this article bugs me.

Reply
Hema says
December 10, 2014 at 12:20 pm

this is a very wrong information, though butter is good but too much consumption of saturated fats are bad for health! One should focus more on manusaturated fats & polysaturated fats which are classtified as good fats meanwhile bad fats are saturated fats and transfat

You should understand & identify the differences between good fats and bad fats. then you should know what type fats falls in which category. In this case, as I explained define above. Polysaturated fats contains omega 3&6 which is hard to find besides in fish and nuts. pumpkin nuts, seeds, etc..

Read more on them!

Reply
Alesea says
April 12, 2015 at 7:14 am

Fish oil has been proved as having anti-inflammatory effects on the body. Also the seed oils you mentioned become inflammatory because PUFA are very unstable when it comes to oxygen damage and go rancid fast. This is why it is recommended to grind the seeds just before you eat them otherwise store in the fridge but not for a long time. PUFA are great for health.

Reply
L. says
October 9, 2015 at 12:29 pm

This is wrong information.

You’re confusing polyunsaturated fatty acid chains with trans-unsaturated fatty acids.

Reply
Mary says
March 9, 2016 at 11:05 am

Great info – I love butter. Land of Lakes makes an AWESOME spread – the only ingredients are cream, olive oil, and salt. Just wrote a post called “Why You Need to Stop Hating On These 3 Food Groups” and linked to your post. Check it out: http://simplynatureplusnurture.com/2016/03/04/why-you-need-to-stop-hating-on-these-3-food-groups/

Reply
Bahaa al wazzan says
November 30, 2016 at 7:57 am

True info

Bravo

The mainstream media always guude people to die

Saturated fat is game

There are a good study on pigs were fed coconut oil

They got pretty lean

Thanks for sharing those amazing info

Coconut oil .is 90 percent saturated fat

For people that said fish oil or seed oil are healthy fat and they re anti inflammatory

Thats pretty wrong

Poly unsaturated fat and unsaturated fat
Mask the inflammation and suppress the immune system

So you won’t feel the inflammations u have

And you re killing ur self softly

Thanks 🙂

Reply
Julie says
December 25, 2016 at 5:13 pm

What’s a good cooking oil alternative for those with coconut allergies?

Reply
Kassia says
May 28, 2017 at 5:07 pm

Do you see any problems with using avocado oil? I use it mostly for mayonnaise since it has a neutral flavor and occasionally for cooking if I know a guest doesn’t like butter or coconut oil.

Reply
60.242.196.158 says
August 4, 2018 at 7:09 pm

You forgot MUFAS (Monounsaturated fats) and omega 3 fatty-acids (DHA, EPA and alpha-linoleic acid).

Reply