August
2004
The
Skinny on Fat Part 1: Fear of Fat
By Angela Starks
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It’s an interesting thing, the way we approach
the issue of dietary fat. On the one hand, most of us can’t get
enough of it. We associate it with comfort and fun (just think ice cream);
on the other hand, we berate ourselves for eating too much of it and
we like to preach about its evils. It feels great at the time, but it
causes heart disease and weight gain, right? Yes and no. You might be
expecting me to say “all animal and saturated fats are bad, all
unsaturated vegetable oils are healthy” but the picture is a lot
more complex than that. Perhaps no other nutrition topic has been subject
to so much misinformation and paranoia, so our confusion is hardly surprising.
Indeed, it has become such a widely researched and hotly debated topic
that it merits a two-part article. To whet your appetite, we’ll
begin this month with a discussion of why we need to eat fat and the
pitfalls of low-fat diets, including a brief look at the habits of vegans
and vegetarians. Part two will detail particular fats and oils to help
you choose your sources wisely.
First, we need to get over the notion that we must “limit our
fat intake, or else.” Low-fat diets have their place, for example
if our gallbladder (which stores and releases a fat-digesting substance)
has been removed. It is even beneficial to go completely fat-free for
a number of days if we want to clean out our tissues on a detox regime.
But as a general rule, we need to eat fat.
Fat slows down the absorption of sugars (including fruits) thus preventing
a ‘sugar rush’ and facilitating longer-lasting satiation
from the meal; provides a useful source of energy; provides precursors
in the making of numerous hormones and hormone-like substances; and
goes into the making of our cell membranes. Especially important is
fat’s role in carrying the fat-soluble nutrients such as vitamins
A, D, E and K across the gut wall for absorption. If our fat-free diet
prevents us from absorbing these nutrients, we suffer from the affiliated
deficiencies. For example, lack of vitamin A causes poor night vision,
frequent infections and dry skin. Lack of vitamin D is associated with
rickets, osteoporosis and muscle spasms (although most of our vitamin
D should come from the action of sunlight on the skin rather than the
diet). Vitamin E deficiency may lead to infertility, slow wound healing,
and fatigue.
Given all these important roles that fat plays, how did it ever become
so unfashionable? It’s difficult to pin it on a single cause.
Two obvious factors are the trend of being model-thin and the link between
heart disease and fat. The phrasing of the official nutrition guidelines
doesn’t help; the recommendation is to obtain “no more than”
30 percent of our calories from fat, which people interpret to mean
the less fat they consume, the better. Additionally, commercial interests
have fueled our fat phobia by waging extremely successful campaigns
against all natural saturated fats, whether from plants or animals,
and promoting the use of highly processed—and therefore highly
profitable—vegetable oils in their place, such as soy, cottonseed,
and canola oils. Unfortunately, these vegetable oils are the worst kind
of fat you can eat, since they are full of trans fats (altered molecules
that the body cannot use properly) and are usually rancid and teeming
with carcinogenic free radicals. We used to eat more coconut oil and
other tropical fats, which are actually very beneficial to health even
though they are classified as saturated (more about this next month),
but the influential American Soybean Association was instrumental in
getting its soy oil to replace tropical products in most all baked goods,
fried food, and home use. Eating these refined damaged oils leaves the
body still craving the real thing.
As if to prove that we have an innate need for fat, many low-fat diets
do not work in the long run and may even be damaging. The most famous
example is the Pritikin Diet. Although Nathan Pritikin advised against
sugar, white flour and junk foods and recommended that we eat more raw
foods and whole grains, it was the fat-free aspect of his diet that
received the most publicity. Many people had trouble staying on it,
and those who persevered developed various health problems, including
low energy, poor concentration, depression, nutrient deficiencies, and
weight gain. To his credit, when the problems with this diet became
apparent, Pritikin introduced a small amount of vegetable fat into the
diet at ten percent of total calories, but it was a case of ‘too
little too late.’ Sadly, Pritikin took his own life when he realized
his Spartan regime was not working.
Enthusiastic new converts to the most in-vogue dietary prescript of
all, raw foodism, likewise make the mistake of not eating enough fats.
They drop all cooked food like a proverbial hot potato, but the baby
goes out with the bath water and they lose their fat intake without
even realizing it. Alternatively, they may choose to drop all fats in
an attempt to feel more of the energy that a raw food diet is famous
for. According to most raw food experts, this is the single most common
reason why people revert back to eating cooked food. They think that
their body is telling them that they need the density of cooked foods,
especially proteins, when apparently what they are really missing is
fat. Raw foodists should not be afraid of consuming such nutritious
fats as avocados, olives, nuts, seeds, coconuts, coconut oil, and a
little cold-pressed hemp or flax oil.
Vegans and vegetarians fall into a similar trap. There are health benefits
to shunning meat and dairy products, but not if that means you lose
the only sources of fat in your diet and don’t replace them with
healthy non-animal fats. Fish is often consumed as a transition food,
especially since we have been told that cold water fish such as mackerel
and sardines are an excellent source of the omega 3 fats and other heart-healthy
lipids. The numerous reasons not to eat fish range from toxic contamination
to parasite infestation; that’s a whole other story. However,
once you omit fish from the diet as well, you lose those essential fatty
acids (EFAs) unless you replace them with other foods rich in them such
as walnuts, flax seed oil, hemp products and sea vegetables.
Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are called ‘essential’ for
a reason. We must obtain them directly from our diet since our body
cannot manufacture them. EFAs are precursors of other important fats
such as GLA (gamma linolenic acid, which is well known for its ability
to ease premenstrual tension), and localized tissue hormones that regulate
many processes, including anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. EFAs are
also important for lubrication and flexibility in the joints, integrity
of the cell membranes, proper brain development, and a host of other
benefits. Classic symptoms of EFA deficiency include eczema, dry eyes,
excessive thirst, arthritis, pre-menstrual syndrome and frequent infections.
Still think that a fat-free diet might be a ‘good thing’?
I guess it’s obvious by now that what counts is not simply the
amount of fat we eat but also the type. Next month we’ll go into
more detail, including the fats you should avoid.
Angela Starks is a Consulting Editor to Satya magazine,
a nutrition counselor, and a freelance health writer. She lives in
upstate
New York with her husband and young son, where she also teaches yoga.
She gets the energy for her multi-task life from a primarily raw, vegan
diet. Angela can be contacted at NYretreats@mindspring.com.
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