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Coconut Oil and Saturated Fats |
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Fats, including Saturated Fats Are Necessary for Good Health
Coconut oil does contain a large
amount of saturated fat. Isn’t
saturated fat bad for us? Many of
us, doctors and laypeople alike,
were taught that red meat and fat,
and especially saturated fats, are
to be avoided or at least drastically
reduced in our diets today. We still
hear that they cause all sorts of
problems, including high cholesterol,
heart disease and weight gain. However,
if you carefully study the research,
you will see that it shows the opposite
to be true. Saturated fat is a vital
nutrient and is necessary for good
health. In order for your body to
properly use fat-soluble vitamins,
you need to have the fat in your
foods. Calcium, too, needs fats for
proper absorption – that means
that if you don’t have enough
fat in your diet, your body will
not be able to properly use calcium
and the fat-soluble vitamins like
vitamin A, D & E.
While we Americans have been lowering
the amount of fat in our diets, especially
saturated fats like animal meats, butter,
lard, coconut oil and full-fat dairy
products, not only have obesity rates
skyrocketed, but heart disease rates
have also increased. A wealth of research
points to vegetable oils, sugars (especially
high-fructose corn syrup), and refined
grains like white bread and pasta (“bad
carbs”) as a major cause of obesity,
and to trans-fats, vegetable oils
and vegetable shortenings as a major
cause of heart disease.
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FACT: By 1950, butter consumption had dropped from 18 lbs per person per year to just over 10. (Butter contains high levels of saturated fats). FACT: Heart disease caused probably no more than 10% of US deaths prior to the 1920’s. By the 1950’s it had risen to 30% or more. |
According to Dr. Ron Rosedale,i when you eat lots of carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar and white flour products, your body converts them to sugar and then burns that sugar instead of burning fat. Saturated fats act as a carrier for the “fat soluble” vitamins A, D, E and K. When the fat is removed from foods in our diet, many of these vitamins are also removed, and our absorption of these vitamins also goes way down.
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Saturated fats protect the liver from alcohol, drugs and other toxins.ii Saturated fats also support the immune system, which helps keep you from getting sick.iii Saturated fats are needed for correct bone development and in order to prevent osteoporosis. A high level of fat in the diet needs to be saturated in order for the body to properly utilize calcium.iv This means that a low-fat diet with plenty of calcium and/or calcium supplements is not necessarily going to prevent osteoporosis.
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Hmm… osteoporosis in this age of “saturated fats are bad for you” has become increasingly prevalent… |
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| Saturated fatty acids are necessary for proper functioning of all our cell membranes. They give our cells the firmness necessary to maintain structural integrity. All your cells and organs, especially the brain, need saturated fats in order to function properly. |
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Fats To Avoid: Oxidized
Meat, Eggs and Dairy
We are not recommending that you consume all saturated fats. Very high heat and oxygen can damage cholesterol and fats and the following foods can contribute to clogged arteries: |
- Foods fried in polyunsaturated vegetable oils, like most French fries & potato chips, chicken nuggets, egg rolls & donuts. (Almost all fried restaurant food is fried in vegetable oil today in America.)
- Powdered milk, cheese & eggs1
- Cured meats, like hot dogs, pepperoni and most luncheon
meats
- Meat from beef and pork that were fed soybeans, corn
and other grains.
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Other Fats to Avoid: (Most) Vegetable Oils
When farmers were looking for a cheap way to fatten their animals for market, they began using corn and soybean oils. However, they quickly discovered that in addition to fattening up their animals, they seemed to cause problems with the animals’ thyroid glands and they subsequently developed many health problems, including cancer. The fact that polyunsaturated oils encourage tumor growth is well known among researchers.v It’s also well known that consumption of vegetable oils depresses our immune system, so well known that vegetable oils have been used for intravenous injections to suppress immunity in organ transplant patients.vi
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| Now it’s people instead of animals that consume these oils. To further compound the problem, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils that are heated in cooking quickly form trans-fatty acids. The Institute of Medicine has declared that trans-fatty acids are unsafe to consume at any level. Most restaurants use these vegetable oils for cooking, and hence consistently and abundantly produce food that is not healthy for us to eat. Saturated fats, on the other hand, like coconut oil and lard, are resistant to oxidation, and can safely be used to cook and sauté food with. |
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Tips For Identifying Nutritious Oils |
| Tip #1: Avoid
most vegetable oils – this includes soybean, canola or rapeseed,
and corn oils.
Tip # 2: Stay away from all hydrogenated oils, and those products with trans-fatty acids. This includes most margarines.
Tip #3: Look for organic, cold-pressed olive, nut and seed oils like sesame and almond oil. Use these oils in moderation, and make sure to buy them in small quantities so they won’t go rancid. Most of these, with the exception of olive and sesame oils, should not be used for cooking.
Tip #4: Look for extra-virgin olive oil that is cloudy and unrefined.
Tip #5: Look for the aroma and taste of the original product – if coconut oil, for example, no longer tastes or smells like coconuts, it was undoubtedly heated to a high temperature, and maybe chemically treated to purify it.
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| To
Purchase Nourishing Planet Virgin
Coconut Oil online, go to www.EcoViva.com. |
| 1 Often found in packaged foods like pancake, cake & muffin mixes, as well as macaroni & cheese, most soft serve ice cream and most skim & low fat milks. |
iRon Rosedale, M.D., “Insulin and It’s Metobolic Effects,” p. 6. www.mercola.com
iiA.A. Nanji, et al., Gastroenterology 109/2 (August 1995): 547-554.
iiiJ.J. Kabara, “The Parmacological Effects of Lipids,” Champain, IL: The American Oil Chemists Society, 1978, pp 1-14.
ivWatkins, B.A. and Seifert, M.F. 1996 “Food Lipids and Bone Health.”
vCarrol, K.K. and Khan, H.T., 1971 “Lipids”. 6:415.
viMascioli, E.A., et al, 1987. “Lipids.” 22(6):421. |
| Disclaimer: Information on this website is provided for informational purposes only. It is not meant to replace advice you receive from your physician or other health professional. Information and/or statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. |
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