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Discussing nutrition is a consistent battle of breaking long-standing myths, exposing trendy marketing, and providing education around the real principles of human health and vitality. The context of each individual (experiences, lifestyle, movement, and genetic predispositions) is the most important when determining an ideal diet. My hope is to provide foundational principles for you to explore and implement however they fit into the context of your life. Here are the main points I will cover today!
What are fats? There is a good chance that your first instinct when you see the topic of fats is that they are bad for us. You have been told that they cause heart disease by clogging your arteries and you should be trying to eat as little of them as possible. If this is your gut reaction I implore you to keep reading with an open mind! Fats, like protein, are an essential nutrient in our diet. We have discussed how protein is the basic building block of our body’s structure and function, however, fat is protein’s partner in crime. Fat molecules are long strands of carbon and hydrogen with different bonding that classifies them as monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated, and transfats. These molecules serve as the walls to our cells as well as the building blocks for our hormones. If you think of each of your cells as a house, the fat makes up the entire perimeter. It acts as a barrier that can decide what to and what not to let in or out. Are fats harmful to our health? Fat has been demonized in the past 50 years, however, we do need it as a part of our diet. The studies showing negative effects of eating diets rich in protein and saturated fats are observational studies that conclude correlations rather than causation. Without spending too much time on statistics and the scientific process essentially the follow up studies where causal relationships have been assessed have not shown red meat, saturated fats, or dietary cholesterol to be responsible for the ailments of humans. Fat is an essential nutrient and makes up roughly 60% of the human brain mass. One study states that: “fatty acids are among the most crucial molecules that determine your brain's integrity and ability to perform. Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are required for maintenance of optimal health but they can not synthesized by the body and must be obtained from dietary sources” Humans also have tens of thousands of miles of nervous tissue in our body that is covered in fat (75-80%) as well as every cell membrane in our body (~50%). It is also noteworthy to mention that our brain and nervous system rely heavily on fatty acids as their main source of fuel to the mitochondria (energy producers by our cells). The brain consumes ~20% of our caloric intake via fatty acids and glucose in the mitochondria. Dysfunction of the Mitochondria is a diminished ability to utilize both fatty acids and glucose as fuel and is present in many lifestyle-related diseases and neurological conditions. All this is to say that fats are an essential nutrient and have an important role in our biology. Low fat food products and avoidance of quality dietary fats are hindering your ability to optimize your health. Quality sources of Fats Fats in our diet come from animals or plants. It’s helpful to think about our ancestors and how they would have consumed fats. They would have only consumed fats in their natural state (i.e from an animal or within the plant foods they were consuming). If they couldn’t harvest fats from animals or produce oils from fruit trees they didn’t consume them. The recommendation of fat consumption is often to avoid animal fats and fats with higher saturated fat content and to focus more on unsaturated fats from refined plant sources. This is not evolutionarily consistent with our ancestors' dietary habits. Healthy Fats (Not all-inclusive): Animal Fat Sources:
Plant Fat Sources:
Poor Sources of Fat Unhealthy Fats: Often the recommended fats are often in the category of processed seed oils. Processed seed oils are canola, corn, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, and rice-bran. These are the main ones, however, I believe there is a concern for overconsumption of other seed oils as well given the processes to derive them from their natural form. To obtain these oils the seeds or waste products of the plant are processed and heated to a temperature that turns them into an oil. They are not naturally an oil. This makes the derived fat molecules unstable and inflammatory. Being unstable means that when they are consumed and used to build our cell walls they will be less resilient. For example, the walls of our arteries can break when stressed. The rancid aspect of these oils relates to the increase in inflammation we see throughout our body with increased seed oil consumption. Due to the process of obtaining these oils, they become highly unstable and inflammatory. This contributes to metabolic dysfunction and can further disease processes. Remember how we discussed the large amount of fat that comprises our cell walls, nervous system, brain, and hormones? If we are consuming these types of fats we are building our house with brittle twigs that will eventually collapse when a storm comes (i.e. viruses, parasites, bacteria, and lifestyle-related diseases.) My rule of thumb is that if you can’t take the plant or animal with your hands and extract the fat or make oil from them for consumption, then should you be consuming it at all? The next time you are at a grocery store take a look at some of the common things you are consuming. I can almost guarantee you that if you look at the ingredient list there is some form of vegetable oil listed. They are in everything….. How much fat should we be consuming? The RDA for fat intake is 20-35% of total calories or 44-77g for 2000 calories/day. Remember that this is the baseline amount to stay alive. A more optimal fat intake, in my opinion, is 30-50% of total calories at 2000 cal/day 100-120g/day. This is dependent of course on goals and carbohydrate intake given that as fats go up carbs should go down and vice versa. The context of each individual will determine their ideal intake of dietary fats. Take-home messages:
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Andrew CataldoCoach Andrew is the Director of our Performance Division. With a passion for improving the health, fitness, and well being of those around him. Check here each week for new articles! Free E-Books
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