Some fats are good for you! In fact they are essential for life. Essential fatty acids cannot be made by the body, they need to be obtained from the foods we eat. Your skin, nails, mucous membranes and mood are often the first places we will see signs of poor dietary fat intake.

Signs/Symptoms of Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency

Dry skin, scaly or flaky skin, lackluster skin
Cracking/peeling fingertips & skin (e.g., heels)
Small bumps on back of upper arms
Patchy dullness &/or color variation of skin
Mixed oily and dry skin ('combination' skin)
Thick or cracked calluses
Dandruff, psoriasis or cradle cap
Dry, lackluster, brittle or unruly hair
Soft, fraying, splitting or brittle fingernails, dull nails
Slow growing fingernails
Dry eyes
Dry mouth/throat
Inadequate vaginal lubrication
Menstrual cramps
Premenstrual breast pain/tenderness
Excessive ear wax
Excessive thirst
Allergic (e.g., eczema/asthma/hay fever/hives)
Crave fats/fatty foods
Stiff or painful joints 1
Anxiety, depression and mood swings

Dietary fats are essential to life. Healthy dietary fats:

provide energy
needed for healthy brain function
improve mood and help prevent depression
are necessary for new cell growth
helps absorb fat soluble vitamins A, D E K
improve heart and brain health
boost the immune system
keeps us genetically younger, improves longevity
stabilize blood sugar levels
balance hormones
improves the appearance of the skin
encourages healthy body weight-when you eat fats, the body feels like there is abundance- so does not go into fat-saving mode
can increase athletic performance, increased energy levels

Looking at this list I'm sure you can agree that fat fear needs to go. So let's make this simple, here's what you need to know about the right and wrong fats to eat:

Healthy fats:

Look for fats/oils made from plants or animals. The oils should be cold pressed, organic, and stored in a dark coloured bottle to prevent spoiling. Healthy fats have a shorter shelf life, they often need to be refrigerated or used within months of opening.

Good fats: Avocado, Nuts, Seeds, Olive Oil, Coconut oil, Fatty fish, Organic Meat, Butter, Lard (from organic sources), canola if organic, palm oil (don't use as the environmental impact is very negative)

Healthy Polysaturated fats: nuts seeds, fish

Healthy Monosaturated fats: nuts, seeds, canola (organic), avocado

Essential Omega 3 fats: flaxseed, chia seeds, walnuts, olive oil, salmon, tuna (non GMO)

Healthy Saturated fats: coconut oil, dairy and red meat (from organically raised animals) These are generally omega 6 fats, so balance with your omega 3 rich foods. Organically raised, grass fed cows will produce dairy, fats and meat that is much higher in omega 3s than their traditionally raised counterparts.

Cooking with fats:

Stable fats for cooking and baking: butter, ghee, animal fats, lard, coconut oil, avocado oil, almond oil, (sustainable sourced palm oil?); these are stable enough for higher heats

Low heat: peanut oil, macadamia nut oil, olive oil, sesame oil

Cold, no heat oils: keep in fridge in dark bottles as they oxidize easily- walnut, hempseed, flaxseed oil

http://www.skinnydivadiet.com/2013/08/infographic-healthy-oils-part-i.html

Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio: We need 4 times as much omega 6 as omega 3 fats. Most people (in North America) get 10 to 25 times as much omega 6 than omega 3. A diet that is too high in omega 6 can lead to inflammation and heart disease.

What Are the Best Omega-3 Foods?

Here’s a list of the top 14 omega-3 foods (percentages based on 4,000 milligrams per day of total omega-3s):

Mackerel: 6,982 milligrams in 1 cup cooked (174 precent DV)
Salmon Fish Oil: 4,767 milligrams in 1 tablespoon (119 percent DV)
Cod Liver Oil: 2.664 milligrams in 1 tablespoon (66 percent DV)
Walnuts: 2,664 milligrams in 1/4 cup (66 percent DV)
Chia Seeds: 2,457 milligrams in 1 tablespoon (61 percent DV)
Herring: 1,885 milligrams in 3 ounces (47 percent DV)
Salmon (wild-caught): 1,716 milligrams in 3 ounces (42 percent DV)
Flaxseeds (ground): 1,597 milligrams in 1 tablespoon (39 percent DV)
Tuna: 1,414 milligrams in 3 ounces (35 percent DV)
White Fish: 1,363 milligrams in 3 ounces (34 percent DV)
Sardines: 1,363 milligrams in 1 can/3.75 ounces (34 percent DV)
Hemp Seeds: 1,000 milligrams in 1 tablespoon (25 percent DV)
Anchovies: 951 milligrams in 1 can/2 ounces (23 percent DV)
Egg Yolks: 240 milligrams in 1/2 cup (6 percent DV)2

If you choose to supplement with omega 3 oils, buy the best ones you can afford. Look for organically sourced, cold pressed, fish oils, to get the much needed EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) for optimal brain health. Flaxseed and hemp oil can be used as a vegetarian option, however they require the body to convert the ALA (alpha linolenic acid) into EPA and DHA, and the rate of conversion varies greatly in each person. You will need much more plant based omega 3 to get the optimal amount of EPA and DHA to support brain and heart health.

For a fantastic article on Olive Oil and all its healing properties, click here.

Important note:

The body works together as a whole, there are always other factors that can contribute to how well your body uses or absorbs other nutrients. This is very true when considering omega 3s. The body also must have enough zinc, selenium, folic acid and dietary antioxidants in order to properly process and use the omega 3s. A Nutritional Consultation can assess nutritional deficiencies.

Unhealthy fats:

Fats and oils that have been genetically modified, highly processed to the point of no longer resembling the plant they can from (in smell or taste) or fats/oils that have been manufactured (margarine). These oils don't expire- they don't go bad because they are so highly processed.

Bad: soybean (most "vegetable" oils)- GMO, Corn oil- GMO, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, margarine, rapeseed/canola- GMO- all highly processed, stripped of nutritional value and/or made from genetically modified plants and high heat processed with hexane.

Ugly: Transfats: processed and fried foods, margarine, partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils, coffee creamers, processed snacks, most store bought cakes, desserts, and chips

Dietary cholesterol is good for you! Cholesterol can be found in eggs, butter and animal meats (organically and humanely raised is best!). Sugar is what causes damage to the arteries, cholesterol is simply a bandage for the damage. Check out this great explanation in this video:

Some people have trouble digesting fats, they get stomach or belly cramps, diarrhea, indigestion and acid reflux. This indicates a serious digestive imbalance. Please talk to a Natural Health Practitioner to correct this imbalance and allow your body to absorb fats better. This is a great article on malabsorption.

SYMPTOMS OF FAT MALABSORPTION:

Greasy, smelly, light-colored and/or floating stools
Gas and belching after meals
Very dry skin (indicates fat isn’t being absorbed or not enough is being consumed)
Gallbladder pain (right side, under ribs)
Gallstones
Nausea after eating
Hormone imbalances, because fat is necessary to synthesize new hormones and eliminate old hormones

WHAT CAUSES FAT MALABSORPTION?

Fat malabsorption results from poor digestion and specifically from one or more of these three causes:

Liver congestion – the liver can’t synthesize good bile
Poor quality bile – the gallbladder can’t release thick, sticky bile
Lack of pancreatic enzymes – these enzymes, along with bile, digest fat

For those who like old school reading materials, these are great books on dietary fats:

The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD
Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill by Udo Erasmus
The Brain Diet by Alan C Logan, ND, FRSH

I hope you have found this information helpful. My goal is to share information to educate and empower people to take control of their own health. Please contact Lisa for more information. I would love to help you experience Better Health Naturally!

The information provided here is for educational purposes only. For treatment please seek a qualified health care provider.