What is fat?

The first group are what we call saturated fats. These come primarily although not exclusively from animal sources. Examples of vegetable saturated fats would include coconut oil and palm oil. Saturated fats, unlike what you may have been told over and over again, are the safest group of fats for human consumption. These are the fats that our ancestors consumed because it was all that there was. Saturated fats are what we call closed bonded lipids. This means that the molecule is completely sewn up and there are no open bonds to which other particles or other elements may attach themselves. This is important because for this reason, saturated fats cannot become oxidized, rancid, or form free radicals, which can damage, irreversibly, various tissues within the body.
The next group of fats are what we call the unsaturated fats, often also referred to as polyunsaturated fats or oils. Unsaturated fats are necessary because of the fatty acids that they provide, however we were intended to get these fats and oils as they naturally occurred in foods. Once the food industry discovered that they could extract these delicate fats and oils from foods and concentrate them in bottles for cooking and other food use, that’s where the trouble began.
When unsaturated fats are no longer protected by the foods in which they occur they rapidly can become rancid and oxidized, forming millions of free radicals, which can bombard the living cells of the body, permanently altering the DNA or genetic structure of those cells. This is because unsaturated fats are what we call open bond lipids; they have many bonds which are empty, allowing oxygen and other substances to readily attach themselves to these molecular structures. So dangerous are these fats in concentrated form that their rise in consumption has contributed to the epidemic of heart disease and other vascular problems that we face today.
This is because the free radicals produced from oxidized unsaturated fats can target the inner muscle walls of our arteries, altering the genetic makeup and ultimately setting the artery up for blockages down the road. As odd as it may seem, these are the fats that have been touted for decades as being a safe and healthy alternative to saturated animal fats.
We can now see that exactly the opposite is the case.
The next group of fats we should discuss our called mono unsaturated fats. These are technically unsaturated oils but with far fewer open bonds, which means that their ability to attract oxygen and hence become rancid and oxidized is much, much lower. Mono unsaturated fats would include Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, and Peanut Oil. Since these oils do not readily become oxidized and rancid they are ideal for not only cold food preparation such as salads but also for low heat cooking as well. The Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece have a diet almost exclusively of saturated fats and monounsaturated oils. It is this, in part, that contributes to the healthy factors involved in what we call the Mediterranean diet.
Lastly, we should mention the laboratory altered fats that have invaded our food for several decades. These include hydrogenated fats such as margarine and that horrible white stuff commonly sold under the name Crisco, both of which are extremely dangerous because their chemical makeup has been altered and the body no longer can recognize those chemical structures or know what to do with them. Trans fats, which are finally getting the negative attention that they should have all along, are now slowly being phased out of our foods. Trans fats belong to the group of synthetic altered fats that carry the worst potential health consequences.
It’s understandable that all of this conflicting information about fats and oils can be so confusing so let’s just sum it up. Consume moderate amounts of fat, for most people this would be about 30% of your caloric intake. Make sure that those fats are saturated or mono unsaturated. That means animal fats and butter combined with monounsaturated fats such as olive oil or avocado oil make up the healthiest combination. Nations that primarily consume fats and oils in this combination have the lowest incidence of heart disease per capita of any other nations.
