Confused About Fat?? Choose Grassfed!

[Guest guest]

Confused About Fat?

Choose Grassfed!

by Jo Robinson

 

In my Grandma's day, there was no such thing as a bad fat. All fat was " good "

simply because it tasted good. My Grandma fried her eggs in bacon grease, added

bacon grease to her cakes and pancakes, made her pie crusts from lard, and

served butter with her homemade bread. My grandmother was able to thrive on all

that saturated fat—but not my grandfather. He suffered from angina and died from

heart failure at a relatively young age.

 

My grandfather wasn't alone. Population studies from the first half of the 20th

century showed that Americans in general had a much higher risk of

cardiovascular disease than people from other countries, especially Japan, Italy

and Greece. Was all that saturated fat to blame? The Japanese were eating very

little fat of any kind, while the people of the Mediterranean were swimming in

olive oil, an oil that is very low in saturated fat but high in monounsaturated

oils.

 

So, in the 1960s, word came from on high that we should cut back on the butter,

cream, eggs and red meat. But, interestingly, the experts did not advise us to

switch to an ultra-low fat diet like the Japanese, nor to use monounsaturated

oils like the Greeks or Italians. Instead, we were advised to replace saturated

fat with polyunsaturated oils—primarily corn oil and safflower. Never mind the

fact that no people in the history of this planet had ever eaten large amounts

of this type of oil. It was deemed " the right thing to do. " Why? First of all,

the United States had far more corn fields than olive groves, so it seemed

reasonable to use the type of oil that we had in abundance. But just as

important, according to the best medical data at the time, corn oil and

safflower oil seemed to lower cholesterol levels better than monounsaturated

oils.

 

Today, we know that's not true. In the 1960s, researchers did not differentiate

between " good " HDL cholesterol and " bad " LDL cholesterol. Instead, they lumped

both types together and focused on lowering the sum of the two. Polyunsaturated

oils seemed to do this better than monounsaturated oils. We now know they

achieve this feat by lowering both our bad and our good cholesterol, in effect

throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Monounsaturated oils leave our HDL

intact.

 

In hindsight, it's not surprising, then, that our death rate from cardiovascular

disease remained high in the 1970s and 80s even though we were eating far less

butter, eggs, bacon grease, and red meat: We had been told to replace saturated

fat with the wrong kind of oil.

 

During this same era, our national health statistics were highlighting another

problem, this one even more ominous: an increasing number of people were dying

from cancer. Why were cancer deaths going up? Was it the fact that our

environment was more polluted? That our food had more additives, herbicides and

pesticides? That our lives were more stressful? That we were not eating enough

fruits and vegetables? Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.

 

But there was another reason we were losing the war against cancer: the

supposedly " heart-healthy " corn oil and safflower oil that the doctors had

advised us to pour on our salads and spread on our bread contained high amounts

of a type of fat called " omega-6 fatty acids. "

 

There is now strong evidence that omega-6s can make cancer cells grow faster and

more invasive. For example, if you were to inject a colony of rats with human

cancer cells and then put some of the rats on a corn oil diet, some on a

butterfat diet, and some on a beef fat diet, the ones given the omega-6 rich

corn oil would be afflicted with larger and more aggressive tumors.

 

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, we were getting a second helping of omega-6s from

our animal products. Starting in the 1950s, the meat industry had begun taking

our animals off pasture and fattening them on grains high in omega-6s, adding to

our intake of these potentially cancer-promoting fats.

 

In the early 1990s, we learned that our modern diet was harboring yet another

unhealthy fat: trans-fatty acids. Trans-fatty acids are formed during the

hydrogenation process that converts vegetable oil into margarine and shortening.

Carefully designed studies were showing that these manmade fats are worse for

our cardiovascular system than the animal fats they replaced. Like some

saturated fats, they raise our bad cholesterol. But unlike the fats found in

nature, they also lower our good cholesterol—delivering a double whammy to our

coronary arteries. " Maybe butter is better after all, " conceded the health

experts.

 

Given all this conflicting advice about fat, consumers were ready to lob their

tubs of margarine at their doctors. For decades they had been skimping on

butter, even though margarine tasted little better than salty Vaseline. Now they

were being told that margarine might increase their risk of a heart attack!

 

Some people revolted by trying to abandon fat altogether. For breakfast, they

made do with dry toast and fat-free cottage cheese. For lunch, they ate salad

greens sprinkled with pepper and vinegar. Dinner was a skinless chicken breast

poached in broth. Or better yet, a non-gmo soy burger topped with lettuce.

Dessert? Well, after all that self-denial, what else but a big bowl of fat-free

ice cream and a box of Snackwell cookies. Thank goodness calories no longer

counted! Only fat made you fat!

 

Or, so the diet gurus had told us. Paradoxically, while we were doing our best

to ferret out all the fat grams, we were getting fatter and fatter. We were also

becoming more prone to diabetes. Replacing fat with sugar and refined

carbohydrates was proving to be no more beneficial than replacing saturated fat

with polyunsaturated oils.

 

At long last, in the mid-1990s, the first truly good news about fat began to

emerge from the medical labs. The first fats to be given the green light were

the monounsaturated oils, the ones that had helped protect the health of the

Mediterraneans for so many generations. These oils are great for the heart, the

scientists discovered, and they do not promote cancer. They are also a deterrent

against diabetes. The news came fifty years too late, but it was welcome

nonetheless. Please pass the olive oil!

 

The omega-3s may be the best of all the good fats because they are also linked

with a lower risk of virtually all the so-called " diseases of civilization, "

including cardiovascular disease, depression, ADHD, diabetes, Alzheimer's

disease, obesity, asthma, and autoimmune diseases.

 

So, some of you may be wondering, what does this brief history of fat have to do

with grassfarming? Few people realize that all omega-3s originate in the green

leaves of plants and algae.

 

Fish have large amounts of this good fat because they eat small fish that eat

smaller fish that dine on omega-3 rich algae and phytoplankton. Grazing animals

have more omega-3s because they get the omega-3s directly from the grass. In

both cases, the omega-3s are ultimately passed on to humans, the top of the food

chain.

 

Products from grassfed animals offer us more than omega-3s. They contain

significant amounts of two " good " fats, monounsaturated oils and stearic acid,

but no manmade trans-fatty acids. They are also the richest known natural source

of CLA and contain extra amounts of vitamin E and beta-carotene. Finally,

grassfed meat is lower than feedlot meat in total fat and calories, making it

ideally suited for our sedentary lifestyles.

 

I don't believe it's a matter of luck or chance that grassfed products have so

many of the good fats but so few of the bad. In fact, I'll wager that the more

that is discovered about fat in the coming years, the more grassfed meat will

shine.

 

The reason for my confidence is simple: our bodies are superbly adapted to this

type of food. In the distant past, grassfed meat was the only meat around. Our

hunter-gatherer ancestors either brought home a grazing ruminant such as elk,

deer, or bison, or a predator that preyed on those animals. Either way, the

nutrients found in grass made their way into the animals' flesh, and ultimately,

into our own.

 

Over the eons, our bodies began to " expect " the kinds and amounts of fat found

in grassfed meat. Our hearts counted on the omega-3s to stabilize their rhythm

and keep blood clots from forming. Our brain cells relied on omega-3 to build

flexible, receptor-rich membranes. Our immune systems used the omega-3s and CLA

to help fend off cancer. And because wild game is relatively lean, our bodies

weren't burdened with unnecessary amounts of fat or calories.

 

When we switch from grainfed to grassfed meat, then, we are simply returning to

our original diet, the diet that is most in harmony with our physiology. Every

cell and system of our bodies function better when we eat products from animals

raised on grass.

 

 

 

Jo Robinson is a New York Times bestselling writer. The Omega Diet, the book she

coauthored with Dr. Artemis Simopoulos, explores the ideas in this article in

more depth.

 

Why Grassfed Is Best! focuses on the benefits of pastured animal products. To

order her books or learn more about grassfed products,

visit http://eatwild.com.

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The complete " Whole Body " Health line consists of the " AIM GARDEN TRIO "

Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen

 

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

 

PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

We have made every effort to ensure that the information included in these pages

is accurate. However, we make no guarantees nor can we assume any responsibility

for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or

process discussed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet the all-new My – Try it today!