Saturated Fats and the Lungs

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Saturated Fats and the Lungs

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/fats_lungs.html

by Mary G. Enig, PhD

 

Yes fat? No fat? High fat? Low fat? Wrong questions! A better question would

be, how much of what kind of fat and why? Yes, we need added fat in our diets

or we lose the synergistic effects from the natural fats in our foods. Such

fats provide us with appropriate satiety signals; they ensure absorption of

important fat-soluble vitamins, phytonutrients and important minerals; and they

provide the raw material for skin health, hormone production and adequate energy

storage.

 

The use of lowfat diets is increasingly recognized as counter productive.

Without good quality fat in the diet to promote proper satiety signals, we tend

to overeat those foods that are readily available. And since " readily

available " foods are either high in simple carbohydrates or partially

hydrogenated fats

and oils or both, and since these foods promote insulin resistance, it is

easy to head in the direction of obesity.

 

Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap. For 30 to 40 years, they have borne the

brunt of an anti-fat campaign. This campaign was promoted by individuals in

the fats and oils part of the food industry who had great influence over

government agencies, consumer groups and the media.

 

Recommendations about fat in the diet made by government agencies such as the

USDA, the FDA, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, organizations

such as the American Heart Association and consumer activist groups such as

Center for Science in the Public Interest invariably paint saturated fat as the

one bad actor in the diet that needs to be fired from the scene.

 

The spokespersons from these organizations don't understand the effects of

the saturated fatty acids found in the diet and they don't understand how much

and where saturated fatty acids are normally found in the human body.

Everything these organizations report about fat is based on what they perceive

to be

the effects of saturated fatty acids on serum cholesterol levels.

 

So when a particular fat raises the level of the body's repair substance,

which is what cholesterol is, the question that really should be asked is

whether

this is good because the body will now get the repair substance it needs, or

whether it could be bad if getting more of the repair substance triggers the

need for repair. The former makes sense, the latter does not. A well-known New

York pathologist, Meyer Texon, MD, noted that accusing fat and cholesterol of

causing the injury that led to the atheroma is akin to accusing the white

blood cells of causing infection; they are both there to help repair.

 

We need natural saturated fat in our diets. The important phospholipids that

form the membranes in all of our cells are made of mostly (half or more)

saturated fatty acids. This is especially true for parts of our brains where

more

than 80 percent of the phospholipids carry half of their fatty acids as

saturated fatty acids.

 

When it comes to our lungs, the very important phospholipid class called lung

surfactant is a special phospholipid with 100 percent saturated fatty acids.

It is called dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine and there are two saturated

palmitic acid molecules attached to it. When people consume a lot of partially

hydrogenated fats and oils, the trans fatty acids are put into the phospholipids

where the body normally wants to have saturated fatty acids and the lungs may

not work effectively. Some research has suggested that trans fatty acids are

causing asthma in children.

 

Recent research shows that having enough saturated fat prevents stroke; and

to protect our kidneys from disease, research shows we need certain kinds of

saturated fatty acids, which are found only in the natural fats such as animal

fats and coconut and palm kernel oils.

 

About the Author

 

Mary G. Enig, PhD is the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for

Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, May

2000. Order your copy here: www.enig.com/trans.html