Some Typical Questions and Misconceptions on Fats and Oils

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Some Typical Questions and Misconceptions

on Fats and Oils

_http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/fats-oils-faqs.html_

(http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/fats-oils-faqs.html)

By Mary G. Enig, PhD

This column is dedicated to answering some of the questions on fats and oils

that we receive. They are indicative of the many unfortunate misconceptions

found in the popular literature, which lead to much confusion for the

consumer.

Question: I have read that carbohydrates should not be eaten with fats as

this exacerbates the oxidizing problem and insulin issues of carbs and fats. Is

a low-carb diet necessary to keep saturated fats from oxidizing in the body

and hence becoming dangerous?

Answer: There are many misconceptions all mixed up here. First, only

carbohydrates create " insulin issues. " The body requires insulin to process

carbohydrates, but not fats. Before the discovery of insulin, the only

treatment for

diabetes was a very high-fat, zero-carb diet. Because fats slow down the

entry of sugar into the bloodstream, it is good for diabetics, in fact for

everyone, to eat fats with carbohydrates. Dietary fats lower the glycemic index

of

carbohydrate foods and help stabilize the blood sugar.

Most foods and all of our meals are a mixture of carbs and fats. If it were

true that we should not eat carbs and fats together, then babies would have a

hard time because mother's milk is high in both carbs (in the form of milk

sugar) and fats.

Regarding the " oxidizing problems, " you are probably referring to the

process of peroxidation, which is a type of oxidation that creates unstable

molecules, some of which can cause problems in the body. The fats most likely

to

peroxidize are polyunsaturated oils, especially when they are heated or

processed. Saturated fats are very stable and don't develop these breakdown

products

even when heated to very high temperatures. Saturated fats are used in the

body by muscles for the purpose of providing energy. In the muscles, they

oxidize appropriately in a carefully controlled process. Oxidation is a double

edged sword because you want things to be appropriately oxidized so you can get

energy out of them. The different tissues, such as the muscles, use fats,

especially regular saturated fats, because they don't peroxidize. It is a

possibility that some carbohydrates would make unsaturated fats peroxidize more

readily--that is one of many reasons not to use an excess of polyunsaturated

oils.

Because you can only store a certain amount of carbohydrate, the body turns

excess carbohydrates into fat, and mostly into saturated fat because that is

the first thing that is made in the formation of fat.

Question: Do saturated fats cause insulin resistance?

Answer: Saturated fats have been blamed for everything that ails us, so it's

not surprising that they're now being fingered for insulin resistance! There

have been a few studies in the literature purporting to show that saturated

fats cause insulin resistance and hence type 2 diabetes. We analyzed these

studies in the Summer 2006 issue of Wise Traditions, showing that these were

very poorly done studies which can hardly justify the conclusion that saturated

fats cause insulin resistance. The healthy cell membrane contains at least

50 percent of its fatty acids as saturated fatty acids, so the conclusion that

saturated fats cause insulin resistance is strange indeed.

What we do know is that trans fats cause insulin resistance and researchers

often confuse trans with saturated fats. Unfortunately, when people are told

to stop eating saturated fats, they often end up eating more trans fats.

Certain types of rare fatty acids can cause insulin resistance, but not the

kinds that are found in large amounts in our food.

Question: Does a high-fat diet cause estrogen levels to be too high? I am

referring to a 2003 article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute,

which indicated that when girls stopped eating animal foods, estradiol levels

dropped by 30 percent.

Answer: Is it good for estrogen levels in girls to drop? Girls need estrogen

for the full expression of female traits at puberty and for fertility. When

estrogen drops too low, young women stop menstruating. Young girls need

plenty of good fats for growth, energy and hormone production.

Question: I have seen plenty of studies indicating that butyric acid, lauric

acid, myristic acid and even stearic acid are guilty of causing cholesterol

issues and rises in LDL. Specifically butyric acid from butterfat is said to

cause a skyrocketing effect on LDL.

Answer: Those fatty acids are all different, containing four, 12, 14, and 18

carbons respectively. Their usage in the body is totally different. Several

studies have shown that stearic acid doesn't have much of an effect on LDL.

There are two kinds of LDL-cholesterol. The light, fluffy LDL is good and if

these fatty acids raise light, fluffy LDL, then they are beneficial. Light

fluffy LDL is a building block of lipoprotein, so the fact that it is being

increased for repair is probably good.

The small dense LDL is thought to be bad. One study showed that a lowfat

diet in children raises this bad kind of cholesterol. Dreon, MD et al, American

Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2000 71:1611-1616).

Butyric acid is found almost uniquely in butter, so it is not surprising

that this innocent fatty acid is singled out for heinous crimes. Butyric acid

has anti-microbial effects and feeds the good flora in the colon. Likewise

lauric acid, found in large amounts in coconut oil, and myristic acid, found in

butterfat and certain other animal fats, have roles to play in the

body--especially lauric acid, which has antimicrobial effects and plays a role

in

signaling processes. Butterfat and coconut oil are competitors of the powerful

vegetable oil industry, so it is wise to be very skeptical when you hear claims

that these fats cause disease.

Question: Is there a proper proportion to seek these fats in? In other

words, while butyric may be useful, perhaps too much is bad?

Answer: If you are eating whole, real foods, you will get fats in the right

proportions. Even if you eat large amounts of butter, you still will consume

only small amounts of butyric acid. The real danger is the consumption of

polyunsaturated vegetable oils and trans fats, which are completely new to the

human diet.

By the way, saturated fats protect against the harmful effects of trans

fats. If you generally eat a lot of butter, lard, coconut oil and meat fat, you

can consume industrial trans fats on occasion without problem.

Question: In regards to saturated fat, doesn't boiling oxidize the fat?

Answer: No, saturated fat is stable at cooking temperatures and can even be

used for deep frying. However, boiling will certainly oxidize polyunsaturated

oils and to a certain extent monounsaturated oils, creating harmful free

radicals.

Restaurants and fast food establishments used highly saturated lamb or beef

tallow until the early 1980s, and it would be beneficial for everybody if

they returned to that practice.

Question: Is grapeseed oil a good choice? We hear so much about it. I have

read that grape seed oil has a very high smoke point so it is a good oil to

use for cooking.

Answer: Grapeseed oil contains phenols that raise the smoke point. However

it is very high in omega-6 fatty acids, so it not a good choice for our

diets--we need to avoid excess omega-6 fatty acids as much as possible. Also,

grapeseed oil is industrially processed with hexane and other carcinogenic

solvents, and traces will remain in the oil.

Question: I read the following statement in the Women's Health Letter:

" Dietary animal fats help make hormone-like substances called prostaglandins

that

inhibit or block progesterone production. Not all prostaglandins inhibit

progesterone, but the ones made from animal fats do. " Is this true?

Answer: Where in the world do people get these ideas? Actually, saturated

fats from animal foods support the body's production of prostaglandins,

including those involved in hormone production. In addition, the body needs the

vitamins found in animal foods, especially vitamin A, to make hormones like

progesterone.

Question: I have heard that raw meat is excellent for building the body but

when it is fermented, say with lemon juice, it becomes a pyruvate and thus an

energy protein, not building, protein. Is there any truth to this?

Answer: This is not a question about fats and oils, but it serves as yet

another example of the many misconceptions that scare us away from eating

healthy food.

Pyruvic acid is one of the acids in a metabolic pathway, so in that sense it

does provide energy. The body can make glucose out of pyruvic acid--so

pyruvic acid would be a good and beneficial substance to eat.

During the fermentation of meat, both lactic acid and pyruvic acid are

formed--the latter is formed from certain types of amino acids. But when we

ferment meat, the end product is still mostly meat, not the acids formed by

fermentation. Fermented meat therefore contains proteins used for building and

repair, and beneficial acids used for energy. This explains why so many

traditional cultures valued fermented meat!

Sidebars

Oxidation and Peroxidation

Oxidation of fatty acids in the body refers to a step-by-step process

whereby the fats are broken down to produce energy. In the body, this proceeds

as a

controlled, enzymatic process whereby the fatty acid molecules lose

electrons (hydrogen atoms) and the energy molecule being formed gains the

electron

charge. However, unsaturated fatty acids exposed to heat and oxygen, as in

processing and cooking, undergo a chemical change known as auto-oxidation

whereby

free radicals (unpaired electrons) causing rancidity are produced. These

oxidized fatty acids can cause undesirable uncontrolled reactions in the body.

Peroxidation is a process whereby oxygen is added to a molecule, resulting

in unstable molecules containing extra amounts of oxygen. In the cell

membranes, this can lead to uncontrolled reactions and a lot of damage.

Antioxidants

such as vitamin E help control the damage from peroxidation of fatty acids.

Saturated Fats Charged with New Crime!

A member in Sweden recently alerted us to articles in the Swedish newspapers

describing a new study in which saturated fat is charged with impeding

cognitive performance. " Saturated fat can make you stupid, " said one headline.

The study was published in the European Journal of Neurology (volume 13,

2006). Male and female rats were divided into two groups, one fed a diet of 42

percent fat from a mixture of coconut oil and corn oil; the other was fed a

diet of 10 percent fat. The high-fat diet had a negative effect on " hippocampal

neurogenesis, " that is, the generation of nerve cells in an area of the

brain called the hippocampus, but only in the male rats. The authors concluded,

" . . . our study provides the first compelling evidence that a high intake of

dietary fat per se has a negative influence on hippocampal neurogenesis. "

Note, first of all, that the authors did not single out saturated fats in

their conclusion--these accusations only appeared in the media. In fact, the

authors do not provide any information in the study about the percentage of

fatty acids in the dietary mix. The mix could have been mostly polyunsaturated

corn oil--and several studies have shown that polyunsaturated oil inhibits

neurological development and function.

Nor do the researchers indicate what kind of coconut oil they were using.

Most of the coconut oil used in scientific experiments is fully hydrogenated, a

process that gets rid of all the essential fatty acids. Thus, the diet of

corn oil and coconut oil may have induced a deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids,

another likely explanation for cognitive decline.

But the interesting thing about these findings is that they only occurred in

male rats, not in the females, an indication that the lack of neurogenesis

was related to hormonal factors. Most rat chow is based on soy, rich in

estrogenic compounds that have been shown to have deleterious effects on male

rats.

There is no way to tell from this study which factors inhibited hippocampal

neurogenesis but the one that is the least likely to be the culprit--the

normal brain contains very high levels of saturated fat--has become the

whipping

boy for the others.

About the Author

Mary G. Enig, PhD is an expert of international renown in the field of

lipid biochemistry. She has headed a number of studies on the content and

effects

of trans fatty acids in America and Israel, and has successfully challenged

government assertions that dietary animal fat causes cancer and heart

disease. Recent scientific and media attention on the possible adverse health

effects of trans fatty acids has brought increased attention to her work. She

is a

licensed nutritionist, certified by the Certification Board for Nutrition

Specialists, a qualified expert witness, nutrition consultant to individuals,

industry and state and federal governments, contributing editor to a number of

scientific publications, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and

President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association. She is the author of over

60

technical papers and presentations, as well as a popular lecturer. Dr. Enig

is currently working on the exploratory development of an adjunct therapy for

AIDS using complete medium chain saturated fatty acids from whole foods. She

is Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and Scientific Editor of

Wise Traditions as well as the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer

for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda

Press, May 2000. She is the mother of three healthy children brought up on

whole

foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat. See her website at

_http://www.enig.com/trans.html_ (http://www.enig.com/trans.html) .

 

This article appeared in _Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing

Arts_ (http://www.westonaprice.org/journal/index.html) ,

the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, _Winter 2006_

(http://www.westonaprice.org/html/journal/journal-v7n4wi06.html) .Copyright

Notice:

 

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