I’ll be preaching 🤣 about fat today, but I won’t get too technical because this is such an important topic that I don’t want to lose anyone. I’ve also broken it down into two parts because…
THIS IS NOT A TOPIC I WANT YOU TO SKIM OVER. 🤷🏽♀️ With love. 🥰
Fat is SOOOOOO important!! I hope everyone has finally put the low-fat craze of the 80’s behind them, but if you haven’t, please start today. 🫠
First of all. Fat doesn’t make you fat.
Fat is one of the three macronutrients (i.e. nutrients that the body needs in large amounts to provide the body with energy and the building blocks for life).
It helps with the absorption of certain vitamins, protects the organs from damage and supports the nervous system. It is very important to optimal brain function. Your brain is about 60% fat, and easy access to high quality fat will boost cognition, happiness, learning and memory. Wow! Alladat. But also, studies link omega-3 fatty acid deficiency to depression, anxiety, bipolar and schizophrenia. 🤯
Fats are normally divided based on their saturation levels. This where it gets complicated so I’ll just say:
Unsaturated fats like nuts, avocados, salmon, olive oil and flaxseed, can protect the heart and prevent heart disease.
Saturated fats that come from grass fed, grass finished beef and pasture raised animals have high amounts of Vitamin A, which is important to the cultivation of new cells. When people are healing their nervous system, they need the stability of healthy, saturated fat. We were previously told to avoid these due to a link to cardiovascular disease, but studies are now showing that these fats can help people pull themselves out of metabolic chaos, heal their adrenals and optimize their thyroid using food alone and including saturated fats.
Trans fats are indisputably bad for you. They are found in processed foods, baked goods, shortening and margarine. Avoid these at all costs!! 🥺 They undergo a process called hydrogenation, in which they are bleached and deodorized and not meant for the human body, especially not YOUR human body. When you see partially hydrogenated on the label, just put it back. Immediately. 🫣
And never re-heat oil! I know. 😔 In a previous life I was the queen of fried chicken and I would SAVE MY OIL!! (the hor-ror) to reuse for the next batch (and the next 🙈) because in my mind it was ‘seasoned’. You’ll be please to know I don’t do either of those things anymore. I’ve made it a point now that if I am sautéing in oil, I don’t turn my stove higher than medium. And yes, in case you were wondering, it DOES take longer to warm up my heavy AF cast iron pan 🤭 but I think this is better than accidentally overheating my oil and making it toxic to my body.
A few fun facts about oils:
- You shouldn’t take oil by itself on a spoon on an empty stomach. Your liver doesn’t like it. Spread your oil intake throughout the day in and from food. 😧
- You need less oil in the summer and more in the winter because we burn more of it to keep warm. You can measure optimum oil intake by how your skin feels. The skin gets essential fatty acids last and loses them first. Omega-6 and omega-3 together form a barrier in the skin against the loss of moisture and makes our skin soft, smooth and velvety. So, if your skin is dry dry, you might need some good oil. 🙌🏽
- More health problems come from damaged oils than any other part of nutrition, and more health benefits result from healthy oils than any other part of nutrition. 😎
- You should lower your carb intake as you increase GOOD oil intake, or you will gain weight. You know the carbs I’m talking about. 👀
I’m working on being that girl who is succinct, but it’s an ongoing project. 🤪 I’ll go into smoke points and the omegas in a follow-up post. Just thought I would give you some background before I start telling you what to do. 😂