Hooray for Saturated Fat!
Saturated fat, the dirty word. Or rather, phrase. Why did this scrumptious staple of our ancestors become so maligned?
Here's a little hint: it's all about the money.
During the low-fat diet craze of the 1970s and 80s, partially hydrogenated oils began to be used in abundance. They were touted as being "lower in fat" but were really invented to increase shelf life by reducing rancidity, thereby putting more money in their manufacturers' pockets. So as to encourage the masses to consume these synthetically created plastic oils, a smear campaign against saturated fats began. They'll give you heart disease! Oh really? Then why, over the 20th century, as consumption of sat fat has REDUCED, and consumption of trans fat has INCREASED, has heart disease also increased?
I cringe when I hear dietitians and other health care practitioners divide fats into 'good' and 'bad' categories. Unsaturated oils, like olive oil, are GOOD! Saturated fats, like butter, are BAD! So I guess our ancestors were wrong all those thousands of years. I guess all that time they spent consuming wild game, unpasteurized dairy products, and coconut actually turned them into overweight disease ridden couch potatoes. Oh, wait - except it didn't. The epidemics that plague us today were practically nonexistent even 150 years ago. Our ancestors were strong and muscular, capable of walking and running vast distances and lifting heavy objects like boulders and saber toothed tigers. Lifespan was shorter on average because so many women died in childbirth. Sure, we keep people alive longer...in hospital beds, with oxygen tubes up their noses. That's not much of a life, if you ask me.
So today we have people trying to get healthy by buying diet pills, getting their stomachs chopped up, counting points, and eating all kinds of plastic food, when all they really need to do is stop these artificial interventions and eat what our predecessors ate. Well...not ALL...but it's a good start.
Bottom line: some of the fat your body NEEDS is of the saturated ilk. Go ahead and indulge in some butter on your sweet potato, or fry your eggs in coconut oil. Some people actually require lots of red meat and feel sick without it. And if you eat just a little more fat, you may be so satiated that Doritos and Snickers Bars will no longer call your name.
