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A dietician sent me an email questioning the wisdom of consuming full-fat foods due to the potential for stored toxins in the fat.
This is apparently the recommendation of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) which urges members to use low-fat or skim dairy products to reduce exposure to toxins that may be contained in the whole fat portion of those same products.
Those of you who read this blog know that I myself eat plenty of healthy fats and have for many years. During the winter months, my fat consumption approaches 60% of my caloric intake. In the summer, it is closer to 50%.
The fat I consume is primarily saturated fat in the form of whole milk, cheese, eggs, kefir, cream, butter, and the fat in the meat of grass-fed animals. This mimics the seasonal fat intake and diet of traditional Northern European cultures, from which I obtain my genetic heritage.
If you wish to determine the appropriate fat intake for your personal cultural heritage, I suggest you read the epic and groundbreaking work of Dr. Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
On a side note, don’t believe the doctor-speak baloney that saturated fat will clog up your arteries and give you a heart attack.
It’s the factory fats (margarine and spreads, vegetable oils, trans fats) and sugar-laden processed foods that will cause problems, NOT whole, natural fats from grass-fed animals such as our chronic disease-free ancestors ate for thousands of years.
Remember, the saturated fat-laden egg has been exonerated for over a decade as a cause of heart attack or stroke after decades of demonization (source: American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, July/Aug 2009).
Animal Fats Contain Nutrition Not Found in Plants
Are you still eating egg white omelets? You are waayyyyy behind the times, my friend!
Saturated fat does not cause a heart attack or stroke! When will our “behind the 8 ball” medical system wake up to the facts and stop recommending the devastating, diabetes and chronic disease-promoting low-fat diet to the American public?
Ok, sorry about that digression.
Am I concerned about the EWG warnings about toxins stored in the fat of animals?
The short answer is, no, I am most certainly not. Here’s why:
- You cannot hope to be healthy for the long term without consuming plenty of whole, saturated fats. Animal fats are where all the vitamin A/D/K is located and if you avoid it, you are going to have some serious nutritional deficiencies to deal with. Supplements can never take the place of food, so opting for the supplement rather than food route doesn’t work nearly as effectively unless they are whole food-based such as cod liver oil or butter oil.
- A well-nourished body can handle the toxins that come its way, but a poorly nourished body that exists in a toxin-free bubble will fall apart anyway. In other words, you have to eat the fat whether or not it is loaded with toxins or you will become nutritionally deficient. If you get what you need nutritionally, your body will be strong and able to eliminate the toxins that come along with little problem. Trying to avoid toxins by eating low-fat is foolish, though, as you will become nutritionally deficient this way and your health will deteriorate even if every mouthful of food you ever eat is 100% organic and toxin-free! In short, always choose nutrition first. With nutrition, you have a good chance at health; without it, you have no chance even if the food choices are toxin-free.
Animal Fats can be Toxin-Free Too!
The points above about eating fat regardless of whether or not it has toxins does not mean that you should not actively seek out clean sources of fat!
I was simply outlining the worst-case scenario – if I could only get animal fat by eating SPAM, then I would eat SPAM rather than not get any animal fat at all. The good news is that you can find sources of clean, whole saturated fats from grass-fed farmers in your local area!
So, seek out clean, grass-fed sources of whole fats from farmers in your local area and get the best of both worlds: healthy, toxin-free fats! Put aside the short-sighted and misinformed warnings about the toxins in animal fats from vegetarian/vegan groups or organizations like EWG. You must consume animal fats to be healthy (and to reproduce successfully and have healthy offspring, incidentally).
Fat avoidance, particularly of animal fats, is not an option for those who seek vibrant, chronic disease-free health.
I know animal cover fat contains toxin. So it should be avoided. However, marbled fat in meat are not toxic and should be consumed.
Margaret, acording to Sally Fallon and Nourishing Traditions, we should totally avoid modern day extruded breakfast cereals. Apparently it is the process of making them -hight pressure/heat what makes them toxic.
A comment was made by the Home Economist that grains are not good for you, how about all the breaakfest cereal like Bran flakes and such, which we eat for breakfast.
Margaret
darkviolets, you might consider visiting eatwild.com and contacting a grassfed farmer in your area. If you have the freezer space to store some beef, you might be able to buy in bulk at a very reasonable per pound price. Also, some local farmers will sell pastured eggs at a very reasonable price if you pick up the eggs at the farm. It is worth looking into.
The problem with the conventional fats and eggs is that they have been changed by chemicals, hormones, and unnatural feed to be very different from real meat and eggs. The difference between the two is huge.
Hi darkviolets, buy the best quality you can afford. Not including animal fats in your diet is not an option if you want to preserve your health. Try to find someone in your community with a few roaming chickens and eat lots of eggs! Canned salmon and sardines are also good choices if on an very tight budget. I don't like the cans due to BPA, but getting the fat is more important than avoiding the BPA.
what if you absolutely can't afford pastured meat or raw dairy? i totally agree about the importance of fat in our diet, but at this time i just can't afford pastured meat or eggs, so we eat the conventional ones. would you say the benefits of consuming fats, even from feedlot animals, outweighs the risks of increased toxin exposure?
Anonymous, one of the main functions of the liver is to convert fat soluble toxins to a water soluble form that can be easily excreted.For this to happen, your liver needs to be well nourished, and you cannot be well nourished without animal fat.
Grassfed cattle are much healthier than factory cattle, and their livers work much better at getting rid of toxins.
My own experience is that if I eat real food and plenty of animal fat, I am healthy.I could go on for three pages about all the health conditions I used to have that have now disappeared.
If PCBs cannot be eliminated as you suggest Anonymous, then why are they present in breastmilk if a Mother is consuming PCB laden foods? Breastmilk is an excretory process of the body and is hence a form of elimination. Toxins are present in other excretions of the body as well. Even mercury and other metals that bind up in the tissues can be eliminated via probitoics and other chelation methods (Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD). The healthier the body, the easier it is for toxin elimination.
Thanks, Stanley, for the update – that was illuminating.
Also, one last tidbit (sorry….same person who did last 2 posts). What I have heard, Far Infrared Saunas are one of the only ways to get rid of at least some of these fat-soluble toxins. Since I have not, obviously, done studies on this myself, I can't verify if it's true. But it is a claim.
The reason (according to the claims made) is that humans have a fatty layer below our skin, and the FIR rays do penetrate that deeply, when you are in the FIR sauna. The toxins do not come out through the sweat, but the exposure to the FIR rays does release them from that fatty layer, and the body is somehow then able to excrete them. I think part of the problem is actually getting those toxins to release.