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Five healthy must-have fats to stock in your kitchen that with regular use facilitate the path to optimal vitality and wellness as exemplified by traditional cultures.
When folks ask me for advice on how to change their diet for the better, I tell them that the quickest way to improve their health and just feel amazingly better in general (like, feel better tomorrow – that’s how fast this works) is to get the right healthy fats into their diet and the wrong (factory) fats out.
Eating organic fruits/vegetables and grinding their own flour/making their own bread are usually the two changes that people want to do first, but the truth is, while important, these two things will have the least impact on your health in the immediate term.
I am very much a results-oriented kind of gal, so I try to tell folks what will give them the most bang for the buck right away.
Making significant changes to your diet with minimal impact on how you feel every day is very discouraging. That is why I tell people to get the fats right from the get-go.
The sad truth is that most folks have the fats totally wrong, even if they claim to eat healthily. Another eye-opening truth is that you have absolutely no chance at health if you don’t have the fats right! This is the critical first step toward your best health.
Get the healthy fats right and even if you continue to eat conventional produce and meats (I don’t necessarily advocate this – I am just trying to make a point), your health will blow away anyone who eats everything organic and has the fats wrong!
I know this from personal experience. Getting the fats right was the single change that I made almost ten years ago that finally made me feel terrific after years of eating organic fruits/veggies and meats and still feeling pretty lousy much of the time.
Surprised? Well, consider this. The cell wall of every single cell in the human body is made up of fat. Our very brain is made up of approximately 60% fat.
Don’t those two factoids right there indicate in flashing neon lights the incredible importance of getting the right fats into our diet and how devastating eating the wrong ones can be? I hope anyone reading this blog isn’t still under the incredibly dangerous notion that eating a low-fat diet is a healthy thing to do.
If you are new to the idea that fats can be healthy, check out my article on the scam of skim milk.
Also note that every single healthy ancestral culture on the planet revered fats as the secret for keeping them healthy, fertile and resistant to infectious and chronic diseases. This startling anthropological discovery that conventional health authorities misguidedly gloss over was discovered by Dr. Weston A. Price early in the last century. (1)
With that, I will now reveal the Five Healthy Fats that you MUST have in your kitchen – assuming vibrant health is your goal, of course.
Butter
Ah, what can I say about grass-fed butter? It is one of the most perfect foods on this planet.
Like Julia Child, I have discovered over the years that you simply can’t eat too much butter. And, if you think you’re eating too much, you can always substitute cream, as Ms. Child is rumored to have said!
I like to joke with people that the more butter I eat, the slimmer I get! Butter was my secret weapon for staying trim even after having my third child in my forties.
If you are a butter lover too, you know from experience that there’s quite a bit of truth to that statement!
Deep yellow/orange butter from cows eating rapidly growing spring grass was considered a sacred food by the Traditional Swiss culture, a culture with young men so perfect and pleasing in physique, strength, and character that the Vatican favored these young men over all others to serve as the Papal Guard at the Vatican.
Want your children to have strong, robust physiques and healthy bone structure? Eat lots of butter when you are pregnant and load up their food with it while they are in their growing years. Ignore the low-fat nonsense and see and feel the results for yourself. Eating lots of butter stabilizes the blood sugar and significantly reduces or even eliminates sugar cravings.
Overconsumption of all things sweet and starchy and factory fats are the real villains for those with ill health, NOT whole, healthy fats like butter (2).
The cell wall of every cell in the human body is supposed to be composed of saturated fat, the wonderful fat that is so abundant in butter. Replace the real thing with margarine and the body will incorporate these inferior fats into the cell walls instead.
With the wrong type of fat making up the cell wall, intercellular communication breaks down and the cell itself is weakened.
Skin cells whose cell walls are composed of the fats from polyunsaturated vegetable oils (the main fat in the Western diet) instead of the much stronger saturated fats are more prone to damage from the sun and unsightly brown spots (or melasma if pregnant).
If, for no other reason than vanity, switch to butter and throw out those nasty vegetable oils.
Allergic to dairy and wondering what are good substitutes for butter? The linked article will help you navigate the maze of products on the market for a healthy alternative.
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is loaded with medium-chain saturated fats which are utilized by the body for immediate energy! Want to feel better and have more energy and maybe even lose weight?
Incorporate this wonderful, healthy fat into your diet in generous amounts. Coconut oil is a highly stable oil, so much so, that you can keep it unrefrigerated in your pantry for years and it will not go rancid (I have a large bucket in my garage…it stays perfect through the long, hot, humid Florida summers!). It remains stable even at very high heat, so it is the ideal cooking oil.
I use coconut oil anytime a recipe calls for cooking oil or shortening. Coconut oil used in your baked goods will result in cookies, cakes, and pastries so moist – you and your family will be delighted.
Tip: I recommend expeller-pressed coconut oil if you don’t care for the mild coconut flavor of virgin coconut oil.
Physiologically, coconut oil stimulates the thyroid gland, so it is a fantastic addition to the diet for those that tend toward hypothyroidism. By some estimates, about 80% of Westerners over the age of 25 falls under this category.
Lauric acid, a very important medium-chain saturated fatty acid, is found in abundance in coconut oil (but not MCT oil also called “liquid” coconut oil). Lauric acid is highly antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal.
And guess what? The human mammary gland produces lauric acid and it is contained in breastmilk! Anyone with candida issues of any kind should be regularly consuming coconut oil in their diet. Rubbing coconut oil into the scalp and then shampooing out is a wonderful home remedy for dandruff, a fungal infection of the skin.
If you have trouble stomaching the oil straight up, you can also take it as coconut oil capsules. If you have an allergy to coconut, try palm oil, red palm oil, or palm kernel oil, two other healthy tropical oils.
One word of warning, some folks experience skin or digestive issues from coconut oil. This article explains when to avoid coconut oil due to allergies or sensitivities.
Please see my resources page for where to buy quality coconut oil products.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Without a doubt, extra virgin olive oil is the best of the healthy fats to use for salad dressings. Why don’t all salad dressings at the store contain this wonderful Mediterranean oil?
What’s up with Annie’s brand of organic salad dressing at the health food store using canola or soybean oil? Update: now there is sunflower oil in there too. Has this company lost its mind? No, it is just more beholden to stockholders than customers. Canola, sunflower and soybean oil are all cheap oils that increase the profit margin.
Bottom line: Annie’s is too cheap to just use extra virgin olive oil. In case you haven’t noticed, extra virgin olive oil is rather expensive in comparison. You trade a lower price on industrialized oils with your health, so make sure you buy only extra virgin olive oil and not cheap, highly processed vegetable oil or products that contain them.
If, by chance, you are one of the folks who have trouble with olive oil and tend to put on weight quickly when you consume it, then try another traditional oil such as sesame or peanut oil with a tsp or two of added flax oil for your salad dressings instead.
Please see my shopping list for where to source vetted, 100% pure, unblended extra virgin olive oil.
Animal Fat
Animal fats such as schmaltz, goose, duck, tallow, and lard have nourished Traditional Cultures for centuries. And don’t forget about the rich yolks from pastured chicken, duck, and goose eggs!
Most people don’t even realize that McDonald’s used beef tallow to fry it’s french fries until the sea change in the restaurant industry some 30 years ago in favor of partially hydrogenated fats caused the unfortunate switch to these very unhealthy Factory Fats!
When I make homemade chicken, beef, or duck stock, I freeze in one-quart containers and then easily peel off the fat that freezes on top to use for cooking. Animal fat imparts valuable nutrition and wonderful flavor to roast vegetables.
The reason many kids won’t eat veggies is that they are so tasteless! Roasting organic vegetables in a bit of chicken fat makes them absolutely delicious. My kids frequently ask why the veggies in restaurants are so tasteless and why the ones cooked at home are so yummy. Now you know the secret that Traditional Cultures always practiced!
Beef tallow can’t be beaten for making healthy homemade french fries! Whoever thought that healthy eating could taste so fantastic! Liberal use of traditional animal fats in the kitchen makes this possible.
For more on healthy fats from animals, refer to the articles on how to render tallow and how to render lard.
High Vitamin Cod Liver Oil
Rounding out the Five Fats you must have in your kitchen is Granny’s favorite, cod liver oil. Cod liver oil contains omega 3, essential fatty acids that most Westerners are severely deficient in. Deficiency in these delicate omega 3 fats invites inflammation in the body which leads to innumerable conditions and illnesses. This vetted brand is high quality and no heat processed.
Unlike plain fish oil or krill oil, cod liver oil also contains vitamins A and D in their natural state.
Vitamins A and D, when taken together in whole food like cod liver oil, work synergistically to improve the function of every system in the human body!
The importance of Vitamin D in cod liver oil cannot be underestimated with regard to its positive effects on health. Vitamin D deficiency is even said to be the reason many people get the flu.
Well, there you have it. The Five Fats that when incorporated into your diet will most certainly improve your health and vitality. Once you throw out the Factory Fats you are currently using such as butter substitutes and vegetable oils and replace them with the Five Healthy Fats described in this blog, you will very likely begin to feel improved energy right away.
The most striking change that occurred immediately for me when I got my fats right was a rapid reduction in sugar cravings!
Getting the fats right is the only way I have ever found for people to reduce and eventually eliminate their sugar addiction. Any other approach is temporary at best and relies solely on will power rather than the body being nourished and not needing the sugar (remember that the body converts sugar to saturated fat, so if your diet is low in saturated fat, you will be plagued with sugar cravings that cannot be controlled).
If this is your experience as well, I would love to hear about it as well as any other improvements you’ve noticed in your health once the fats get fixed.
References
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
Study Fails to Link Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
Great article. Wanted to make a few points: with butter, a lot of people cannot tolerate casein or lactose, but you can buy Ghee which is butter that is melted so that the casein and lactose are removed.
Two missing SUPER fats: Avocado & Macadamia Nuts
Also seeds are not super fats. They are marketed as having more Omega 3’s than 6’s which is true. sort of. The body uses EPA and DHA but the omega 3’s in seeds are ALA and LA. The body can only convert about 10% of ALA and LA to EPA and DHA. So lets say theres 6 omega 3 units and 3 omega 6 units or 2:1. 6 x 10%=.60 and so therefore your body is really geting a 1:5 omega 3 to omega 6 ratio which is not good. You should limit your seed take to a small amount. The best one I know of is pumpkin seeds because of their magnesium and zinc content.
I guess coconut oil is a very misunderstood oil. Many would go for the high-priced oils for thinking they are the best and healthy one when a coconut oil will do, plus it is much cheaper.
My grandmother used cod liver oil for EVERYTHING! 🙂 She lived to be 97! Would have been 98 this year.
Hi good folks. It was interesting to read your inputs in this great “eat yourself to health” debate. Personally, I eat (or try to, because sometimes I cheat) two times a day. Breakfast and lunch. My breakfast is divided into a bed part and an out of bed part. Speaking first about the bed part of my breakfast. Water is consumed, after waking up (5.30-6) and putting a big pillow under my head, from a plastic water-bottle that is waiting for me on the bedside table. 20-30 minutes later a fruit, usually an apple, which I get from the fruit-bowl in the kitchen, is consumed in the bed, which I have consequently returned to from the kitchen. Turning now to the out-of bed part of my breakfast. Entering the kitchen I prepare myself a bowl of muesli, (which long ago was mixed with such healthy stuff as rolled oats, all-bran, sesame seeds, linseeds, almond pieces, goji berries, etc.). A bowl of muesli consists of two scoops of the muesli mixture and a big splash of skim milk. I also have a half glass of grapefruit juice, a cooked egg white with iodine salt, and a cup of black light roasted coffee. Thus, this was my breakfast. Turning now to my lunch. My lunch is huge and is divide into four smaller parts. These four parts are approximately eaten 9.30, 11.30, 1.30, and 3.30. Part one consists of two hard bread (ryvita) sandwiches, one with sugar-free nut-butter and the other with spreadable (eg. gorgonzola) cheese. With these two sandwiches I drink 400ml skim-milk. Part two consists of a small hot chips and a chicken strip (or a chicken bbq-stick). Part three is the snack part and consists of a small bag of the flat crunchy kind of chips (or salted peanuts) and a can of “coke zero”. Part four is the same as part one. I try not to eat after four o’clock since I have been indoctrinated with the adage that one should eat ones last meal four hours before putting ones body into a horizontal position. And I try to do this between 8 and nine. I then read myself to sleep, which usually happens just before 10 o’clock. I also have to mention that I drink 2-3 litres of water during the day. This is what I consume on a normal winter day at the moment. So, what is wrong with my way of eating. The first thing that comes to mind is that I eat too little veggies during the day. Although, I do get my C-vitamin from the grape-fruit juice I drink in the morning. I get my B-vitamins from my muesli and sandwiches. I get calcium from milk and cheese. I get fibre from muesli and sandwiches. I get protein from skim-milk, egg-white, gorgonzola cheese, nut-butter, and chicken-strip/bbq-stick. Where do I miss out?
Cod liver oil may be good for one’s health. One thing, though, that I have slowly come to understand is that one’s health, and longevity, very much depend on being able to cope with all the toxins that hide in foods and drinks. To not speak about the toxins that we consciously consume. Toxins like alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, etc. I have come to believe that we could extend our life-length enormously if we cut out, or drastically minimize the intake of these toxins into our our bodies. This also apply to hair dye, and to a lesser extent shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste., etc. The chemicals in these head applications can and and do seep into our heads and poisons vital body functions, leading to premature ageing and early death.
Some people who regularly drink alcohol like to take a, so called “white week” from time to time. A “white period” is also wise to take in terms of caffeine, and nicotine intake. The best is, of-course, to quit it all together. Personally so do I only drink coffee and tea during the three winter months of the year. I have, consequently, a 9 months “white period”. (although sometimes I have a few cups around Christmas and New Year). I wish you all happy health hunting.
Hi Rolf,
Seeing as you are asking for advice, and, since you posted this question on a Traditional Foods blog, I am going to give you traditional foods- style advice.
If you read this article again, and follow its advice, you will have a good start.
You have very little healthy fat in your diet, obviously. Keep your yolk in the egg, drink whole milk, not skim. Raw, if possible. Get rid of the nut butter and use real butter. And don’t eat hot chips and fried foods(they are almost always cooked in unhealthy, processed, vegetable oils).
Obviously, stop eating packet chips or drinking soft drink.
Or is your question rhetorical?
Hi Jessica.
Thank you for your kind reply. I am not afraid of eating egg-yolk, but try to limit my consumption to two egg-yolks a week. Some times I eat more than two and sometimes less. I do however eat more egg-white than egg-yolk. I do this by old habit, due to the classical saturated fat scare; because I like the taste of a whole egg more than the taste of just the egg-white. In terms of milk, the main reason I have focused on skim-milk is because I feel bloated after other fatter alternatives. I like to drink soy-milk, which I think is a healthy alternative to milk, but find it too rich. My favorite “milk” drink is, therefore, a mixture of half skim and half soy milk. I like the taste of real 100% butter, but again find it too rich for my mid-section, and therefore prefer i lighter alternative. I agree completely with what you say about chips and fried foods and try to avoid them, although sometimes I do have a little taste of them. I also agree with your view about soft drinks. If I ever have a soft-drink nowadays it’ll be a can coke zero, which apparently has less chemicals than Pepsi-Max (which I do like more). I, however, do not agree with you regarding nuts. The nut-butter I am using is a, non-sugar, peanut butter. That sugar is a big crock I have, like so many other here, also concluded this. Sometimes I have a bit to enhance the taste a bit of something, but it is not doing my body any good. If I indulge in chocolate I get a bit numb in my right leg., so I have to be careful with that. Finally could you, please, explain to me why my nut-butter is no good. Thx.
Rolf
Just a simple correction. Animal cells have no cell walls; plant cells do. It is the cell membrane that is made up of phospholipid bilayer.
Hi Sarah,
I’ve taken your advice and this is wild. I’ve made more changes (i.e. organic, from no milk and back to milk, organic when possible vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, legumes) over the past 15 years and even more recently this year and nothing seemed to really help. The only thing is even though it seems to be working I feel like I might be doing something wrong and I’m kinda of at a plateau. The first day was great and 2nd even better. Actually I guess the only thing I need is some animal fat. So is it possible to get it like coconut oil? I also switched to a different butter but it’s supposed to be organic and grass fed. Or could it be a slight lack of fruits and veggies at times? I hope I hear from you and thanks for this blog.
Hi Sarah,
I don’t fry extra virgin olive oil but I do put in my oatmeal which is hot and most times I don’t even eat it right away. I’ll put it in a thermos and eat 20, 30 minutes later or a few hours later. My question is does the oil lose its nutritional value every time I do that?
Sarah,
My son and I used your article in a report to his science teacher b/c she told the class that coconut oil causes heart disease. Although we did not covert her, it was great to have your article about fats. BTW, she noticed you said “cell wall” in your section under Butter, instead of “plasma membrane”, as humans do not have cell walls as plants do. :0)