5 Myths About Fat That You Should Know

5 Myths About Fat

There is so much confusing information around nutrition in general, so to help make things easier , let's dispel some common myths.

Myths

Myth # 1. The body does not need fat.

Myth # 2. There is no such thing as healthy fat.

Myth # 3. Saturated fats from dairy and red meat is bad for your heart.

Myth # 4. Margarine is better for you than butter.

Myth # 5. Low fat products are better for you.

Truth # 1. Every cell in your body requires healthy fats (like the ones found in olive oils, avocados, and even to a small degree saturated fats from farm butter). One organ especially that requires fat for healthy functioning is the brain.

Truth #2. There are some fats, and I am thinking Omega-3 fats from flax, hemp, walnuts and wild fish that are essential to eat in food because the human body cannot create them, and they are needed for again the brain, to help the blood stay healthy and the heart as well.

Truth # 3. This is a someone two sided answer because it depends on the health of the animal that the meat is coming from. Look for grass fed (rather than grain fed) meat. Cows that are grass fed have a higher level of CLA (Conjugated linoleic acid), which people actually take in supplemental form to increase weight loss.

Truth # 4. In the past decade this has been a constant debate, and for many decades it was widely believed that since margarine came from vegetable oils, rather than animal, that they were better for you. The part that at first was not known was how the processing of vegetable oils into a product that was hard (rather than liquid) at room temperature would be so incredibly damaging from human consumption. What I am referring to is Trans fats, which stay very hard in the blood and raise the bad cholesterol in your body.

Truth #5. Low fat products are all over our shelves today. Unfortunately, since fat in food contributes to it's delicious flavor, in order to make a product that people wanted to eat, the manufacturers had to replace the naturally occurring fats with synthesized sugars. So a good thing to remember is - LOW FAT = MORE SUGAR, generally speaking.

With love,

Heidi Rasmussen, BScN, Nutritionist

Grandmother's Kitchen