“And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.” Genesis 45:18.
What is fat and is it bad for you or not? Many of us have asked this question of late. We hear many conflicting statements. Here is what I have concluded;
God made fat just the same as He made carbs and protein. He at no time forbids His people to eat all fats even when giving them health laws to live by; just the fat between the skin and the muscle (called “cover fat”) and what surrounds the organs. These fats are storage places for toxins. Marbling fat inside the meat was OK.
We can grow butter and olive oil on our farm. Other fats range from “difficult to grow at home” to “impossible without a big factory.”
“Fat” is a generic term for a class of lipids. Fats won’t dissolve in water and have a density significantly below that of water, (they float.) Fats that are liquid at room temperature are referred to as “oil.”
There are three types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
Saturated fats are usually solid or almost solid at room temperature. All carbon bonds on the molecule are occupied by hydrogen atoms (thus “saturated” in hydrogen). They are stable (won't easily go rancid even when heated) and your body makes them from carbohydrates as well as using the ones you eat (i.e. animal fats, coconut oil). They constitute at least 50% of the human cell membrane, giving the cell necessary stiffness and integrity so it can function properly. They help the bones absorb calcium, protect the liver from toxins, enhance the immune system, feed the heart muscle, and protect us from harmful boogie-boos in the digestive tract.
Monounsaturated fats have one double bond in the form of two carbon atoms double-bonded to each other. They are kinked at the position of the double bond. They are relatively stable, also, and won't go rancid when heated. They occur mostly in olives, avocados and nuts.
Polyunsaturated fats have two or more pairs of double bonds and therefore lack four or more hydrogen atoms (thus "poly or many-unsaturated"). These are also kinked. They stay liquid even in the fridge. They are unstable and go rancid very easily. Do not heat them, even in cooking, or expose them to air or light. They are found in soy, corn, Safflower, canola and other veggie oils. Excess amounts have been shown to contribute to cancer, heart disease (artery clogs are only about 26% saturated fat. The rest is unsaturated with over half of that being polyunsaturated), immune system dysfunction, liver damage, digestive disorders, learning disabilities, impaired growth, and weight gain.
All fats have at least a little of each of these, though most have more of one (such as butter which is very high in saturated fats and very low in the other two.)
Cholesterol is a high-weight alcohol that is manufactured in the liver and most human cells. Along with saturated fats, it gives our cells necessary stiffness. It is a precursor to the sex hormones, vitamin D, and vital corticosteroids (hormones that help protect us from stress, heart disease and cancer).
Bile salts, which are vital to digestion, are made from it.
Cholesterol is an antioxidant (which is why our levels go up with age. Our cells produce more of it to fight free-radicals which cause cancer and heart disease), builds neural-pathways (babies MUST have it to build their brains), and build the stomach wall.
The body produces more cholesterol, not when you eat more cholesterol, but when there are potential disease-causing conditions in your body; much like a city with a high crime rate often has a bigger police force. You don't lower the crime rate by firing your policemen, right? You don't lower your cholesterol rate by not eating cholesterol.
What causes these disease conditions?
- Free-radicals (cancer causers),
- poor thyroid function (often caused by high sugar and low vitamin and low usable iodine consumption),
- rancid fats (the ones listed above that spoil quickly and shouldn’t be heated),
- mineral deficiencies,
- white flour,
- high counts of bacteria and
- bad microbes.
Triglycerides are a fancy name for fats in the human body.
HDL and LDL, the so-called “good” and “bad” cholesterols.
HDL is called good because it is higher in people who are healthy with no signs of heart disease. LDL is higher in people who are ill. LDL doesn’t cause heart attacks or illness, but is a sign that there is illness in the body. High HDL is a sign of health, especially a sign of someone who exercises enough. If your LDLs are too high it means you are not exercising enough or eating good enough to keep disease at bay, or that something else has gone wrong with your body.
Hydrogenated fats are created by turning polyunsaturates (liquid oils) into solids (margarine, shortening). To do this manufacturers start with the cheapest oils (soy, corn, cottonseed, etc.) which are already rancid (the oxygen and heat they are exposed to during extraction often turns them rancid from the get go). They mix them with tiny metal particles (usually nickel oxide) and subject them to hydrogen gas in a high-pressure, high-temperature reactor. Then they add soap-like emulsifiers and starch to give it a better consistency. Then the oil is steam cleaned (high-temperatures again). This removes the nasty odor. They bleach its gray color into white, dye it yellow, and add flavoring to make it resemble butter. Now doesn't that sound yummy?
Trans fats are polyunsaturated fats where, because of the chemical changes in the hydrogenation process, the hydrogen atoms change position on the fatty acid chain.
Before “margarine,” pairs of hydrogen atoms occur together causing the chain to bend. After hydrogenation, the atoms are on the opposite sides of the fatty chain causing the chain to straighten out. This "trans" formation is rarely found in nature.
Your digestive system does not recognize these as the poisons they are. It incorporates Trans-fats into the cell membranes as though they were normal fats.
Once in place they prevent necessary chemical reactions because the electrons in your cell membranes are in the wrong places so the chemicals your body needs don't fit where they belong. The spots are occupied by the useless trans-fats.
What I have just said about fats is completely opposite of what you constantly hear in the media, isn't it? It looks like saturated fats and cholesterol are GOOD for you while polyunsaturated fats are BAD. Here is the first key; God made most saturated fats. Man made most polyunsaturated fats.
“There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Before 1920, when our diet consisted of 50% saturated fats, coronary heart disease was so rare, doctors advised the man importing the first electrocardiograph to go into a more profitable field.
The Framingham Heart Study of over forty years with 6,000 people found that the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, and the more active one was, the LOWER the person's serum cholesterol.
Now, if they were overweight and inactive, they did have a slightly higher risk of heart disease. Gee, it looks like it is TV and labor saving devices such as cars that are causing heart disease instead of butter!
A British study with several thousand men was split into two groups. Half ate less saturated fats and cholesterol and stopped smoking. The other group didn't. At the end of one year those on the "good" diet had MORE deaths than those on the "bad" diet even though the "bad dieters" kept smoking (something we know for a fact will shorten your life).
A study of 12,000 men showed that those with "good" dietary habits had a slight reduction in coronary heart disease but they were VERY much more likely to die from cancer, brain hemorrhage, suicide, and violent death, more than making up for the reduction in heart disease.
A medical research council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease than those that used margarine.
Jews in Yemen, whose diets contained fats solely of animal origin, had little heart disease or Diabetes compared to a group of Jews living in Israel. (First clue:) The Jews in Israel ate sugar. Those in Yemen didn't.
The Masai African tribes subsist largely on milk, blood and beef. They have no heart disease and have low cholesterol.
Eskimos eat a great deal of animal fat. They have no heart disease.
In China, regions where the people consume large amounts of whole milk have half the rates of heart disease than those that consume small amounts of animal products. (Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)
I could fill page after page of studies that show eating God-made fats to be healthy.
Why, then, all the hype to make everyone quit eating saturated fats and cholesterol?
“We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the Medical Profession.”
George Bernard Shaw
Most in science have rejected God, making humans the closest thing to divine they believe in. Certainly modern human scientists are smarter than random, natural, accidents (Evolution). Thus, many have no problem accepting that creation is flawed.
A doctor in the 1950's first proposed that eating fat caused the heart to quit working. He did some studies that showed ambiguous results, at best, but since he was already so convinced that his ideas were right, he misinterpreted the studies as showing that the "Diet-Heart" idea was correct and said so in his summaries.
Other scientists soon did more studies with the same idea in mind. Most of these were either so poorly done and biased as to be of no use whatsoever or else the study showed no correlation between heart disease, high cholesterol, and fat intake, but the scientists wrote in their summaries that they HAD seen a correlation, again seeing what they wanted to see instead of what was really there.
As the years went by and the studies became bigger and more important, scientists became aware that if they didn't support the diet-heart idea they would become a laughing stock and not be able to get any more government money for research; they would be unemployed. So they would say they had found evidence that high fat/cholesterol caused heart disease whether they did or not. (Does this begin to sound like the old story "The Emperor Has No Clothes" to you?)
Most doctors are neither research scientists nor statisticians. (For a book on this subject written by a doctor who also happens to be a research scientist AND a statistician see “The Cholesterol Myth” by Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD) They would have a great deal of trouble reading the actual reports. That is not their specialty. Nor do they have the time to read the many pages of technical information in each report.
So they do what everyone else does; they read the study director's summary of the results of the report. If the director is biased or out right lying, the doctor would have no way of knowing this anymore than we do.
When the media wants to report on medical issues, they read the study summaries and talk to the doctors that read the summaries as well as the directors that wrote the summaries.
Since the whole diet-heart idea sounds logical, we all try to follow the government guidelines that were set by the scientists that did the studies and the manufacturers of the cholesterol lowering drugs.
Many in the media are vegetarians for religious reasons, so anything that discredits eating animals is assumed to be right and anything that supports eating animals is wrong. Thus they ignore any studies that don't support their viewpoint (Not intentionally. There isn't enough time or money to report every little thing in the world and they have to choose to leave something out. When a study comes along that, according to your world view, can not possibly be right, you leave it off in favor of news that you see as correct).
Sugar has far more convincing links to heart disease, but the Sugar Public Relation Experts are very active in encouraging the media and doctors to ignore any evidence that may harm their product's sale. There is no "Fat Public Relations" group.
Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, who is a doctor, research scientist AND statistician, author of “The Cholesterol Myth,” put all the studies he could find together and read them (the whole studies, not just the summaries). His conclusion is that there is no proof that what you eat will affect your cholesterol levels or your chance of heart disease. Nor will your cholesterol levels affect your risk of heart disease (women with high cholesterol live longer than any other group, for example.)
If you want to lower your risk of heart attack;
- Reduce the stress in your life. It has been proven that stress causes your blood vessels to restrict, reducing the flow of blood and, if there are any blockages, causing heart attacks.
I don't think that is what the feminists meant when they said they wanted “equality.”
A hundred years ago, everyone was a farmer and in touch with God’s Creation everyday (which reduces stress in and of itself). They ate natural foods (which didn't stress the digestive system). The roles in life were clearly defined, so the hubby didn't have to worry about whether the canning got done and the wifey didn't have to worry about whether the plowing got done. No one had to stress about how they fit into society either. You just knew because you saw where you were going and how you fit in from the time you were born. Sure, your life had its problems, but not anything you hadn't seen your parents and neighbors handle. And everything slowed down to a near stop in the winter, so your body had down time to heal while you had time to spend with your family forming those bonds that reduced your stress in the hard times.
Today, you have to decide what your place in life will be (Gay? Straight? Bi? Single? Married? Co-habittating? Conservative? Liberal? Druggy? Hippie? Preppie? Surfer? Skater? Biker? Valley girl? Yup-dink? Yup-dwk? Yup-swk? Redneck? And on and on), you have to fight your way through a very unnatural, high stress environment known as "school." Then you have to work in an unnatural environment (unless you are a professional farmer or cowboy). You are bombarded with messages to buy, Buy, BUY; both sexes have to worry about outside the home issues AND inside the home issues, plus we choose to be bombarded by messages of stress and conflict (ever seen any TV show that wasn’t filled with conflict of some type or another?) for “entertainment” and "relaxation"! No wonder we are keeling over in record numbers!
Remember the best ways to reduce stress? Studies have shown that believing in God reduces all stress-caused diseases. Those who attend church regularly and pray often have fewer serious illnesses and recover from those illnesses faster. I think this is God's way of rewarding the faithful. As with most of God's rewards, the physical cause is easy enough to explain. It is just less stressful to leave all your troubles to God and trust Him to take care of them than it is to believe you are your only hope.
So, go to church, read your Bible (you will find answers to most of the above questions there. You don't have to fuss about it yourself), pray, and when you find yourself worrying, consciously place those cares on His alter and walk away.
- Exercise more. Get the blood pumping through your arteries. This stretches them and keeps them limber.
Your arteries are the same way. Exercise makes the blood pump faster and harder which stretches the artery walls. This keeps them soft and supple.
I mentioned the Masai tribe above who live on blood, beef, and milk. They also run and walk many miles everyday looking for forage for their cattle. They have NO heart disease.
- Eat naturally. Give your body the vitamins and minerals it needs to function correctly and it reduces the stress it takes to live. It also gives your body the tools it needs to repair itself.
- Avoid man-made sugars (table-sugar), and polyunsaturated fats, especially hydrogenated ones such as margarine. These substances steal from your body instead of giving to it and act as poisons.
- Enjoy your red meats and butter. God made them. Leaving them out will NOT lower your risk of heart attack. It might raise your stress level.
“The farther science strays from God, the more they will believe taboo and superstition.”
You would think if eating butter and eggs and other high fat items was bad for us, God would have told us so when He told us to wash after handling diseased bodies, not to go to the bathroom in the middle of the street, and the many other sensible health laws He gave us in Deuteronomy. But there is only one statement in the Bible saying anything bad about eggs. That is in Job where he says he will not eat eggs without salt because they taste gross that way (I agree!) Jesus said eggs were a good gift, remember?
“If your son shall ask an egg will you give him a scorpion?... If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts (eggs!) unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11:12
Butter is, likewise, referred to in a good or neutral sense throughout the Bible.
Eggs are your highest natural source of Lecithin.
The second highest source of Lecithin in the American diet is butter which is:
- anti-bacterial,
- anti-tumoral,
- boosts the immune system
- and is choke-full of vitamins; A, D, K, E, and all their naturally occurring cofactors.
Butter contains the Wulzen factor which prevents stiffness of joints.
It contains Arachidonic Acid, a vital component of cell membranes and precursor to prostaglandins.
It has short chain fatty acids, which do not need to be emulsified by bile salts, but are absorbed directly from the small intestine to the liver where they are converted into quick energy (instead of being stored as body fat).
Butter contains manganese, zinc, chromium and iodine.
Gee, you would think Someone smart had designed it.
Omega 6 fatty acids aid in eye function, skin strength and pregnancy but encourage inflammation.
Omega 3’s do the same things but are less encouraging to inflammation and better at boosting the immune system. They have been shown to lower triglycerides (fat in the blood), decrease heart attacks and varicose veins, reduce scaring, depression and blood pressure. They also appear to reduce the risk of cancers and improve brain function.
Omega 3s and 6s compete for the same places in cells. You definitely want as many 3s in your diet as possible. They are found in oily fish:
- salmon,
- herring,
- mackerel,
- anchovies,
- tuna,
- shark,
- orange roughy,
- mahi mahi, and
- sardines; (pretty much anything that has fins),
- flax seeds,
- chia seed,
- kiwi fruit,
- walnuts,
- brown algae,
- black raspberry and
- hemp.
Eggs from chickens fed greens and insects (a much more natural diet than the corn and soybeans fed to most factory farm chickens) are also high in the omega 3s. The same goes for the chicken meat as well as beef, lamb and grass fed milk products. The more natural, grass fed diets produce the healthier omega 3s.
- So, eat fish at least once a week (though there is some concern about mercury poisoning in some fish. Most nutritionists believe the benefits of the omega 3s outweigh the risks of the mercury) and if you can afford, it eat range/grass fed meat, milk and eggs.
God created this world. He provided food for us. He loves us. I believe He provided the best food possible in terms of taste and health.
If margarine and artificial eggs are better for us why didn't He make cows and chickens give them instead?
If red meat is bad for us why didn't He tell Israel they couldn't eat it instead of saying they could have all they wanted as long as they left off the cover fat?
Why didn't He tell Israel to let the cream rise to the top of their milk and discard it before drinking the milk?
Why didn't He forbid eating eggs?
What did He tell us?
“There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Summary:
When you eat fat opt for those that are closest to nature; butter, olive oil, nut oils, coconut oil, etc.
Canola is the best of the light flavored oils, so use it when the others are too strong.
Eat fish at least once per week and, if possible, eat range/grass fed eggs, meat and milk. Enjoy your meats but cut off the layer of fat around the edge. Sadly, this means the chicken skin, too.
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