Sunday, January 16, 2011

Good Oils Vs. Bad Oils with Sally Fallon

I began my journey by driving to the SC chapter's annual Weston A. Price conference in Aiken, South Carolina the Friday after the big snow storm. I wasn't sure if I was going to run into any ice from the storm, but felt sure that at this point the worst of the storm was over and was determined to get there no matter what. More than anything, I did not want to miss an opportunity to hear Sally Fallon speak. By the way if you're not familiar with who Sally Fallon is, she's one of the founders of the Weston A. Price Foundation and co-author of the book "Nourishing Traditions", a book that outlines the history of food and why and how those traditions were fashioned.
We were on the road for around three hours and made a few pit stops along the way. As we got closer to our destination, my mobile map sent us down a pitch black dirt road and we turned around immediately. After experiencing much frustration and thinking we'd never find the venue, we drove a little further and came upon the location - aptly called the Lighthouse Baptist Church.
Honestly, I don't know how long it's been since I've set foot in a church, but needless to say it's been a while. I never thought I'd be in a church listening to such progressive views about food, politics, history and life.
My friend Maja and I got there and the first person I saw with a cheery smile was Sally Fallon standing behind her booth. I walked straight up to her and introduced myself, expressed to her that I've been following and using her book, "Nourishing Traditions", for years now and thanked her for putting this information out there.
We then proceeded into the lecture hall. Sally introduced us to the the concept of good oils versus bad oils and the history behind the companies who are currently producing most of our food supply. Notice how I say producing, not growing, because the reality is, most of the processed food you see in your grocery stores is made in a factory and not considered a real food. This is something called imitation food. Legislation in the United States used to require that companies put an imitation food label on their product if it was considered an imitation food. But unfortunately, because of some deregulation legislation, companies aren't required to put the imitation food label on their products anymore.
So most people think they're buying and eating real whole foods when they're only getting less than optimal imitation foods. These foods are extremely low in vitality and need to be avoided. A great example of these products are skim milk and margarine. Skim milk is nothing but pasteurized milk(dead) which has been processed into a powder form and then re hydrated with water. Margarine is nothing more than vegetable oil that has been through a harsh process including bleaching and adding colorings among other things. These products can sit on shelves much longer that fresh nutrient dense products can.
She then talked about good fats, which I've been familiar with for some time now, but it's always great to hear it again. It's so wonderful to learn something new or to be reminded of something I may have forgotten.
Sally shared with us the classification of all fats. The first kinds of fats are called polyunsaturated fatty acids. They're liquid at any temperature, very unstable, and delicate. Examples of these fats are soy oil (which is in virtually all processed food), peanut oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, and all other veggie oils. These are the oils that are prevalent in most of the processed foods we consume today. Monounsaturated fatty acids are liquid at room temperature but solid in the refrigerator. Examples of these fats are olive oil and canola oil. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. These include fats from raw dairy(pasture fed raw milk, butter and cheese), pastured animals, coconut oil, palm oil, bone broths and gelatin. At this point most people reading this will expect me to say that the oils to avoid are the the saturated fats since that is what we have been told by almost all health authorities in this country for the past 40 years. However, my advice to all is the EXACT OPPOSITE. Saturated fat is VITAL to have in your diet and you should avoid the poly and mono-unsaturated fats in your diet.
For some of you, this might sound very contrary to what you've been taught, but I assure you it's true. If you do a little research on the "lipid hypothesis" you'll find that it has never been proven true and valid. I will share a few links to books that will give you some info on this.
As a matter of fact the complete opposite results have been found according to the Weston A. Price foundation, that saturated fats make a healthy body. While a low fat diet may lower your cholesterol (and most likely does), it's been proven that these people die sooner. And this is why:
high cholesterol is not always a bad or negative thing. Cholesterol is what your body makes naturally to repair damage that has been done. If you're in a constant state of inflammation and not able to produce cholesterol to repair the damage, this can lead to serious health risks.
Many people on low fat diets can become seriously depressed because of the lack of certain vitamins they're not getting from avoiding saturated fats. Saturated fats have specific vitamins, A, D, and K, that you can't get from any other foods. These fats are essential for brain development, your heart, healing, building and regeneration. They are called fat soluble vitamins, which means they can only be absorbed with the help of saturated fats.
Saturated fats help you move closer to a state of homeostasis (balance). You need more of these fats, especially in the winter since there is less sunlight ,vitamin A and D levels are lower.
According to Sally, Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids should be consumed in smaller amounts and foods that are highest in polyunsaturated fatty acids should be avoided completely. Eating too many of these isolated polyunsaturated fatty acids have been proven to result in free radicals circulating in the body and can lead to damage, premature aging and disease.

To learn more about these topics an to sign up for a free holistic nutrition and lifestyle assessment please contact me...

Allison Pelot
allisonpelot@gmail.com
404-606-5581
www.pureenergywellness.net


Resources:
www.westonaprice.org
www.raypeat.com
http://www.newtrendspublishing.com/SallyFallon/
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Gary-Taubes/dp/1400040787
http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Borzoi/dp/0307272702
http://www.lierrekeith.com/vegmyth.htm