The importance of good quality saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet

 

 

We must eat good quality saturated fats and cholesterol if we wish to obtain our optimal health.  Our bodies need saturated fat to absorb and use the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that we put into them.  We may eat the best quality foods but, if we don’t eat saturated fats, our bodies can not absorb these nutrients.  If our bodies can’t absorb the nutrients we put into them, then it is very difficult to be at your optimum health.  

 

We need saturated fat and cholesterol for our brains, lungs, heart, digestive system, eyes, and just about everything in our bodies, to function properly.  Butter provides CLA, (conjugated linoleic acid), which helps build muscle and protects against cancer.  Butter also provides important trace minerals and the fat soluble vitamins A, D and K2.  Cholesterol is needed for intestinal health, and proper brain and nervous system development in children, and is a healing agent.  Cholesterol maintains the structural integrity of our cellular walls, it is needed to make Vitamin D in our body, and is the mother of all hormones.  Butter and cholesterol are important for so many reasons, and they actually help protect us against cancer, thyroid disease, osteoporosis, and most importantly, cholesterol and saturated fat help protect us against heart disease.  They do not clog our arteries.  In fact, most of the material in blocked arteries is calcium, and of the fat actually involved, 74% is unsaturated fat.  Cholesterol and saturated fats do not make us overweight or unhealthy.  They actually help keep you slim and healthy.  In fact, it is difficult to loose weight without eating saturated fat and cholesterol. 

 

It must be emphasized again that quality matters.  For butter, raw is best, but at least make sure it is organic and from range raised cows.  Other good sources of cholesterol and saturated fats are goose fat, duck fat, lard, and fats from all animals that have been properly and humanely raised and fed.  The tropical oils, coconut, palm, and palm nut, are also excellent fats.  Ideally you want to eat one or more of these fats at every meal.  

 

Back in the early 1900’s, the average consumption of butter per person per year was 18lbs.  And this does not include all the lard, duck and goose fat, and all the other animal fats, as well as the raw cream and milk, cheeses, and yogurt that were used profusely back in those days.  Now it barely reaches 4lbs of butter consumption per person per year.  Yet, according to the CDC, the percentage of deaths from heart disease in the early 1900’s was around 9%.  But the heart disease back then was not due to clogged arteries, it was a result of other causes like infectious disease or congenital disorders.  However, today the percentage of deaths from heart disease is at around 40% and it is more from things like clogged arteries, inflammation, or blood clots.  So how can butter and cholesterol be blamed for heart disease!!!  This makes no sense. 

 

Relatively very few people today actually eat large amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol.  And that is why so many people are sick and/or overweight. 

 

However, what we do eat in large quantities today, and often unknowingly, is Trans fats, highly processed vegetable oils like soybean oil, canola, sunflower, safflower, corn and cottonseed oils.  These oils were just not eaten back in the early 1900’s.  History, statistics and the science, (if you actually do the research and read the tests), do not support the theory that saturated fats and cholesterol make us sick and fat.  In fact, the truth is just the opposite.  They keep us lean and healthy.  What makes us sick and fat primarily is sugar, improperly prepared grains, soy and processed vegetable oils.

 

So why is there so much misinformation on saturated fats and cholesterol?  A couple of reasons are money and power.  No one is going to get rich from telling you to go buy raw, organic butter from your local organic farmer.  Many large corporations will make a lot of money by convincing you that their processed, denuded, dead foods made from sugar, white flour, processed vegetable oils, trans fats, and other deleterious ingredients, will make you happy, healthy and slim.  Then when they don’t and you become overweight and sick, you will rely on pharmaceutical drugs, surgery, or visits to various doctors.  A vicious, unconscious system has been created whereby people make other people rich by eating bad foods and then getting sick.