Here’s a way to figure out what fats are best for you: look to see how they occur in nature. If they occur in nature, and we have eaten them in our diets for the past several hundred years, they’re most likely fair game.
Indigenous tribes (not touched by our Western Diet) ate between 30-80% of their total calorie intake from fats, and a lot of it was saturated! Remember, you want to add fat to your diet to slow down insulin secretion so that you can get back to health.
Here’s a list of my go to fats for health:
1. Nuts and seeds
Since they’re high in fiber, vitamins and mineral, I eat seeds and/or nuts at each meal.
2. Dairy
Only eat this if you have been found not to have a sensitivity to it (we use Nutrition Response Testing to determine this). Good choices in here are cheese, especially raw cheese, butter, full fat cottage cheese, full fat yoghurt and full fat Greek yoghurt.
3. Eggs
Eggs are the perfect food! High in lipotropic (fat burning) B vitamins, vitamins A & D, protein and the essential fat EPA, eggs are just what the doctor ordered! Make sure to never just eat the white of an egg because most of the nutrition, and especially the fat, is in the yolk! Try and get free range eggs (cage-free means they are just in one big pen, free range means that they live outside). I did an experiment years ago, and dropped my total cholesterol 30% while eating a dozen eggs a day! Remember, cholesterol levels are not affected by how much cholesterol you eat, but by how much you make in your own body, which is determined by how much insulin you secrete.
4. Meat
Beef, chicken, fish, and bison have naturally occurring fats in them. As long as they are free range, non-farmed, and wild caught, they will be the type of fats you need. Grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, grass-fed bison, and wild-caught fish all have more of the omega 3 fats than the omega 6 fats. Omega-3 fats are the ones you want for proper fatty acid balance.
5. Avocados
Avocados are high in fiber, monounsaturated fat, and potassium. The liver needs large amounts of potassium to balance blood sugar and break down fats. Try eating at least one avocado per day, or adding guacamole to your burgers, eggs or fish-awesome! Here’s two recipes for low carb chocolate desserts! https://www.galonamission.com/secret-ingredient-easy-chocolate-mousse/ and https://www.ketoconnect.net/recipe/chocolate-avocado-pudding/
6. Olive oil
High in healthy monounsaturated fat, olive oil has been shown to sensitize your cells to insulin, lower blood pressure, and help people lose weight. Use it every day for health!
7. Coconut oil
High in medium chain triglycerides, coconut oil helps people lose weight and lower total cholesterol while raising high density lipoproteins (HDL, or good cholesterol). It also has lauric acid and monolaurin, two fatty acids that are very good for supporting your immune system. I use it every day when I cook.
Bad Fats
1. Fried foods
High in trans-fat and other garbage, avoid fried foods like the plague!
2. Conventionally farmed fish, chicken, meat, eggs
These are too high in omega 6 fats. When consumed in too high of quantities, they can cause insulin resistance, and inflammation (two things we are trying to stop!)
3. Vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil and a few others
These do not occur in high amounts in nature, and the amounts that are used in food processing is not something the human body is made for or used to. High in omega-6 fatty acids, and trans-fats, they can really mess up our metabolic machinery. Avoid them in favor of the fats I talk about above.
4. Margarine
High in trans-fatty acids, margarine increases your total cholesterol while lowering HDL’s, and desensitizing your cells to insulin. Time and time again, margarine has been shown to increase inflammation and increase the risk of heart disease. So why do we still use it? Because it was marketed as a health food. Now that you know, avoid it like the plague.
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