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Saturated fats are necessary for calcium to be incorporated into our bones, so no-fat or skim milk won't work as a calcium source, unless you eat some saturated fat in your meal. Saturated fats are needed to boost immune function, and to build a healthy nervous system and digestive tract. Saturated fats are the base material out of which the body makes cholesterol, which is the precursor to such critical hormones as vitamin D, cortisol, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone, as well as bile acids which are necessary for the digestion of fats. Fats also are needed as carriers for the fat soluble vitamins (the antioxidant vitamins), like vitamin A, E, D, K, and a low-fat diet can lead to deficiencies in these nutrients. Saturated fats are also needed to be able to utilize omega 3 fatty acids easily. Breast milk is high in saturated fat for a reason - it is vital for the healthy development of the baby! Does it make sense that saturated fats which are vital for a baby are suddenly poison for an adult?
Fat is also needed to feel satisfied after a meal. Mary Enig says in her book Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer For Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol that "as a result of the presence of fat in the small intestine, special hormones are produced that prevent hunger contractions. ... Too much fat in the diet and the loss of weight is thwarted; too little and the hunger pangs play havoc with good intentions and usually lead to overeating carbohydrates."
Saturated fatty acids can be broken down into three groups - short chain, medium chain and long chain. The short and medium chain saturated fatty acids don't turn into body fat unless consumed in very large quantities, but rather are utilized immediately by the body for energy. Therefore fats that contain more short to medium chain fatty acids have less calories than the same amount of longer chain fatty acids. According to Mary Enig, in her book Know Your Fats: the Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol, a pound of coconut oil has 100 kilocalories less than a pound of soybean oil. And yes, butter has less calories than margarine, although not much less.
If you are eating high quality fats, such as pasture fed, non-medicated, organic eggs, dairy, poultry, and meat, you are doing your body good. If you are eating conventionally raised poultry and meat, it is a good idea to cut off the fat, as the medications, hormones and pesticides consumed by the animal will be concentrated in the fat, which will in turn be concentrated in your fat. Cook only with pasture-fed organic butter, ghee, tallow,
lard, chicken fat, or organic coconut oil, or unrefined or cold pressed extra virgin olive oil (low to medium temperatures only), as these fats are stable and won't oxidize and go rancid when heated. To find out what ratio of fat, protein and carbohydrates are appropriate for you according to your own personal biochemistry, get yourself metabolically typed at Healthexcel, and receive a food list of appropriate foods for you. Some people require more quality fats to be healthy than others.
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