Nutrition
Fat
NOTE: Nutrition cannot realistically be fragmented, or divided, into its individual nutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, etc.). A whole food is exponentially superior to the sum of its measurable nutrients. In speaking of fragmented terms such as “protein,” “carbohydrate,” and “fat,” we must always remember that real food comes in a whole form.
Fat
Most questions about dietary fat are answered by an understanding of one simple fact:
Body fat matches dietary fat - we store what we eat.
Storing and Metabolizing Fat: Water-Solubility
Our needs for dietary fat are very minimal and easily met through a diet of whole plant foods. When we eat more fat than our body needs (as with animal-based foods or added oil) all the excess is more likely to be stored as body fat than metabolized for energy (Fernández-Quintela, et al). In addition, our ability to metabolize (“burn”) body fat stores depends on the type of fat we ate. This is because body fat is metabolized through a process called hydrolysis, which uses water to break down fat. The fat-metabolizing (lipolytic) enzymes require water to break down fat.
Why is this so important?
Because plant fats are partially water-soluble, and animal fats are water-insoluble. Because animal fats cannot be mixed with water, it is difficult for the lipolytic (fat-metabolizing) enzymes to get to the animal fat stored in our body fat. This is one reason why animal fat (the fat in meat, eggs, and dairy) in particular promotes body fat gain, resists body fat loss, and increases “insulin resistance” (Fernández-Quintela, et al). This explains why body fat stored from animal-based foods is so difficult to lose. The water-solubility of plant fats (such as ALA) makes them much more easily metabolized. Body fat stored from whole plant foods is much easier to “lose” (metabolize) than body fat stored from animal-based foods (Fernández-Quintela, et al).
If you have body fat stores from eating animal foods, do not be discouraged. Whatever the composition of our body fat, turning to a diet of whole plant foods will not only stop our fat stores from increasing, but will also help to slowly break down and metabolize our body fat over time, even the animal fats.
High-Fat, Low-Carb Diets
High-fat, low-carb (HFLC) diets are a common popular dietary fad, but popularity is not an indicator of veracity. It’s easy to gain popularity when you tell people that they’ll get skinny eating steak, eggs, and artificially sweetened ice cream. Although some individuals attempt a more healthful approach that includes more vegetables, a diet high in fat is inherently a diet high in animal products, and there is nothing healthy about that.
High-fat diet enthusiasts persuasively explain that a low-carb diet forces the body to burn fat by putting the body in a “starvation state.” But this is nothing to boast about, because
- The “starvation state” of high-fat diets is the same as that of “insulin resistance.” High-fat dieters are highly insulin “resistant” (they call it “glucose intolerant”).
- A high-fat diet doesn’t resolve “insulin resistance”; it hides it. The “high-fat” makes you “insulin resistant”; the “low-carb” hides it, because you will only detect the disturbed and diseased metabolism from the inability to metabolize carbohydrate.
- The hidden disease progression (such as Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer) continues undetected (for now).
- The fat metabolized is dietary fat, not body fat. When you eat a high-fat diet, you metabolize the fat you eat, not the fat already stored on your body – and any excess fat will additionally be stored.
- Fat (and protein) metabolism is inferior to carbohydrate metabolism. Carbohydrate metabolizes cleanly and efficiently, producing high amounts of energy and clean byproducts of water and carbon dioxide. Fat is not as efficiently metabolized and is more likely to be stored than metabolized (Fernández-Quintela).
A high-fat diet (thick with animal foods and extracted fats) puts the body in a “starvation state” of dis-order and dis-ease. The body does not thrive on a high-fat, low-carb diet, and it will not until it returns to its thriving state on a diet of whole plant foods.
Diets aimed to lose weight that encourage restriction of carbohydrates and elevated consumption of animal protein intensify insulin resistance increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Adeva-Andany MM, et al. Effect of Diet Composition on Insulin Sensitivity in Humans. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 33:29-38, Oct. 2019.
High-fat, low-carb diets increase insulin “resistance”, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease – the whole metabolic disorder (Adeva-Andany MM et al; Adeva-Andany MM et al).
Fat and Cancer
Excess dietary fat in and of itself drives cancer growth. The safe threshold of fat intake is 10% of calories – which, as it turns out, is precisely that of a diet of whole plant foods.
"A blend of fats typical of the American diet enhanced mammary tumorigenesis effectively when fed as 40% of calories. After 9 to 10 weeks on this diet, reducing the fat to 10% of calories inhibited subsequent tumor development."
Carroll KK, et al. Fat and Cancer. Cancer, 58(8 suppl): 1818-1825, Oct. 1986.
When we return to a low-fat (plant-based) diet, cancer growth is inhibited, or stopped.
Oils: Extracted Fats
We would do well to obtain our fats, including omega-3’s, through whole plant foods – emphasis on whole. For example, whole walnuts are an excellent source of ALA and are highly protective against disease and dysfunction; however, when the walnuts are processed and the oils begin to oxidize (as with walnut oil or walnut butter, they not only lose their health benefits, but also become harmful. This is a significant reason to avoid processed foods, even if they’re plant-based, because even plant oils such as olive oil and vegetable oils are significantly damaging to health. Oils oxidize in the presence of heat, light, and air, so extraction of the oil significantly increases the rate of oil oxidation.
Cooking with oil especially accelerates oil oxidation in the cooking process and results in a concentration of oxidized oils in food. Oxidized oils cause various autoimmune conditions and contribute significantly to cardiovascular disease, cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and body fat storage (Grootveld, et al; Carroll, et al; Ueno et al). The fumes of cooking oil can also cause lung cancer comparable to that caused by smoking (Ko, et al). This is why our recipe book and healthy eating guide does not use extracted oils in any recipes.
RESEARCH
Fernández-Quintela A, et al. The Role of Dietary Fat in Adipose Tissue Metabolism. Public Health Nutrition, 10(10A): 1126-1131, Oct. 2007.
Grootveld M, et al. Health Effects of Oxidized Heated Oils. Foodservice Research International, 13(1): 41-55, 30 Jun. 2006.
Carroll KK, et al. Fat and Cancer. Cancer, 58(8 suppl): 1818-1825, Oct. 1986.
Ko YC, et al. Chinese Food Cooking and Lung Cancer in Women Nonsmokers. American Journal of Epidemiology, 151(2): 140-147, 15 Jan. 2000.
den Besten G, et al. The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids in the Interplay Between Diet, Gut Microbiota, and Host Energy Metabolism. Journal of Lipid Research, 54(9): 2325-2340, Sep. 2013.
Adeva-Andany MM, et al. Effect of Diet Composition on Insulin Sensitivity in Humans. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 33:29-38, Oct. 2019.
Adeva-Andany MM, et al. Dietary Habits Contribute to Define the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Humans. Clinical Nutrition Espen, 34:8-17, Dec. 2019.
Ueno Y, et al. Oxidized Perilla and Linseed Oils Induce Neuronal Apoptosis by Caspase-Dependent and -Independent Pathways. Foods, 9(5), 538, 26 Apr. 2020.