In the past, saturated fat has received a lot of heat from your [fat] doctor. They're pointing fingers at the wrong culprit, but don’t blame them, some misguided educators told them saturated fats were unhealthy, just like you were misinformed by your well-intentioned teachers, years ago.
Well the Buddha said to “question all teachers”, even himself, and that’s what we do here at Paleo [Evolved].
The Paleo diet reflects an understanding that fat is not only healthy but is necessary to thrive. The Paleo Diet also recognizes that like all [macro] nutrients, fat in excess can be unhealthy (although many online Paleo recipes don’t reflect this - leading to many people actually gaining weight when they switch to the Paleo diet!).
If you want to get ripped and stay ripped, you need to understand that fats DO have a place in your diet; once you understand how they work, and you can start hacking your diet.
Understand this; you were born with a set number of fat cells and you will never get rid of them. All you can do is manipulate how large or small those cells are and you can do that by strategically choosing your fat sources (among other things, obv).
There are 4 types of fat and they are all listed below. They’re listed in order of how tight their molecular structures are which determines how tightly they fit within your fat cells. The tighter the structure, the tighter the fat cell will be. Obviously, you don’t want overcrowded fat cells or you will look soft and overweight.
On the other hand, you need to ensure you eat enough fat to ensure proper nutrient absorption. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all fat-soluble, meaning they need fat to be properly digested and absorbed. Eating proper amounts of fat will also help balance your hormones which are likely out of tune.
It all starts with understanding how fats work.
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats have a very tight molecular structure which allows them to pack very nicely within your fat cells. That’s the reason saturated fats are solid at room temperature and are stable to cook with.
The Paleo diet suggests frying with saturated fats like butter, ghee, coconut, and palm oil because these oils are stable at high temperatures and won’t go rancid with regular cooking. Rancid oils (like cooked olive oil) become oxidized and become free-radicals within your body, which have been shown to lead to cancer).
Beyond rancidity, every cell membrane in your body is comprised of both saturated and unsaturated fat, and depends on a healthy balance of the two to allow messages and nutrients in and out.
Nature ensures you get a healthy balance of these fats by providing you with animal meat. Animals fed their natural diet have an ideal fat ratio of omega 3 to 6 and even has less fat overall.
Monounsaturated Fat
Unlike saturated fat, monounsaturated fats can be either solid or a liquid depending on the temperature. They're also non-essential fatty acids which means that they can be made by the body from other unsaturated fats.
Monounsaturated fats include olive and avocado oil, but also come from sources like meat and nuts. This type of fat is readily available in the average diet and doesn’t need much explanation like other fats.
Polyunsaturated Fat
You’ve likely heard of omega 3 fatty acids – the fat that is good for your brain. The problem is that these fats are hidden everywhere and don’t pack as nicely as other fats. This wouldn’t be a problem in moderation, but the average American doesn’t eat enough omega 3 fatty acids and consumes way too many omega 6 FA’s.
In America, the typical diet can have an omega 3 to 6 ratio of 1:20. While there isn’t an exact ideal number, science suggests we thrive at a ratio closer of 1:4. The Paleo diet fixes that.
Animal sources like wild-caught salmon and grass-fed beef have that ideal ratio of polyunsaturated fats and give it to you naturally.
Trans-Fat
This is where you might get angry. You've been manipulated into thinking trans fats are bad for you because an invalid correlation.
You need to understand that there are two types of trans fats; natural and artificial.
Trans fats can be found in animal meat in extremely small amounts. CLA is a trans-fat found in beef that is shown to simultaneously burn fat and build muscle. Even more, this trans-fat is being studied for cancer treatment, being effective in mice!
That’s why it’s so important to not get natural trans-fats confused with the artificial trans-fats you hear about on Dr. Oz.
I dare you to go through your cupboards (after reading this!) and look how many times you find the words “partially hydrogenated” on your labels. It’s everywhere from salad dressings labeled “healthy” to your coffee creamer.
This crap has been artificially blasted with hydrogen and the reason behind it is for shelf life and better flavor of course…we all love fat.
There’s no need to explain why foods like chips and soda with “partially hydrogenated soybean oil” is bad for you, you have Google for that. Just understand that not all fats are created equal and just because something (grass-fed beef) has trans-fat in it doesn't mean it’s unhealthy!
Favorite Fat Sources
Animal
I prefer to get the most bang for my buck, so I buy pasture-raised beef, lamb, and bison to ensure I get a good ratio of omega 3:6 and just enough CLA to keep me looking and feeling good.
I usually skip the skin from chicken and try to cut around the fat when I eat bacon…I’m not a huge fan of swine. Simply following the Paleo guidelines will ensure you ingest enough healthy fat and stay clear of the bad ones.
Oils
I love oil because not only is it a great source of healthy fat, but it also helps my cooking!
My two favorite oils are grass-fed butter and coconut oil. Butter tastes amazing (sometimes I make it from my raw milk!) and unrefined coconut oil is a MCT that boosts metabolism. It's a win/win.
Other oils I enjoy are red palm oil, avocado oil, ghee, and olive oil (as a finisher). A healthy oil you can experiment with is macadamia nut oil, which is rich in omega 3 FA!
Avocado
I don’t know what I’d do without an avocado to pair with my salads. Avocados is a good source of monounsaturated fat and the oil has a high flash point. These guys are also a great way to add healthy calories.
Nuts
Nuts are a great source of micro nutrients along with healthy fats. Great to snack on but do not go overboard with nuts - they pack a lot of calories!
Conclusion
If you’re still reading this, you now understand what 90% of people fail to grasp. You now have the knowledge to be able to choose which healthy fats pack tightly within your cells and boost your metabolism and avoid the ones that are detrimental to your goals.
So next time your fat friend is buying the fat-free yogurt at the grocery store, you can go ahead and share this article with them.
Well the Buddha said to “question all teachers”, even himself, and that’s what we do here at Paleo [Evolved].
The Paleo diet reflects an understanding that fat is not only healthy but is necessary to thrive. The Paleo Diet also recognizes that like all [macro] nutrients, fat in excess can be unhealthy (although many online Paleo recipes don’t reflect this - leading to many people actually gaining weight when they switch to the Paleo diet!).
If you want to get ripped and stay ripped, you need to understand that fats DO have a place in your diet; once you understand how they work, and you can start hacking your diet.
Understand this; you were born with a set number of fat cells and you will never get rid of them. All you can do is manipulate how large or small those cells are and you can do that by strategically choosing your fat sources (among other things, obv).
There are 4 types of fat and they are all listed below. They’re listed in order of how tight their molecular structures are which determines how tightly they fit within your fat cells. The tighter the structure, the tighter the fat cell will be. Obviously, you don’t want overcrowded fat cells or you will look soft and overweight.
On the other hand, you need to ensure you eat enough fat to ensure proper nutrient absorption. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all fat-soluble, meaning they need fat to be properly digested and absorbed. Eating proper amounts of fat will also help balance your hormones which are likely out of tune.
It all starts with understanding how fats work.
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats have a very tight molecular structure which allows them to pack very nicely within your fat cells. That’s the reason saturated fats are solid at room temperature and are stable to cook with.
The Paleo diet suggests frying with saturated fats like butter, ghee, coconut, and palm oil because these oils are stable at high temperatures and won’t go rancid with regular cooking. Rancid oils (like cooked olive oil) become oxidized and become free-radicals within your body, which have been shown to lead to cancer).
Beyond rancidity, every cell membrane in your body is comprised of both saturated and unsaturated fat, and depends on a healthy balance of the two to allow messages and nutrients in and out.
Nature ensures you get a healthy balance of these fats by providing you with animal meat. Animals fed their natural diet have an ideal fat ratio of omega 3 to 6 and even has less fat overall.
Monounsaturated Fat
Unlike saturated fat, monounsaturated fats can be either solid or a liquid depending on the temperature. They're also non-essential fatty acids which means that they can be made by the body from other unsaturated fats.
Monounsaturated fats include olive and avocado oil, but also come from sources like meat and nuts. This type of fat is readily available in the average diet and doesn’t need much explanation like other fats.
Polyunsaturated Fat
You’ve likely heard of omega 3 fatty acids – the fat that is good for your brain. The problem is that these fats are hidden everywhere and don’t pack as nicely as other fats. This wouldn’t be a problem in moderation, but the average American doesn’t eat enough omega 3 fatty acids and consumes way too many omega 6 FA’s.
In America, the typical diet can have an omega 3 to 6 ratio of 1:20. While there isn’t an exact ideal number, science suggests we thrive at a ratio closer of 1:4. The Paleo diet fixes that.
Animal sources like wild-caught salmon and grass-fed beef have that ideal ratio of polyunsaturated fats and give it to you naturally.
Trans-Fat
This is where you might get angry. You've been manipulated into thinking trans fats are bad for you because an invalid correlation.
You need to understand that there are two types of trans fats; natural and artificial.
Trans fats can be found in animal meat in extremely small amounts. CLA is a trans-fat found in beef that is shown to simultaneously burn fat and build muscle. Even more, this trans-fat is being studied for cancer treatment, being effective in mice!
That’s why it’s so important to not get natural trans-fats confused with the artificial trans-fats you hear about on Dr. Oz.
I dare you to go through your cupboards (after reading this!) and look how many times you find the words “partially hydrogenated” on your labels. It’s everywhere from salad dressings labeled “healthy” to your coffee creamer.
This crap has been artificially blasted with hydrogen and the reason behind it is for shelf life and better flavor of course…we all love fat.
There’s no need to explain why foods like chips and soda with “partially hydrogenated soybean oil” is bad for you, you have Google for that. Just understand that not all fats are created equal and just because something (grass-fed beef) has trans-fat in it doesn't mean it’s unhealthy!
Favorite Fat Sources
Animal
I prefer to get the most bang for my buck, so I buy pasture-raised beef, lamb, and bison to ensure I get a good ratio of omega 3:6 and just enough CLA to keep me looking and feeling good.
I usually skip the skin from chicken and try to cut around the fat when I eat bacon…I’m not a huge fan of swine. Simply following the Paleo guidelines will ensure you ingest enough healthy fat and stay clear of the bad ones.
Oils
I love oil because not only is it a great source of healthy fat, but it also helps my cooking!
My two favorite oils are grass-fed butter and coconut oil. Butter tastes amazing (sometimes I make it from my raw milk!) and unrefined coconut oil is a MCT that boosts metabolism. It's a win/win.
Other oils I enjoy are red palm oil, avocado oil, ghee, and olive oil (as a finisher). A healthy oil you can experiment with is macadamia nut oil, which is rich in omega 3 FA!
Avocado
I don’t know what I’d do without an avocado to pair with my salads. Avocados is a good source of monounsaturated fat and the oil has a high flash point. These guys are also a great way to add healthy calories.
Nuts
Nuts are a great source of micro nutrients along with healthy fats. Great to snack on but do not go overboard with nuts - they pack a lot of calories!
Conclusion
If you’re still reading this, you now understand what 90% of people fail to grasp. You now have the knowledge to be able to choose which healthy fats pack tightly within your cells and boost your metabolism and avoid the ones that are detrimental to your goals.
So next time your fat friend is buying the fat-free yogurt at the grocery store, you can go ahead and share this article with them.