Is Fat Good For You? Everything You Need To Know About Dietary Fats...

Article At A Glance

• You need to eat lots of healthy fats to stay slim and perform at your best — they fuel your brain, keep you full, balance your hormones, and much more.

• There are different types of fats, and they all behave differently in your body.

• The best food sources of fat are grass-fed beef, dark chocolate, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, avocado, and egg yolks. • When you’re on the Bulletproof Diet, you want healthy fats to make up between 50 and 70 percent of your total calories each day.

• Saturated fat is the most stable fat, meaning that it’s least likely to be damaged by oxygen (aka oxidized). Oxidized fats accelerate aging, cause inflammation in the body, and make weaker cell membranes.

• You need to have the right ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fats. Most Americans consume far too many omega-6s and not nearly enough omega-3s.

For years, most people believed that eating fat would make them fat and damage their heart. But this was faulty thinking, brought about in part by a campaign from the sugar industry back in the 1960s, which paid scientists to blame saturated fat, and not sugar, as a major cause of heart disease. People ended up following low-fat, high-sugar diets, thinking this was the healthy choice. Instead, they just got fatter and fatter.

Recent research has debunked these earlier claims that fat is bad. The fact is, you need to eat lots of healthy fats to stay slim and perform at your best — they fuel your brain, keep you full, balance your hormones, and much more. Fats are the cornerstone of the Bulletproof Diet. But not all fats are created equal. Read on to find out everything you ever wanted to know about dietary fats.

WHAT IS FAT ANYWAY?

Most of the fats that you eat are made up of triglycerides — molecules composed of glycerol (an alcohol) and fatty acids.

There are different types of fats, and they all behave differently in your body. Most of these differences come down to their chemical structure.

Fat molecules look a bit like cartoonish mice: they have large bodies with thin tails. The length of the tail determines how the fat is processed in the body. Typically, the shorter the tail, the more anti-inflammatory the fat. That’s why we recommend fats with short and medium tails, like grass-fed butter, avocados, and MCT oil.

The stability of a fat — how easily it spoils and creates free radicals in your body — also makes a fat good or bad (more on fat stability later).

The different types of dietary fats:

• Saturated fats

• Monounsaturated fats

• Polyunsaturated fats

• Trans fats

Read on to learn more about each of these fats, which ones are best for your health, and which ones you definitely want to avoid.

THE BENEFITS OF FAT

When you eat quality fats — namely saturated, monounsaturated and a bit of polyunsaturated fats — you’re doing your mind and your body all kinds of favors. Here is some of what good fat can do:

STRENGTHENS YOUR BRAIN

Did you know that your brain is 60 percent fat? It’s actually the fattiest organ in the body, and it needs plenty of good fats to keep it running. Essential fatty acids — fats you only get from food — are the most important fats that grow and develop your brain, starting in the womb.Saturated fat is important for brain function, too. Brain cells are covered in a fatty layer of insulation called myelin, which helps them talk to one another via electrical signals. When your myelin is weak, communication between your brain cells slows down. Saturated fat feeds myelin and keeps it strong and intact.

KEEPS THE WEIGHT OFF

Low-carbohydrate diets help you lose weight faster. When you eat enough of the right kinds of fat without too many carbs, you teach your body to burn fat for fuel, rather than glucose (aka sugar). This process is known as ketosis, and it can help you lose a lot of weight, and quickly. Fat has another metabolic advantage: it doesn’t trigger the release of insulin like glucose does. Insulin is a hormone that controls your body’s fat storage. The more insulin your body produces, the more fat that gets stored.

BUILDS CELL MEMBRANES AND MAKES HORMONES

Fat is vital to keeping your cells healthy. That’s because fat helps make up the protective coverings that surround every cell in your body. Two layers of fat called the lipid bilayer control what enters and leaves the cell and give it structure.

Fat also builds sex hormones in the body like testosterone and estrogen. When you don’t eat enough fat, your hormones can get out of whack. When women get too thin, for example, they sometimes stop getting their period — fat produces estrogen which keeps you fertile. Fat also releases leptin, a hormone that stops you from overeating by telling your brain when you’ve eaten enough to satisfy your energy needs. Learn more here about how fat produces leptin.

KEEPS YOU HAPPY

Since fat makes you full for longer and maintains steady blood sugar, you won’t be left feeling “hangry” and grappling with energy crashes throughout the day. Fats are also crucial to keeping your moods stable. One study found that mice fed a high-fat diet showed fewer depressive behaviors after just 48 hours, and the antidepressant effects lasted for the 8 weeks of treatment. Another study found that eating lots of fish high in a fatty acid called DHA could lessen severe symptoms of depression.

MAKE YOU FEEL FULL LONGER

Fat is incredibly satiating, so you won’t end up eating as much or as often. Fat keeps your blood sugar stable, freeing you up to power through your day without distracting cravings. Think about how you feel after eating a baguette for lunch. Mid-afternoon and you’re likely already starving again, digging through the fridge in search of a sugary snack. A lunch of wild salmon with vegetables and grass-fed butter will do just the opposite, and you’ll feel satisfied until dinner.

ENHANCE NUTRIENT ABSORPTION

Some vitamins, like A, E, D, and K, are fat-soluble, and need fat to be absorbed by the body. Healthy fats carry these vitamins through the bloodstream and into the liver and body fat, where they get stored until the body needs them. A 2017 study found that people who ate salad with oily dressings absorbed micronutrients like vitamins E and K better than people who ate salads without oil.

GOOD FOR YOUR HEART

For decades, a high-carb, low-fat diet was billed as “heart healthy,” yet Americans kept gaining weight and rates of heart disease soared. That’s because when you stay away from fat and eat lots of carbs, you raise your blood sugar, which increases your risk of coronary artery disease. Studies show that supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids could prevent and treat heart disease.

HOW MUCH FAT DO YOU NEED?

You want healthy fats to make up between 50 and 70 percent of your total calories each day.

Men should get at least 120 to 150 grams of fat (8 to 10 tablespoons) each day. Women should aim for between 90 to 120 grams (6 to 8 tablespoons) per day.

Keep in mind that your weight, how much you exercise, your genes, and hunger levels all factor in when determining exactly how much fat is right for you.

Sources of good fats:

Grass-fed beef High-quality dark chocolate MCT (medium chain triglycerides) oil Coconut oil Grass-fed butter Avocado Extra-virgin olive oil Pastured egg yolks

ARE SATURATED FATS BAD?

Saturated fat got some negative press back in the 1960s, when a scientist named Ancel Keys published research that claimed it caused heart disease. You’re probably familiar with the theory — that the saturated fat in butter, red meat, and egg yolks drives up cholesterol, which builds up in the arteries, blocking the flow of blood to the heart. The study was later debunked — it turned out Keys had manipulated the research to demonize fat. Later studies showed that saturated fat doesn’t raise levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) in the body. Yet saturated fat is still shaking off its reputation as an artery-clogger.

The fact is, saturated fat is the most stable fat that there is. A stable fat is the least likely to be damaged by oxygen (aka oxidized). Oxidized fats accelerate aging, cause inflammation in the body, and make weaker cell membranes. All this ups your risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

The best source of saturated fat is grass-fed butter. It’s full of antioxidants, fat-soluble vitamins, and fatty acids like fat-burning conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that strengthens the gut and the brain. Mix it into your coffee or melt it over steamed vegetables at lunch.

MONOUNSATURATED FATS

Monounsaturated fat is the second most stable fat after saturated fat. If you look at the image below, you’ll see there is only one binding site open where a free radical can enter and oxidize the fat.

Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, while saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature. You want to eat both of these types of fat every day.

The most common type of monounsaturated fat is oleic acid — studies have found it boosts longevity and protects the heart.

Foods rich in monounsaturated fat include:

Olives Avocados Eggs Almonds Pasture-raised pork

POLYUNSATURATED FATS

Polyunsaturated fats are the least stable, most easily oxidized, and therefore inflammatory fats. Unlike saturated and monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats have plenty of binding sites open, making them especially vulnerable to damage.