{"id":831,"date":"2013-03-11T07:15:51","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T07:15:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-07-12T09:08:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T15:08:40","slug":"here-is-the-skinny-on-fats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/articles\/here-is-the-skinny-on-fats\/","title":{"rendered":"Here is the skinny on fats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the skinny on fats<\/h1>\n

What are fats and why do I care?<\/h2>\n

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Fats, they have become bad words in modern society eating modern diets.\u00a0 The trouble is that they have kept us alive and healthy for millennia.\u00a0 Breast milk is the super food that it is because it contains both high cholesterol for brain development and 4% fat by weight<\/a> to keep baby full longer between feedings (just ask any mother who has breast fed about that inherent benefit at 3 AM).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0However, along about the 1950\u2019s food production was already highly mechanized and becoming more processed when a researcher by the name of Ansel Keys developed the Lipid Hypothosis.\u00a0 In case you are not conversant in dietary theory, here is a great graphic from New Trends Publishing that Sally Fallon Morell<\/a> uses in her Oiling of America <\/a>DVD to explain it:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Lipid
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Original slide can be found at: http:\/\/newtrendspublishing.com\/ppts\/OilingofAmerica.ppt<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The problem with the Lipid Hypothesis is that it was constructed on flimsy–or to be charitable–incomplete science.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it was a counterpart to some great marketing forces and the low-fat trend was born. The only thing worse than fats to a lipophobe (a term that I believe was coined by Michael Pollan<\/a>) is saturated fats<\/em> from animals. \u00a0So before the low-carb trend came along, we had low-fat (neither of these are healthy by the way) and somehow what supported vitality in people all the way down to the cellular level was discarded.\u00a0 Keep an eye out for this when you watch tv or read magazines.\u00a0 The temptation is to equivocate real<\/em> bread<\/a> with the shelf-stable imposter you see in the grocery store.\u00a0 In the same way using broad strokes like that, you get that treatment in something like this (although I agree with the discussion on fats):<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here is a better question, what are fats?\u00a0 From a food chemistry stand point, most of the fats we eat are called triacylglycerols (root word there being \u201cacyl;\u201d although triglycerides are the same thing, the former is the better descriptor) (Joachim & Schloss, p. 220).\u00a0 Fats are substances that are not water soluble, but make food interesting and give it a pleasing texture to your mouth, are a concentrated energy source, are the building blocks for cell membranes, are the carriers for the \u00fcberimportant Vitamins A, D, E & K, are needed for mineral absorption, for the conversion of carotene into Vitamin A and most notably fats are the mother of all hormones (Fallon & Enig, p. 4).\u00a0 Take this other slide from Sally Fallon Morell\u2019s DVD, The Oiling of America:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cholesterol Original slide can be found at: http:\/\/newtrendspublishing.com\/ppts\/OilingofAmerica.ppt<\/span><\/p>\n

It is my hope that I can establish the necessity of fats in a healthy diet and that a low-fat diet is not healthy not only because it does not contain fats, but becau<\/span>se it also contains lots of chemicals that are very unhealthy\u2014more on that for another blog. Put more succinctly by Sally Fallon Morell in her presentation, The Oiling of America<\/span><\/a>, Blaming fats and high cholesterol is like blaming fires on firemen.\u00a0 Every time we see a fire, we see a fireman so the premature unscientific conclusion is to blame firemen for fires (Morell, 2008)<\/span><\/p>\n

If we delete if [fat] from our diets, we subject ourselves to nutritional deficiencies as we would lose our ability to absorb fat-soluble vitamins and valuable phytonuturients (lutein, lycopene, beta-caotene, and vitamins A, D, and E).\u00a0 Fats are a integral part of cell membranes and the production of hormones, and they are essential for brain development and activity and the workings of the nervous system and liver.\u00a0 The problem in industrialized culture is that we tend to take in too much of the wrong kinds of fat, which can have negative consequences on our health (Joachim & Schloss, p. 118).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have heard that saturated fats are bad for you, what are unsaturated fats\u2014are they better for you?\u201d\u00a0 The answer is, it depends . . . let us make sure we are talking about the same thing first.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Saturated fats can be short, medium or long chain fatty acid compounds.\u00a0 Or put another way, all short and medium chain fatty acids will be saturated and some long chain fatty acids can be saturated\u2014it is more like a continuum than anything else.\u00a0 What makes it short or long chain is the number of carbon atoms in the molecule.\u00a0 As an analogy, the difference between butane <\/a>and diesel fuel (generally speaking) is the number of carbon atoms in the particular hydrocarbon<\/em> molecule with methane having the fewest and tar having the most.\u00a0 On that continuum in ascending number of carbon atoms in the chain are: gasoline, diesel fuel, gear oil, paraffin candle wax, etc. all with different numbers of carbon atoms in the chain affecting their molecular weight and physical properties as a compound.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Engine<\/p>\n

The big difference between fats and oils are how we observe them at room temperature, and saturated fats are a solid at room temperature.\u00a0 Another interesting fact about saturated fats is that they are very stable and perform the best in cooking as well\u2014more on that in this blog<\/a>.\u00a0 Back to the comparison, your body can make saturated fats if need be as a function of the liver by digesting complex carbo<\/em><\/strong>hydrates<\/em> (hence the hydrocarbon<\/strong><\/em> analogy).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsaturated fats are what we observe as a liquid at room temperature.\u00a0 Not all unsaturated fats are equal and of these my personal favorite is olive oil!\u00a0 The unsaturated fats do not stand up to heat as well as saturated fats, and they can go rancid quickly in warm humid environments because they are comparatively unstable.\u00a0 By unstable I mean that they will look to fill up those blank hydrogen places in a process called known as oxidization.\u00a0 The category \u201cunsaturated fats\u201d is actually subdivided into mono<\/em>unsaturated and poly<\/em>unsaturated.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>
\n\"Monounsaturated<\/p>\n

Monounsaturated is the preferred group for us here at Pantry Paratus because they are the closest to what you can find in nature and (unsurprisingly) you body knows what to do with them.\u00a0 Polyunsaturated fats have two subcategories as well, essential and conditionally essential (although not opposed).\u00a0 Some of these oils your body cannot make are called \u201cessential oils\u201d and are found in nature in fish, fresh herbs and some kinds of seeds\u2014but not all polyunsaturated oils are the same.\u00a0 “The two must-haves for essential fatty acids are omega-6 linoleic [sic] acid and omega-3 alpha-linolenic–and there are several other conditionally essential fatty acids (Fallon & Enig, p. 306).<\/span>
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\u201cI heard my doctor tell me to stay away from trans fats, what are they?\u201d\u00a0 These are the imposters . . .<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When you need a pastry to have the flakiest crust nothing performs better than lard or tallow\u2014these are made from rendered pig fat<\/a> and cow or sheep fat, respectively.\u00a0 These are the gold standard of fats since they do not oxidize<\/span><\/span>–they are stable, keep for a really long time and are very pure.\u00a0 However, keeping pigs can be a hassle, and would it not be just so much easier if we could just pump hydrocarbons out of the ground or genetically modify some oil seed plant instead?\u00a0 Amazingly this is where a lot of trans fats come from and knowing this helps us have a more informed answer to the question, \u201cWhat are fats?\u201d\u00a0 The answer will depend on the kind of fat you are talking about.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"What<\/span><\/p>\n

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Where saturated fats are short chain fatty acid compounds, they exhibit the characteristic of having all of their carbon atoms filled with hydrogen atoms making them \u201cflat and easy to stack\u201d together which we observe as a solid at room temperature.\u00a0 Monounsaturated fatty acid compounds lack two hydrogen atoms making them have a slight kink in the molecular shape so we observe them as a liquid at room temperature.\u00a0 The danger with trans fats is that they (heavily) process the fat to accept a hydrogen atom where it was not meant to be (we rarely<\/em> observe this in nature).\u00a0 This gives the new hydrogenated<\/em> oil a physical performance like lard and a high smoking point like lard but is essentially a huge health risk on the cellular level once it is in your body.\u00a0 These hydrogenated oils are free radicals, and they will oxidize or steal electrons from your body\u2019s tissue to \u201ccomplete\u201d themselves.\u00a0 Compounded over time, this is a huge problem in your body because your cells depend on cholesterol to repair themselves.\u00a0 When all your cells have to work with is imposter fats, the results can be devastating because they are accumulative over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201ctrans\u201d in trans fats is from the molecule straightening back up from its normal \u201ckinked\u201d shape (or \u201ccis\u201d formation) as a polyunsaturated fat.\u00a0 The process renders this polyunsaturated fat that was once a liquid as a solid at room temperature.\u00a0 Since polyunsaturated oils will go rancid at high temperatures, they must be \u201cdeodorized\u201d in a process using heat\u2014seems like a catch 22 but it is the method that they use.\u00a0 During this deodorizing step, one hydrogen atom is forced across (or trans<\/em>) the molecule causing it to straighten out again making the molecular misfit trans<\/em>formation complete.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the difference between hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The best answer for this that I have read is in the amazingly funny and informative book Twinkie, Deconstructed<\/a> by Steve Ettlinger.\u00a0 In there he goes to an industrial plant where from the looks of it they may have been making paint or perfume, but actually it was full-hydrogenated oil (or \u201cfull hydro\u201d).\u00a0 Like lard, it is a solid at room temp, and will not flow unless it is heated up.\u00a0 So as it is dispensed into train cars for transport it is in a warm liquid state.\u00a0 When the train car arrives at the food processing plant as an ingredient for the now defunct Twinkie\u00ae it has to sit there hooked up to a steam pump to heat up the steam jacketed rail car so that the hydrogenated oil can flow again.\u00a0 This is probably why it was originally sold as a candle wax alternative<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Crisco\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Cholesterol in your body is actually necessary and a good thing designed to be there.\u00a0 When saturated or monounsaturated fats are incorporated into a healthy diet, the body is able to carry out cellular functions, keep nervous system activity running optimally, deal with stress as well as provide hormones and the reproductive system the high octane fuel that they need.\u00a0 Trans fats are imposters because although Crisco looks like lard at room temperature, it is a marauder inside of your body in the form of being a free radical.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilson<\/span><\/p>\n

Pro Deo et Patria<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo credits:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n