Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, and even a few big mainstream news releases, the majority of people today still buy into the outdated low-fat propaganda that was so prevalent in the 80's and 90's, believing that all dietary fat is "bad," and so-called "low-fat" or "lite" foods are better for you. In fact, not only are these mistaken beliefs untrue, but they may even be harming your health!
The truth is that most of these "light" or "fat-free" foods actually contain added sugars and carbs to replace the fat, which actually lead to faster aging, high blood sugar, weight gain, and overall poor health. On the other hand, healthy fats can actually help to slow the aging process, keep your blood sugar stable, and maintain a healthy hormonal balance among other benefits.
I've written a number of times about the importance of healthy dietary fats, how to choose good fats vs. bad fats, and why the low-fat myth is so harmful.
This week, we turn to one of my favorite health experts to get his take on two of the healthiest fats around - but they're not what you might think...
While you hear lots of news stories these days about healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts, avocados, and fish oil, these two fats are still all-too-often vilified in the media and misunderstood by most of our population even today.
The truth is that most of these "light" or "fat-free" foods actually contain added sugars and carbs to replace the fat, which actually lead to faster aging, high blood sugar, weight gain, and overall poor health. On the other hand, healthy fats can actually help to slow the aging process, keep your blood sugar stable, and maintain a healthy hormonal balance among other benefits.
I've written a number of times about the importance of healthy dietary fats, how to choose good fats vs. bad fats, and why the low-fat myth is so harmful.
This week, we turn to one of my favorite health experts to get his take on two of the healthiest fats around - but they're not what you might think...
While you hear lots of news stories these days about healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts, avocados, and fish oil, these two fats are still all-too-often vilified in the media and misunderstood by most of our population even today.
2 Saturated Fats That Fight Aging
Guest Post by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist & Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN
Authors of the best sellers: The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging & The Fat Burning Kitchen
1. Grass-fed (pasture-raised) butter & cream
Yes, delicious smooth and rich BUTTER (real butter, NOT deadly margarine!)... It's delicious, contains loads of healthy nutritional factors, and does NOT have to be avoided in order to stay healthy and get lean. In fact, I personally eat a couple pats of grass-fed butter several times daily (and a Tbsp of heavy cream in my coffee daily) and maintain very lean body fat most times of the year.
There's a lot of confusion about this topic... in fact, I just saw a TV show today that was talking about unhealthy foods and one of the first things they showed was butter. It just shows that the majority of the population still doesn't fully understand that butter (grass-fed only!) can actually be a healthy part of your diet.
In fact, there's even ample evidence that REAL butter can even fight aging and help you to lose body fat for a couple of main reasons:
a. Grass-fed butter is known to have high levels of a healthy fat called CLA, which has been shown in numerous studies to have anti-cancer properties, and also has been shown to help burn abdominal fat and build lean muscle.
b. Grass-fed butter also has an ideal balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids (unlike conventional grain-fed butter) which helps fight inflammation in your body, and can help balance hormones, thereby helping to slow the aging process, and keep your body lean.
c. The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also contain MCTs (similar to the MCTs in coconut oil), which help to boost your immune system and are readily burned by the body for energy. The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also help to satisfy your appetite and control blood sugar levels, both of which help you to stay lean!
If you have a hard time finding a grass-fed butter at your grocery store, Kerrygold Irish butter is one of my favorites, and the cows are 100% grass-fed on lush green pastures in Ireland. It's one of the richest butters in color that I've seen, which indicates high levels of carotenoids, powerful antioxidants that help fight aging. Another good brand is Organic Valley which has many options for pasture-raised butter and cream.
Note for people who are dairy sensitive or think they might be:
People that are dairy sensitive or intolerant are generally NOT sensitive to butter or cream. This is something that's highly misunderstood in the nutrition industry, even by most authors and doctors. The truth is that it's almost always either the lactose or the casein that people are sensitive to, and butter or cream has nothing more than traces of either since butter and cream is solely the fat portion of dairy while the lactose and casein have mostly been removed when the fat is skimmed off the milk. The amount of casein in butter or cream is negligible compared to milk.
Also, fermented dairy generally doesn't give people any problems either (kefir or plain yogurt) because the lactose has been digested by the microbes, making kefir 99% lactose free usually. Plus, even the casein in kefir and yogurt is MUCH more highly digestible because the microbes have already performed a little pre-digestion on it.
2. Coconut oil, coconut meat, coconut flour, and coconut milk
Coconut milk and oil are great sources of a super healthy type of saturated fat called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), including a component called lauric acid, which is a powerful nutrient for your immune system , and is lacking in most western diets. In addition, MCTs are readily used for energy by the body and less likely to be stored as body fat compared to other types of fats.
Eating coconut oil can help improve the health of your skin from the inside out... But in addition to being healthy internally, coconut oil is also known to be great for the health of your skin externally as a skin moisturizer that's healthier for you than most lotions since natural coconut oil allows you to avoid the harmful chemicals found in many lotions.
Coconut oil is even shown to help improve your thyroid function as well as helping to protect your brain from Alzheimers.
There are even direct studies that show that coconut oil can help you burn off abdominal fat more efficiently.
Along with coconut milk and coconut oil as healthy fat choices, we've also got coconut flour as a healthier flour option for baking. Coconut flour is an extremely high fiber flour alternative (almost ALL of the carbs in this flour are fiber and not starch!). Coconut flour is also VERY high in protein compared to most flours and is also gluten free!
Just beware that if you're going to use coconut flour for baking, it absolutely needs to be mixed with other flours as it sucks up moisture like crazy... I've made delicious baked goods by mixing coconut flour with almond flour and quinoa flour in equal parts, and adding slightly more liquid ingredients than the recipe calls for.
Guest Post by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist & Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN
Authors of the best sellers: The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging & The Fat Burning Kitchen
1. Grass-fed (pasture-raised) butter & cream
Yes, delicious smooth and rich BUTTER (real butter, NOT deadly margarine!)... It's delicious, contains loads of healthy nutritional factors, and does NOT have to be avoided in order to stay healthy and get lean. In fact, I personally eat a couple pats of grass-fed butter several times daily (and a Tbsp of heavy cream in my coffee daily) and maintain very lean body fat most times of the year.
There's a lot of confusion about this topic... in fact, I just saw a TV show today that was talking about unhealthy foods and one of the first things they showed was butter. It just shows that the majority of the population still doesn't fully understand that butter (grass-fed only!) can actually be a healthy part of your diet.
In fact, there's even ample evidence that REAL butter can even fight aging and help you to lose body fat for a couple of main reasons:
a. Grass-fed butter is known to have high levels of a healthy fat called CLA, which has been shown in numerous studies to have anti-cancer properties, and also has been shown to help burn abdominal fat and build lean muscle.
b. Grass-fed butter also has an ideal balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids (unlike conventional grain-fed butter) which helps fight inflammation in your body, and can help balance hormones, thereby helping to slow the aging process, and keep your body lean.
c. The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also contain MCTs (similar to the MCTs in coconut oil), which help to boost your immune system and are readily burned by the body for energy. The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also help to satisfy your appetite and control blood sugar levels, both of which help you to stay lean!
If you have a hard time finding a grass-fed butter at your grocery store, Kerrygold Irish butter is one of my favorites, and the cows are 100% grass-fed on lush green pastures in Ireland. It's one of the richest butters in color that I've seen, which indicates high levels of carotenoids, powerful antioxidants that help fight aging. Another good brand is Organic Valley which has many options for pasture-raised butter and cream.
Note for people who are dairy sensitive or think they might be:
People that are dairy sensitive or intolerant are generally NOT sensitive to butter or cream. This is something that's highly misunderstood in the nutrition industry, even by most authors and doctors. The truth is that it's almost always either the lactose or the casein that people are sensitive to, and butter or cream has nothing more than traces of either since butter and cream is solely the fat portion of dairy while the lactose and casein have mostly been removed when the fat is skimmed off the milk. The amount of casein in butter or cream is negligible compared to milk.
Also, fermented dairy generally doesn't give people any problems either (kefir or plain yogurt) because the lactose has been digested by the microbes, making kefir 99% lactose free usually. Plus, even the casein in kefir and yogurt is MUCH more highly digestible because the microbes have already performed a little pre-digestion on it.
2. Coconut oil, coconut meat, coconut flour, and coconut milk
Coconut milk and oil are great sources of a super healthy type of saturated fat called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), including a component called lauric acid, which is a powerful nutrient for your immune system , and is lacking in most western diets. In addition, MCTs are readily used for energy by the body and less likely to be stored as body fat compared to other types of fats.
Eating coconut oil can help improve the health of your skin from the inside out... But in addition to being healthy internally, coconut oil is also known to be great for the health of your skin externally as a skin moisturizer that's healthier for you than most lotions since natural coconut oil allows you to avoid the harmful chemicals found in many lotions.
Coconut oil is even shown to help improve your thyroid function as well as helping to protect your brain from Alzheimers.
There are even direct studies that show that coconut oil can help you burn off abdominal fat more efficiently.
Along with coconut milk and coconut oil as healthy fat choices, we've also got coconut flour as a healthier flour option for baking. Coconut flour is an extremely high fiber flour alternative (almost ALL of the carbs in this flour are fiber and not starch!). Coconut flour is also VERY high in protein compared to most flours and is also gluten free!
Just beware that if you're going to use coconut flour for baking, it absolutely needs to be mixed with other flours as it sucks up moisture like crazy... I've made delicious baked goods by mixing coconut flour with almond flour and quinoa flour in equal parts, and adding slightly more liquid ingredients than the recipe calls for.
For MORE delicious foods, spices, herbs, and nutrients that protect your body from the ravages of aging and...
To your health,
Rose.
- Naturally boost your energy,
- Help KILL your joint pain,
- Lower your blood pressure,
- Fight diabetes & control blood sugar,
- Boost your brain health,
- HEAL your digestion problems,
- and raise your metabolism...
To your health,
Rose.
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