Are You a Well Oiled Machine?

Like secret service men I send my dogs out in front of me on our walks.  They perform  snake patrol.

Most of us are oiled machines, but the operative word is “well”.  I want to wade into this water gently and thoughtfully because we have been hearing a line of bunk for so many years that it has become truth and it is killing us.  Also, I want to try to be simple and not bring all the technical stuff into the mix because, a) I dont understand it and b) it is b.o.r.i.n.g.  We are only getting some of the story and the part of the story being left out is quite necessary for us to hear.

I would love for us to begin to open our minds to think differently than we have been trained.  A whole food is wonderful until it is introduced to  processing and chemicals.  Until. Until. Until.  Things change after that. Dramatically.  Processing and chemical treatment change the composition of food.  Period.  We don’t get the same benefits of corn when it is tortured and brutalized.   No regard to its natural state has been considered.  When you over cook anything, you kill it.  So instead of approaching a food with -is it low fat, no trans fat, high fat, – it would be kinder on your body to ask if it was processed, how and was there anything added.  Anytime they add something, it usually means they have had to take something.

Before I begin, let me state that fat is imperative for healthy living.  When we talk about a low-fat diet we are eliminating crucial elements from our diet.  This is what fat in our diet does for us:

OUR CELL MEMBRANES ARE MADE UP OF 50% FAT.  They will die without it.  What a squeaky machine we are without it!

FAT SOLUBLE VITAMINS , A, D, E, K  NEED FAT TO CARRY THE VITAMINS THROUGH OUR BODIES.  THESE ARE CRITICAL VITAMINS.

FATS PROTECT THE LIVER FROM TOXINS

FATS ENHANCE THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

FATS LOWERS LIPOPROTEIN WHICH INDICATES A POTENTIAL HEART DISEASE ISSUE.

FATS ARE NEEDED FOR CALCIUM TO BE SUCCESSFULLY UTILIZED IN BONE HEALTH.

THE LIST GOES ON

We have learned from the people ( FDA, Food industry, Drug Companies,  Doctors, CIA, FBI, ABCDEFG, etc.) that:

Monounsaturated fats are good.  Olive oil and canola oil are the two main.

Polyunsaturated fats are good.   Margarine, Vegetable oils.

Saturated Fats are bad.  Coconut, Butter, Animal Fat, Creams

So far,  so good.

WHAT WE HAVE NOT LEARNED:

Monounsaturated Fats (olive oil and canola oil) cannot sustain their nutrient benefits if heated beyond 180 degrees.  thus becoming a non food.   So  really shouldn’t be used for cooking high temps.  I am really guilty of this and am trying to be more conscious of it.  I used to bake with it too which is not recommended.  Also, because of a high demand they are being processed to an extent that many of them come to your table nutrient deficient.  Look for FIRST COLD PRESSED. UNFILTERED AND CLOUDY.  Many groceries wont have this.  Most groceries will have first cold pressed but you will probably have to  order the unrefined online or shop at specialty stores.

Polyunsaturated Fats are the biggy here.  ugh.

Excess consumption of polyunsaturated oils has been shown to contribute to a large number of disease conditions including increased cancer and heart disease; immune system dysfunction; damage to the liver, reproductive organs and lungs; digestive disorders; depressed learning ability; impaired growth; and weight gain.*

New evidence links exposure to free radicals with premature aging, with autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and with Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s and cataracts.**

They go through an extensive process which  can be a heating/steaming situation 3 times!  What would you call that once processed?  Probably not something that our precious bodies would recognize as food.  Again,  NON FOOD ITEM.

When it is heated on our stove it becomes rancid and oxidizes.  So when I think about eating something that is rancid… ugh … and just because I can’t see the rancidness, doesn’t mean it is not there.  Would I eat a piece of bread with green mold on it?  Of course not!

Saturated Fats.  This is the good part!  They are very good for you    IF ( and that is a big IF. ) they are not processed to death. Again, we have to become every conscious how food is treated before coming to our door.  Dr. Oz and the likes of him are having to eat their words on this subject. He mentioned a few months ago he has a tablespoon of coconut oil everyday.  It was not too long ago that coconut oil was a NO NO.   If these fats are not tainted with chemicals and heavy processing, they are hands down the best source of fat and have huge benefits.  All the benefits I list above, call for saturated fats.  I have eaten all that I desire of butter, ghee, coconut oil, and animal fats  in the past 7 years and my health soars!  I eat mucho.  My tryglecerides were so low that a doctor recently told me that if he  hadn’t known better he would have thought his patient came from a concentration camp.  He had never seen them so low.  In other words…from a different world.  My cholesterol levels are perfect.  Please remember,  I used to not be healthy.  AND I don’t gain weight as a result of my intake.  God would not make food for us and then have us all become ill from it.  We have tainted our own food supply.

It is vital that we get our food from good sources.  That is the key here.  Not –  low fat, high fat, sideways fat, straight fat.  It has to be nontainted, non processed, GOOD FAT.    Consider your source always.

It is my prayer that we begin to look at this from a new angle …..Instead of being on a low fat diet or a low carb diet, or a high protein, or whatever diet ( those are food groups for heavens sake!  Needed for survival!)  Try going on a low chemical diet.  Or a low processed diet.  Or a low antibiotic diet.  or a low steroid diet.  Or  a local diet.   Or organic diet.  Those are NOT food groups.  Does that make sense?

And…. margarine….What IS THAT anyway?

Have a Super day!

God bless,

Karen

  *A general review of citations for problems with polyunsaturate consumption is found in Pinckney, Edward R, MD, and Cathey Pinckney, The Cholesterol Controversy, 1973, Sherbourne Press, Los Angeles, 127-131; Research indicating the correlation of polyunsaturates with learning problems is found in Harmon, D, et al, J Am Geriatrics Soc, 1976, 24:1: 292-8; Meerson, Z, et al, Bull Exp Bio Med, 1983, 96:9:70-71;Regarding weight gain, levels of linoleic acid in adipose tissues reflect the amount of linoleic acid in the diet. Valero, et al, Ann NutrMetabolism, Nov/Dec 1990, 34:6:323-327; Felton, C V, et al, Lancet, 1994, 344:1195-96

**Machlin, I J, and A Bendich, FASEB Journal, 1987, 1:441-445