How to Incorporate Fatty Goodness into Your Health Regime

Trend diets are everywhere and whether or not they temporarily cut down calories, they are no way to live a healthy life. Here’s why you should add fat to your diet.

There has long been a debate about fatty foods. Don’t eat fat. Eat fat to burn fat. Don’t eat saturated fats, but do eat processed fats. Only eat unsaturated fats—I mean…only monounsaturated fats. Don’t eat animal fats, but animal fats have monounsaturated fats. Help!

The easy answer is easy: You should eat fat. However, not all fats are created equal.

In the early 1900s, some questionable studies blamed saturated fats for obesity and cardiovascular disease. This new philosophy was convenient for large food processing companies because it meant opting for vegetable products over more expensive animal products.

Non-fat and low-fat diets led to more processed goods filled with sugar, salt and chemicals to fill our inherent craving (and need) for fatty foods. The big war on saturated fats turned consumers to chemically engineered products like margarine that have dangerous amounts of trans unsaturated fats.

However, more recent and reliable studies have shown no cause-and-effect correlation linking saturated fats to heart disease and obesity. This came as shocking news to some who have sworn by margarine for the past 60 years but it should be no surprise.

Fat is like any other nutrient and, as such, should not be eliminated from your diet. You need fats—both saturated and unsaturated—to fuel your metabolism and break down different vitamins and minerals from food. Without fats, you aren’t benefiting from all those power yoga sessions, healthy smoothies or salads.

Here are just a few fatty foods you may have overlooked. Each one has a different fat make-up and will help to keep your metabolism working in full gear.

Butter

fresh yellow dairy butter in a white bowl

Some people still avoid butter like the plague because of its high saturated fat content, but butter from grass-fed animals is actually filled with vitamins and good fats. Eating grass-fed animal products is all about balancing Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.

These two fats are essential for humans, meaning our body cannot produce them and so must consume them. It is easy to consume too much Omega-6 due to our modern diets of highly-processed vegetable foods.

In addition, grain-fed animals result in animal products with too much Omega-6 whereas grass-fed animal products are higher in omega-3s. One of the non-Omega-3 fats found in grass-fed animal products is called conjugated linoleic acid and can do some amazing things for your body.

CLA is an unsaturated fat that boosts your metabolism and increases your body’s good cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). This is some encouraging news for a foodie like myself, but it’s not to say you should drown all your food in butter. A serving size is still just a tablespoon and cooking your food with butter on high heat will destroy its nutritional value.

Every oil has a different smoke point at which the chemical makeup decomposes and free radicals are released. Butter has a lower smoke point (350ºF) than oils like sunflower oil, so ditch the butter for sautéing.

There is also ghee to consider, a pure form of butter great for cooking—with a smoke point of 482ºF. Ghee from grass-fed butter is high in CLA and high in butyric acid—a fat that needed for intestinal wall structure. Your body already makes butryic acid when it consumes fiber, but many of us could use more of it for a healthy gut.

Avocado

Avocado sandwich on dark rye bread made with fresh sliced avocados from above

Even though you probably already have this on your grocery list, I wanted to include it because avocados are freakin’ awesome!

The majority of fat in avocados is monounsaturated. Studies have shown that increases in monounsaturated fats consumption lead to increased resting energy expenditure, which is the amount of calories you burn without exercise.

Monounsaturated fats also increase good cholesterol and help your body to develop cells. If you stick to that workout routine, avocados will help you turn flab into tight lean muscles.

If you’re not a guac person, there are other delicious foods that are high in monounsaturated fats: olive oil, olives, peanuts, almonds, pistachios and sunflower seeds.

Avocados are incredibly versatile with the ability to compliment almost every meal. They can even be a meal in themselves with a little salt and pepper.

Fish (and other Omega-3s)

Delicious salmon fillet

Omega-3 fatty acids are a kind of polyunsaturated fat that will do a lot for your health in general, potentially even preventing cancer. These fats strengthen your nervous and cardiovascular systems.

On top of that, they help to burn fat! Seeing a trend yet? Like other natural fats, Omega-3s help to break down calories into energy your body will use instead of store away. Fish is not the only food throwing an Omega-3 party.

You can always check out chia seeds, flaxseeds, grass-fed beef, free-range eggs and any grass-fed dairy product!

It’s important to eat diverse foods so that you get all the nutrients nature has to offer. Trend diets are everywhere and whether or not they temporarily cut down calories, they are no way to live a healthy life.

Share your healthy eating habits with us below!

About the author

Isabella Le Bon

Isabella is a francophile and health nut who loves dark chocolate, Otis Redding and cured Spanish ham. She loves traveling and dinner conversations that last until the wee hours of the morning.

Add Comment

Click here to post a comment