And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering. Genesis 4, 4
Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. Even
the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did
not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Judges 3, 21-22
Dear family in the Lord!
There appears to be some sort of a scheme going on to make us think fat is bad. Even on my quality banana I encountered an attempt to persuade me some more with a sticker saying: "Eat me- I am fat free". Many clients tell me they find themselves confused by a contradicting flood of information, opinions and scientific studies, and I have to admit I was confused as well.
Well, as always, I have a little mustard I would like to add to this overflow of information, especially since I made it a priority to spread (like warm organic Butter) what I learned to be true about fat. If you don´t know the mustard saying let me give you some background info. I am currently enjoying life in Germany and here we like to use phrases that include foods and animals. Just like Americans enjoy their money talk ("to give your 2 cents").
Just like in the Bible fat can be good and it can be bad. Apparently God likes a "full figured offering", but the king with the same attribute is only used as a means of judgment over the Israelites, finding his shameful death as part of his personal doomsday. I bet the forensics team back then had to jump through some hoops to determine the cause of that king´s death!
A gram of fat has 9 calories. Compared to carbohydrates or protein (4 calories per gram) that seems a little higher. So simply from the point of view of counting calories you would naturally grab the "low fat", "diet" or "light" version of your product, as they tend to have less calories. But with less calories you get more artificial, chemical and fake ingredients. First note to self today: Don´t fear the calories that come from good fat.You need about 30-40% of your daily caloric intake coming from different sources of good fat. And that is easily said and done! Fat makes you feel full longer and with good fat that is a good thing! For the sake of my exercising clients I should mention that good fat (an apple and a string cheese) makes for an excellent pre-workout snack.
Let´s talk about good fat.What is good fat? Fat is good when it is not or only a little processed. That includes organic butter, cold pressed olive oil, coconut oil, organic flaxseed oil, raw unsalted nuts and seeds, avocado, animal fat, traditional lard, traditional shorting, cheese and the list goes on but I think you get the point.
You might have noticed that I am not discerning between saturated and unsaturated fat. Yes, I truly don´t! It turns out that your body, organs, hormones, glands, thoughts, teeth, everything about you needs good fat. Since I am no doctor I am not going to say a lot about cholesterol, but I am going to pass on what the Weston A. Price Foundation teaches: Blaming cholesterol for heart attacks is like blaming firemen for fire. To learn in depth what amazing, mind blowing and offensive stuff they discovered, I encourage you in my warmest manner to watch the teaching "The Oiling of America" http://www.veoh.com/watch/v20011499p7GjN6Mf. 2 hours extremly well invested! I dare you to listen to one of my greatest heros Sally Fallon for just 30min and then see if she was able to get you interested.
If you are reading my posts regularly you have already noticed that I mention fat and fruits + veggies usually in one sentence. Let me remind you that another reason to consume fat is to be able to absorb the fat-soluble nutrients in produce! Vitamin A, D, E and K need to be eaten along with a good source of fat. You might save some calories by adding fat free dressing to your salad, but you fall off the other side of the horse as to why you were eating a salad in the first place.
Now, you might wonder, what is bad fat? You will not like what I have to say about this, especially not if you live under the whip of a calories counting pharaoh. Bad fat is processed fat. Vegetable oil (you bet, yes even Canola oil), Margarine, I can´t believe it´s not butter, (partially-) hydrogenated oil, trans fats, Crisco etc.
You find these bad fats in processed foods such as: chips, crackers, Cheetos, pie, cake, nachos, bread, cookies, doghnuts, dressing, pizza, chocolate, frozen dishes of all kind, canned dishes and soups of all kind, ice cream, yogurt, the foods you order in restaurants are prepared with it and so forth. You see that if you lead your life consuming a lot of processed foods and eat out regularly you will always be subject to bad fats; and guess just why that is? Because they are CHEAP!! The complex process of producing vegetable oils invloves a lot of heat and yet is cheap, aimed at quantity, forget quality! and in the end your oil is so rancid that they have to add deodarant so that you don´t pass out (or smell the red herring!). You can hear much more about this during the teaching mentioned above. Besides that, remember, fat slows down your digestion and with all those terrible ingredients in your system they have a whole lot more time to spread forever somewhere within you.
So, now that you know that pretty much all you love to eat includes bad fat, what makes it bad? Besides being rancid (as if that wasn´t bad enough)?
It is mostly the fact that these fats are rancid. Your common sense tells you to stay away from rancid foods for they pose unknown threats to you and your family. We tend to throw food out way before it´s expiration date or before they truly go bad, why not do the same with an ingredient that we put in literally everything we eat? Rancid means that free radicals get spread all through your body, and those free radicals usually don´t have an admirable agenda. They come to steal, kill and destroy.
Two common side effects of living off of rancid commercial vegetable oils are: heart related issues (the #1 cause of death in America) and cancer. You go home and think about that one. I think I've made the point clear.
Another reason to stay away from vegtable oils and steer towards animal fats (as found in organic: beef, pork, chicken, fish, milk, butter, sour cream, heavy whipping cream,...) is mere nutrients:
There are many reasons to consume a lot of produce. The inherent fat is not one of them.
I could dedicate a whole post to raw milk and it´s benefits. In America, under the current legal situation, you should look for a farmer who offers cold pasteurized milk and milk products to leave the nutrient carrier enzymes as intact as possible. If that sounds too complicated I always recommend whole organic milk and with that the little joys of the kitchen as mentioned above. You should find all of these in the Coborn´s Natural section.
Let me paraphrase. Good fat doesn´t make you fat. You need it for a happy and healthy life. And that shows in a healthly hormone household starting with cholesterol. Cholesterol is called "the mother of all hormones" and since your body needs LDL and HDL neither of these are "bad". Bad fat makes you fat, sick and unhappy. Low cholesterol levels are related to depression, violent behavior, suicide and homocide. Since bad fat foods tend to have a lot of fat and sugar in them, besides being highly addictive, you get why they make you fat. When do you ever just have one cookie... or one piece of pie...
If you are currently on statin drugs I encourage you to find a Chiropractor who offers nutrition based therapy, make an appointment and seek a second opinion. Especially after getting a glimpse of who mostly benefits from you being on statin drugs (and who doesn't: you) should make you wonder. You are "at risk" for heart disease when you are: Over 65, overweight, have hairy ear lobes, don´t exercise, smoke, get stressed easily.... I mentioned before that to focus on lowering cholesterol doesn´t cut it to get you healthy or to take you off the "at risk" list, but sets you up for other problems.
We would like to think that our medical and pharmaceutical industry is truly driven by divine motives and the desire to heal human kind. But let´s not idolize people. Let´s not tap into fear because doctors can only see what they are taught (and paid?) to see. And let´s seek to be sheep that know their good sheperd´s voice and follow that one.
I dare you to start at least with ONE THING that can help you slide into a fat lifestyle! I hear that Pampered Chef offers a fat free chips maker and you can make chips out of everything, without the use of bad fat! An air popper for your corn is another way to avoid bad fat. Switch from margerine to organic butter. Have a smoothy from frozen fruit and a shot of heavy whipping cream and some buttermilk instead of ice cream. Make sauces from scratch (sour cream, cheese, etc.). Find a farmer in your region that offers cold pasteurized milk. Have some organic bacon. Use cold pressed olive oil or organic flaxseed oil with a shot of buttermilk (plus salt and pepper) instead of processed dressings. For medium heat use cold pressed olive oil, for higher levels of heat butter or coconut oil. Or steam with water and drizzle yummy olive oil when you plate your dish.
With all that said let me release you back into your day with the nudge that FAT IS YOUR FRIEND AND THIS FRIEND IS FOOD. So enjoy the freedom and the friends that you have!
Be blessed abundantly! (This was my birthday wisdom gift for you :)
