Over roughly the last 100 years, the United States, and the rest of the world, has undergone a dramatic dietary change. We eat less at home and more at restaurants. We eat fewer foods made from scratch and more that are processed and packaged at a factory far, far away. There are of course many other changes (frequent dieting being equally if not more significant). But the biggest change of all is a change that you’ve probably never heard of, or were aware of in the slightest. The biggest change seems to have been our collective increased consumption of two fatty acids in particular ? linoleic acid (LA) and Arachidonic acid (AA).
The primary sources of LA are vegetable oils (corn, soy, canola, sunflower, cottonseed, etc.) and peanut butter, and the primary sources of AA are pork, eggs, and poultry.
In the last 100 years, official U.S. data notes an increase in vegetable oil consumption of 1,450%, and an increase in margarine consumption (manufactured from vegetable oil) by 800%.
Pork and egg consumption changed an insignificant amount, while poultry intake increased by 278%. More important than the changes here though is the fact that the fatty acid composition of these meats/products and the fat in these meats/products has changed dramatically due to the big change in the type of feed given to pigs and chickens (they now get fed lots of corn and soy and other foods rich in LA). ?The result is that eggs and meat from pork and poultry especially is much higher in AA than ever before. AA is a byproduct of LA metabolism ? generally the more LA an animal consumes the more AA there is in the organs and tissues.
The same is true for a human. The more LA we eat the more AA we can expect to find in our fats, tissues, and organs. Of course eating more AA directly’seems to do it in an expedited manner.
While the buildup in these types of fatty acids in our organs, tissues, and fat cells is quite significant, and significant for reasons we won’t necessarily delve into in this post, these fatty acids have made it into something else besides our farm animals and our bodies?
They have made it into breast milk.
Prior to the widespread replacement of traditional fats (butter, rendered beef and pork fat, coconut oil, olive oil) with modern vegetable oils, breast milk samples show linoleic content somewhere around 6%, perhaps even less prior to the agricultural revolution. Now we’re seeing LA content well above 15%, and sometimes considerably higher in some women, such as diabetic mothers who seem to have particularly high levels. Unfortunately, makers of infant formula have increased their LA content to try to mimic the changing breast milk over the years. Some makers are even considering going over 20% as LA.
Perhaps the most interesting connection here is that?
1)????? Proneness to obesity, diabetes, and other related conditions is predictable at a very young age (2 years of age or younger)
2)????? Number of fat cells and size of fat cells seems to be amongst the best of all indicators as to what the future body composition of an infant will be
3)????? This seems to be primarily controlled by type and quantity of fatty acids ? lots of LA and AA in a mother’s tissues and breast milk leads to adipocyte (fat cell) hyperplasia and hypertrophy. In English? bigger fat cells and more of them ? two major hallmarks of obesity, are all set into motion long before McDonald’s and soft drinks and video games come into the picture
No really. We actually seem to be intentionally putting more of these fatty acids into infant formula, and people are being told to avoid saturated fats and eat more plant-sourced fats. In laboratory animals body weight follows an almost linear curve that is neatly tied to the amount of LA that it is fed. Tissue levels of these fats in a mother also seem to be rather directly related to the obesity-proneness of her offspring.
Anyway, I once went overboard with my vilification of these types of fats, listing extensive charts showing the foods with the highest and lowest content of LA (in an Appendix in my book?Diet Recovery for example). In doing so, I probably also overestimated the benefits that one can expect to personally experience from reducing LA and AA in the diet.
But, no longer coming from a dietary extremist’s point of view ? instead looking for practical, sustainable, and doable simple changes that the majority of society can implement, the take away message here is very simple?
- Cook your food in butter and coconut oil at home, and quit buying and using vegetable oil and margarine
- Eat fewer fried foods out at restaurants (notice I didn’t say ?don’t eat fried foods?)
- Eat fewer packaged commercial products that are cooked in or made with vegetable oil (chips, commercial cookies)
- Don’t buy mayonnaise or commercial salad dressings ? make your own
- Eat more red meat, seafood, and dairy products as your sources of animal foods
Simple changes are all that is needed here on an individual level. No need to become an uptight health hermit or diet weirdo. But hopefully the voices of people like myself, Danny Roddy, Ray Peat, Josh Rubin, Stephen Guyenet, Chris Masterjohn, David Brown, Evelyn Tribole, Bill Lands, and dozens of others will eventually be heard. Countries like the United States and Israel, with their extremely high intake of LA and unsurprisingly high rates of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, should help to warn the rest of the world of the potential dangers of diets high in polyunsaturated fats.
I truly suspect that a national change in attitude about fats ? favoring the saturated fats in our food supply (coconut, red meat, dairy, chocolate) instead of recklessly pouring corn oil in infant formula in unprecedented amounts, can go a long way in letting people ?eat, drink, and be merry? without suffering so many ill consequences. It’s certainly a matter worthy of a more thorough examination in terms of how these fats affect our bodies on a fundamental physiological level than it has yet to receive.
But I guess I’m just dreaming. I don’t envision any major food corporations or restaurateurs volunteering to switch to using more expensive fats any time soon.
Well from a rigorously scientific point of view, there’s no evidence for the negative effect of LA or AA, nor there’s willingness to search for it. So keep on dreaming :)
How about the Omega-3 Polyunsaturated fats? Flaxseed Oil / Olive Oil / Fish Oil? Are they also bad?
I believe Olive Oil is mostly mono-unsaturated and therefore not as problematic as the polyunsaturated oils.
Phew. I love some olive oil on my salads.
Personally, I prefer macadamia oil to olive. I have sensitive taste and prefer more bland foods. It has a milder nutty flavor than whole macadamia nuts, and like 2-3% PUFAs (like 0.3-0.5g per tablespoon). NOW Foods is pretty cheap, but Mac Nut Oil from Australia is better. It’s about $11 for 8.5 oz, locally. Less in a case online.
Ditto that Ian…ever since I tried Mac Nut oil, I can’t stand the thought of having olive oil. BTW, Mac Nut oil drizzled over some baked sweet potatoes with sea salt is heavenly :)
1st?
Suck the boobs!
Well now you just look ridiculous.
The whole “first” thing is getting kind of ridiculous. O.K, maybe if it’s some viral video on youtube that you happen to be the first one to stumble upon, FINE, go ahead. But not some dude’s blog who averages 100 comments per post. THIS IS MATT STONE PEOPLE. I mean, he’s spectacular too, but this ain’t Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Justin Bieber. So pull your pants back on. It’s like watching someone nerdgasm over being first in line at the hotdog stand in Six Flags–that’s great, but does anyone really give 2? Hell, even if you were first in line for Kingda Ka, does anyone REALLY care? I think you know the answer.
But alas, I suppose if you have nothing else to say, you might as well say ‘First’ and remove all doubt that you’re a moron.
Vegetable oil isn’t necessarily cheaper than good oil and fat. For example, palm oil can be *ridiculously* cheap.
If I understand correctly, the reason that McDonald’s stopped using their tallow/palm oil mixture in the early 80’s and switched to using vegetable oil instead was due to consumer demand. There were big public protests against the “artery-clogging” fats, so McDonald’s caved and started using vegetable oil instead. At least, that’s the story I’ve been told. And now today they’re using some weird, supposedly trans-fat free oil because of the consumer demand for trans-fat free stuff. (McDonald’s is actually pretty good at responding to consumer demand… here in England, for example, ALL the milk they sell is certified organic, just because that’s what people want.)
McDonald’s seems to get a lot more negativity than they deserve. They also refused for a long time to supersize until stockholders put pressure on them to comply with the rest of the restaurants doing it. However, in the 70’s the US started to subsidize corn and soy in a unique way in order to deliberately create a big surplus and drop prices through the basement. And now there is a huge financial advantage to be replacing more and more of the calorie content in foods with soy and corn products.
Can anyone here expound more on how bad peanut butter is as a linoleic acid (you know, compared with corn, soy, canola, sunflower, cottonseed oil, because I can fully understand how bad those are)?
It doesn’t have as much linoleic acid as vegetable oils, but we collectively eat so much of it that it is a significant contributor to the total. I didn’t think it was worthy of mention in the grand scheme of things, despite the fact that peanuts have the highest ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 of any known food.
“I didn’t think it was worthy of mention in the grand scheme of things”
Confused….Was that a typo Matt? You did write in the post that the primary sources of LA are vegetable oils and Peanut butter (its in the second paragraph).
I think a distinction should be made between refined, heated, solvent-extracted or rancid or hydrogenated vegetable oils and whole foods like peanut butter. I think it makes a big leap in logic to say that natural peanut butter is in the same league as heated, solvent-extracted, refined, bleached, deodorized, or hydrogenated oils. It’s like saying refined sugar and fresh whole sugar cane is the same. Unrefined sugars like Zulka tastes very different than white or brown sugar or molasses. Whole fruit picked ripe and in season (or 100% juices) don’t have the same proven problems as fruit juice cocktails with HFCS or sugar.
Your skin will look better if you follow these principles, too. I swear a huge part of the reason I maintain my weight easily is I stopped consuming these refined oils in anything but minimal quantities (and only when eating out) in my early 20s. I pretty much have only used olive oil or butter for a whole decade, recently adding coconut oil and ghee to the mix. I’ve never liked chicken or pork very much so they’ve never been big factors. Granted I didn’t eat much for most of my 20s (although who knows, maybe using up all my body fat helped get the PUFAs out of my body anyway). But it’s a huge metabolic secret, and these fats are very satisfying, appetite-wise.
I read this while I ate a piece of toast that was slathered in butter with some pieces of dark chocolate on top. With a little cup of whole milk. Mmmmmmmm… :)
Since switching over to eating more saturated fats, our food tastes better and is much more satisfying and filling. We have bacon and sausage every once in awhile. And limited quantities of chicken and hardly any turkey. I really salivated over beef or lamb though – that’s the shiz I love to eat. Along with crazy-high amounts of full fat dairy.
And I won’t touch vegetable oil unless we eat out. I had to stop buying nachos, pretzels made with a bit of oil, and most crackers because every time I opened the bag to eat them, they smelled rancid and I hate eating food that had a rancid smell too it…it could have been because of the pufas. I was buying different brands (and types) of pufa-infused snacks and they were all smelling like this to me. When I buy Trader Joe’s pretzel slims (that don’t have any oil), they smell fresh. And they taste good dipped in salsa, butter or sour cream.
I want to use more coconut oil in our diet and make some really dense, hearty breakfasts with it (coffee cake, pancakes, waffles, etc) and see how it affects us. That might help keep me warmer during the day.
Thank you for the article! Very interesting stuff and good advice on how to get more saturated fats.
For some reason I often find nachos, pretzels, and other snacks that are made with palm oil, which is better than the PUFA crap. Casa Fiesta Nachos are made with palm oil last time I checked, as well as Euroshop Salt Sticks.
Pringles is absolutely fubar. There they write “May contain palm oil and/or sunflower oil.”
Thanks Hulda! I’ll check out some of those snacks. :)
I should add that even though we don’t eat much pufa at home, we DO eat it when we eat out. And I don’t worry about it. That has been liberating and not feeling the extreme stress I used to when I ate out is healthier than not eating the pufas, in my opinion.
Last Saturday, we had family in town and went out to eat at Golden Corral for lunch. I ate anything I wanted, in whatever quantities I wanted. And we were there eating for a loooooong time, eating and eating. I stayed very satisfied for the rest of the day and topped off with some ice cream that night while I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I LOVE that the leading actress of this movie is not rail thin, but well endowed. And even though she’s not the regular thin type of woman you see in Hollywood, she is amazingly beautiful.
And I didn’t gain any weight from my feast at Golden Corral.
Who do I gotta blow to get a Golden Corral in my town?
Ok the only way I would go back in that place, is if you come to Texas, I will take you there and blow your mind, but be warned it won’t be pretty.
Um…that would be the two in the middle, best I can tell…
http://moynihaninstitute.blogspot.com/2012/12/yesterday-in-casper-wyoming-nearly-200.html
Oh my god, that made my day. Seriously one of the funniest things I have read considering my recent cultural experience. I do take exception to the notion that Golden Corral is only for white trash though. That is probably true in Casper, but in Texas it is much more, uh, ethnic if you know what I mean.
Eat Until You Throw Up
Eat Your Own Vomit Free
Happy Father’s Day
ROFL
LMAO, I think this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read! (and saddest)
I laughed when I read this because I just went to Golden Corral for the first time ever, last night. I’m sorry but that was the nastiest food I have ever encountered in my life. I’m surprised I didn’t spontaneously relapse into orthorexia (or bulemia) just walking in the door.
But I have to agree, it is very liberating to not worry about PUFAs when you eat out. I just won’t be going back to GC any time… like ever ;)
Some of the stuff at Golden Corral isn’t pretty. ;) But there is soooooooo much food, I can sift through it and find what I like. My kids go straight for the mac n cheese and pizza, which keeps them pretty warm and toasty. My secret food I love there is mashed potatoes and fake brown gravy….mmmmm. I’m glad they don’t have the ingredients listed over some of the foods, sauces and dressings, LOL
And everyone in our party was soooo cheerful and happy while we ate there and after we got home. It’s just amazing what some calories and carbs and sugar will do to people.
I didn’t freak out when I stepped inside and that is the most awesome thing about my experience there on Saturday. It was extremely hard to eat out when I was very orthorexic in the past. I usually just went to In N Out and got protein style burgers with no dressing or sauce on it. Or I ordered meat heavy salads at places, with no dressing. Blech.
I ate a plate of cottage cheese and canned peaches, that seemed safe. I did have one peice of cauliflower with that fake orange cheese sauce on it. That was as far as I got :) I knew if I went for some of those things I would end up purging, is there anything sadder than a bulimic at a cheap buffet? lol.
I’m glad you found a few things there. I agree and think it would be hard to be bulimic and go to a cheap buffet. It would be too much of a temptation to purge that crap.
And man, that fake orange cheese sauce is soooooo bright orange! And I’m not sure how I was able to eat so much when I was there. I get acid reflux after eating and had none at all.
Golden Corral has unlimited “ice cream” and their full dessert setup at breakfast. What more can you ask for?
Yes, and don’t forget the flowing chocolate fountain (the centerpiece) that 3000 kids have stuck their hands into!
Life would be good if coconut oil and palm oil were more widely used. I likey the Bugles – cooked in coconut oil.
We’ve been buying bugles and my kids absolutely love them. They’re a good snack, but a bit harder to find at stores (I get them at Wal Mart). I have a teeny tiny food phobia of the BHT in them though, although I still eat them because they very quickly warm me up when I’m cold. And they taste soooo yummy!
You can buy them in bulk on Amazon for pretty cheap also.
Uhhhm. GMO corn????
REALLY??? Do they come in barbecue?
I looked for bugles the other day here because I know they’re made in coconut oil, but I looked at the ingredients and saw vegetable oil on them :(
Pretty sure I picked up the right bag of Bugles…I’ll have to check again, but dang, that was a disappointment.
I have seen Bugles have vegetable oil sometimes when another company makes them (whatever that means) Like it’ll say TOMS on the top or something, AND if they’re not the original flavor. So the red bags without any other company labeling is SOLID.
Matt, is the corn in the bugles GMO. Just wondering.
Maybe.
Most non-organic corn in the US is GMO these days.
wooord
For some strange reason, the only Bugles I’ve found where I live in Europe(even the one called “original”) has sunflower oil, not coconut oil.
I felt odd when I got Bugles regularly. I didn’t notice the BHT and additives, but that would be the main suspect. I like Sun Chips more, they are made with high oleic sunflower oil apparently, given the amount of PUFAs versus MUFAs and SFAs. I avoid PUFAs scrupulously at home and avoid fried food except Rally’s fries maybe once a month. They used to be made with suet, based on their nutrition data online (they were like 56% saturated), but in recent years the data on their site changed. Food is being reformulated a lot, Hunt’s ketchup used to brag “no high fructose,” now wouldn’t you know it, they have HFCS. Guess I will stick to Organic Ketchup from Trader Joe’s for $1.99 a bottle. Screw these greedy whores adulterating one food after another with corn and soy.
The corn is most likely GMO. I enjoy Organic Olive Oil popcorn at Trader Joe’s for $1.99 – only ingredients are organic corn, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt. The Bugles I got were in official bags with coconut oil only, from Wal-Mart or Kroger or Meijer. They made me feel funny, my teeth would hurt and I felt kind of dizzy, IIRC. Sun Chips are probably GMO as well, but you can find something similar with w/ organic and high-oleic.
Hulda,
I don’t know if you cn get Bugles corn chips where you live, but they are made using coconut oil which is amazing for such a large manufactured chip/snack that is not made with sunflower or canola oil here in the U.S.
Opps, sorry , I did not see Matt’s comment mentioning Bugles.
Amazon recently started doing international shipping, but don’t know if they can ship food internationally from the United States. Everyone who wants to buy Bugles in bulk should check it out. :)
I check labels on processed products for significant quantities of pufas before purchasing and I’ve done this for several years. I swear that I’ve noticed over the last several months many more items being made with palm oil. The only example I can think of at the moment are snyders gluten free pretzels (hey I like the texture better). A couple of years ago I don’t think I ever saw that.
I wonder if that is due to cost pressures or there are enough people like me that avoid canola/soy/sunflower/etc. oil that big food is responding to demand.
Where did find Snyder’s gluten free pretzels? I’ve heard they exist, but haven’t seen them yet. ;)
You will love coconut oil in place of regular oil in muffins. They come out super lucious.
Apparently heart disease is also rampant in India now
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-17/health/34523974_1_heart-diseases-diseases-study-chest-pain
Maybe in part because they switched from ghee/coconut to peanut and such oils?
Prolly also other factors like stress and pollution
Obesity and diabetes are getting progressively worse just about everywhere also. It’s not just an American phenomenon. In fact, the childhood obesity rate in France is advancing at a much faster rate than in the US.
The french now feed toddlers “toddler milk” that is made with vegetable oils so it will be “less fattening” and “healthier” than regular cows milk. All the fat in it comes from vegetable oil. Here’s a link to one of the formulas, which lists the ingredients if you scroll down: http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/SMA-Toddler-Milk/53567011 It’s totally widespread apparently – Dr’s recommendations.
And vegetable oils like grapeseed oil is huge in France now. Not to mention weight watchers and Jenny Craig have moved into the market, and the Dukan Diet.
“lait de croissance” is what the toddler milk is called
That stinks about the baby formula!
I really like eating traditional French food and their love of butter, milk and cheese. I’m glad we at least I have a good French cookbook that I can cook from (before they all get harder to find…)
When I was in Paris 8 or so years ago, there were TONS of low fat yogurt advertisements plastered all over the Metro walls. :( And I think they are 2nd to America with the number (or maybe percentage) of McDonald’s they have?
And I once read on a French blog that the government has a national obesity campaign happening. I think they have a soda tax and they believe that the American influence has made them fat. I think I saw it stated that the Americans are “exporting obesity to France” or something along those lines.
Our next door neighbors are French and they eat more traditional French foods and saturated fat, thank goodness.
When I was going to university in France (many years ago, in the early 80s), I remember the most used cooking oil was sunflower seed oil. Butter was used as an important ingredient in dishes, but that sunflower oil is what was used for daily frying, sauteeing, etc. Just mentioning this to point out that I don’t think the advent of PUFAs is anything new in the French diet, although it might have increased in the years since then.
This is discussed in the article I linked to, which was done by a French scientist specifically on childhood obesity in France.
What article? I don’t see a link
Never mind I see you mean the one in the article!
Ahhhh…interesting. Yes, they might use that as an ingredient in my cookbook too, I’ll have to look.
And I’ll check my neighbor’s cupboards the next time I go over there. ;)
The Italians have a lot of pufas in their junk food too! And they have a lot of pre packaged treats and cookies. I guess no one is immune to what’s going on.
The best thing to do no matter where you live is to eat homemade foods the majority of the time. And to not worry about eating other stuff too.
when i lived in France about 9 years ago i noticed they had more low fat versions of food than england! and super low fat like virtually fat free butter (not marg)! on a good note they also had more organic food than the uk too, and that’s when i first started buying a few organic things.
similarly, i’ve been noticing in the past few months the blatant promotion of pufa oils like rapeseed oil on the BBC (british establishment tv channel that brainwashes the sheeple – also has strict anti-advertising policy). all the tv chefs and personalities are repeatedly telling us to start buying and using rapeseed oil now as it’s really “healthy” and better than butter, not to mention supporting British produce. atm they can’t stop promoting the stuff, i found it a bit sinister.
Hi lulush,
What kind of fat free butter are you talking about?
I’m french and I never, never see any kind of virtually fat free butter,here….
@Thomas,
The kind of sunflower oil, which is used to fry, cook ect…, is a man-made hybrid version which has a high oleic acid content even higher than olive oil.
Wilfried you’re right, there’s probably no such thing, but it was super low fat, my flatmate had this butter that was about 200kcal per 100g. no offense by the way as i was not criticising the idea, and i love France, French people, french cheese, and their (real) raw butter!
Matt I wish I had more time to comment, but I just want to say you have saved my life. You really did, and you continue to do so. I should blow you for other buffets besides Golden Coral because that an chinese is the only shit I have around here. Besides some place called Ryans about a 30-40 min away.
I eased up on my Pufa restrictions but this article makes me want to tell Burgger King to only use ketchup on my whoppers again.
Between vegetable oils and cannabis being illegal and TruTV we have some SERIOUS FUCKING ISSUES folks.
There was an article recently stating that scientists (statisticians, I think) can now predict whether a child will be obese. I plugged the numbers in for my currently –BMI determined– obese 3 year old. They gave him a 1 % chance of becoming an obese adult. The doctors, however, are already half-way considering interventions. The kid is a tank 3.5 feet and 50 lbs. Pretty muscular with a pot belly. I believe he’ll thin out so I’m not worried. He’s extremely active (more so than his very slim older bro) and looks healthy. The two biggest predictors on the exam appeared to be socio-economic and whether the mother smoked during pregnancy. For whatever it’s worth:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9709304/Online-calculator-to-predict-childhood-obesity.html
I would like to see that.. I live in Paris, my daughter is ten years old
and there is one overweight kid in her class. They are 25 ..
This is totally true and I am sure it’s why there is such an epidemic of diabetes and heart disease in India. I can’t even eat at most Indian restaurants in San Francisco because of the crap oil they drown the sauces in. They don’t use ghee, I am sure, because it is more expensive. Coconut oil was used in the south more traditionally. The use of PUFA as cooking oil has been the biggest change in their diet over the last number of decades. I can think of no other compelling reason for the high incidence of degenerative diseases….
GMOs, soil degradation and all the chemicals are some other compelling reasons. But I do agree that PUFA is a big factor.
Glad you posted about this. I have been considering writing my own blog post on the same topic, but I am not a big fan of fear-mongering and it’s difficult for me to ascertain how damaging or not damaging LA and AA are. And yes, I have read extensively on Chris Masterjohn’s information on the topic. I know the amount of omega-6 we consume now is highly unnatural but I was never sure how correlated it was with diabetes or obesity. One of the major problems we have is people like Dean Ornish conflating a largely plant based diet with love and support. In my opinion love and support is far and away a bigger factor in health than diet. So in that respect, Ornish’ proven research doesn’t actually tell me anything about the healthfulness of a plant based diet.
Back when I first fell into the health rabbit hole, the prevalance of LA and AA was one of the main things I noticed. We demonize saturated fats and blah, blah, but to those few of us who pay attention, the notion is ludicrous. Certainly are grandma’s ate more lard, butter, and beef tallow than we ever will. Lard is synonymous with fatass and weight gain but try and find anyone who knows how to cook with it, where to buy it, or can identify any foods that contain it. I started looking at what the sources of fats were for the average American and almost all of it is vegetable oils: salad dressings, crackers, chips, dips, mayonnaise. It’s on your sandwiches, in your snacks. It’s spread on your burger. Almost everything is cooked in it. And almost anywhere a natural animal fat could sneak in, it’s demonized and minimized. Butter is replaced with margarine. Sour cream and cheeses are low-fat. It’s ridiculous. You can actually play this game in other people’s kitchens. Find the natural fats. A lot of times you can’t.
Despite all that, I know that people like Chief achieve weight loss results without worrying too much about vegetable oils. I think he does encourage natural foods. Rob or Chief, you’ll have to speak to this. I know he encourages the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash. Is it possible to get weight loss with high levels of vegetable oils? I know it can take a long time to turn around fatty-acid composition of the cells.
The research is all very suspect too because of all the financial motives pushing more and more cheap agricultural commodoties into the food supply. As far as obesity and LA/AA, as the paper I linked to mentions – no study on these fatty acids’ effect specifically on obesity has ever been done (as of 2006).
You can find the fat in my kitchen: organic coconut oil, butter, cream, cheese (never low fat), full fat yogurt, olive oil.
Now I want muffins. Sheesh.
Yep it is completely doable to eat primarily fastfood/buffets and achieve weightloss with pretty high amounts of pufas in the mix. I have certainly eaten more than your average consumer eats during weight loss experiments and I could easily drop 100 pounds eating primarily anything and everything I wanted at a golden coral.
BTW Beth I have a full ingredient list from their manual its not as bad as you think well, maybe not the neon orange cheese sauce. lol
Yes Aaron, I do encourage natural foods especially the three sisters anyone will get better results with adding them in and with certain cases they are almost a necessity. It’s all about context though. For the average person thats not dipping every single Mc Donald’s french fry into miracle whip it’s probably not an issue for their weight loss. I would say that the correlation is there with the changes in agriculture and obesity and while I think it is a factor, I also think the human body is pretty badass and can take a little bullshit in our environment. ( a little! )There is a much bigger factor that is changed around the same time we added seed oils.
I do suspect eating alot of pufas might hinder at least to some degree, someone using a calorie restriction approach though.
Especially those who already have a compromised metabolism.
Which is precisely what calorie restriction does.
Chief, what is the big change that occurred at the same time as PUFAs?
simply put: matrix upgrade … and no I’m not speaking literally.
I touch on it here
http://www.chiefrok.com/blog/?p=212
lifestyle was significantly altered at the exact same time as agriculture
changed what we ate. The 2 go hand in hand. You can’t change food production into what it is now without getting rid of a ton of farm hands and throw them into the rat race.
its not the food that makes people fat ( for the most part). People become fat and eat more food not the other way around.
I have some pretty heavy posts as well in the my obesity model series that get to the core of the issue and how to see the data through fresh eyes and I was hoping to release for Jan first, still short a few comments ;) almost there.
Hmm, interesting. Yeah, it’s a stressor to be sure. I’m trying to get out of the matrix myself (not in an extreme way, just into a job that puts me more in touch with people and my passions, rather than sitting at a computer hating my job all day). Not that it made me fat, though, I will say.
good idea, if fat is not the effect usually it’s worse.
People react differently and genes play a role therefore it is not an automatic fat gaining result. the other thing to think about some people are affected indirectly as the interact with those “passing the buck”. Even children can’t escape it because family life has changed drastically in relation to this ” upgrade”.
Yes, I agree on the “passing the buck piece.” I went through all kinds of crap in my childhood with an angry father and mother who was literally out to lunch. I only recently found out that my mom was on xanax most of my childhood for “anxiety”, and obviously the effects of that were not good, although it’s nice to finally understand what was going on. I really wish she would have made changes in her life to be happier instead of trying to escape with drugs. (and, of course, I wish my dad would have made changes, too, instead of resorting to massive anger)
Thank you Matt!!!
I have been waiting for awhile for you to get into at least SOME dietary specifics… Rather than just ‘EAT ALL DA FOODZ ALL DA TIMEZ HOMPH GOMPH GOMPH’
Wait…. That was me making out with pie. Sorry.
But seriously, while I totally agree that the occasional Big Mac and fries will serve you far better than a lifetime of dietary neuroses and scrupulosity, we all know that their are a lot of people out there who do the PUFA and GMO ridden frankenfood all the time and that’s how they find themselves needing to wear diabetic socks. (NOT generalizing everyone who is overweight and/or diabetic, just pointing out that too much crap can cause serious health problems)
As a side note, I have been loosely RARRFING for about 6 months now- more along the lines of ‘Eat for Heat’… Actually kind of along the lines of how the French eat- smallish portions of pretty high calorie food, lots of butter and cheese, and not worrying about what I eat as long as it makes me feel good and I’m still getting my veggies :)
Though I have definitely put on some weight, about 15 pounds from the weight at which I am decidedly ‘thin’ by any standards, I have to admit that weight gain has never looked so good on me. I look ‘filled out’ whereas in the past I would put on 3 pounds and get fat cheeks and a tummy pooch.
I was mentioning to my husband the other day about how, even though I am feeling a lot better, I would love to lose about 10 pounds just to be a comfortable size 4 again, and he got sort of a confused look on his face and said ‘why would you want to lose weight? You’ve got boobs now!’ lol.
Sorry for that spiel, I just wanted to share my testimony that sometimes it really can be as easy as relax and eat (mostly real) food. You really can feel better.
Tl; dr: Chill out and eat some toast.
It doesn’t take long either of eating unrestricted of all the naughty foods to actually start wanting to eat real, square meals most of the time. And that’s all part of the process. Congrats on your boobs. That’s more than one breastimonial this week already! I’m going to have to create a separate category across the top. Home… Meet Matt Stone… Testimonials… Breastimonials…
So true…I have chips, ice cream, Ramen noodles, chocolate etc. in my house…but when it comes time for a meal I want some meat, starch and vegetables nicely prepared from scratch. Actually the ice cream sat in the freezer for a week or more before we opened it!
I’m happy to have gotten back to the way things were in my house growing up. I went through a WAPF stage, then a OMG WHOLE PINT OF B&J/BAG OF LAYS stage and now I feel like I can eat much more intuitively.
Hahahaha. This is awesome. All these brestimonials. So hilarious. XD
I went up three cup sizes on RRARF. So yeah. Weird thing is, my progesterone is still too low though.
I doubt I’ll see a size 4 again, and good riddens. I started RRARF a year ago. I’m about a consistent size 10 now. Yes, full boobs and butt (w no cellulite at all), and a prominent waist (not small though). Just waiting for the belly to subside a little and I promise to be happy at size 8. Funny, I’m finally thankful to Kim Kardashian, Brazillian Bum Bum contests, and Kendrick Lamar’s Backstreet Freestyle’s picture of Sherane (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/backseat-freestyle) for INCREASING my self-esteem over my body.My white Russian husband (I’m Colombian-Filipino) now knows the response to, “Honey, does this make my butt look big?” …Hell yeah!!!!
I should note that I also had my first ‘kidney stone’ in November, am now in an ‘anemic’ range (RBC of 10.2), and found out I have chronic spondylolsis in L5 vertebrae (thanks to the ER CT scan for the kidney stone). But I’ll never look back to Low Carb or restrictions to address this. My favorite comment from Matt is that the ‘Calorie’ is the best defense. I am feeling like working out know for short random spurts, and want to go back to yoga. My perspective has changed for the better. Matt, you have my enduring gratitude!
My boobs are huge now! I did gain weight quickly after starting to eat like a normal person again, but it’s leveled off and I’m losing it very slowly, but my boobs are still big. My family is amazed because I was always the flat-chested one. My mom asked if I was pregnant! Lol, definitely not. There’s another one for you, Matt.
Ditto with the boobs! I have lean and muscular arms and legs now, but my boobs are huge! They were already too big (can’t stand them!), but they are really annoying and make my body look out of proportion. I think the 10 pounds that I’ve gained in the last few months are in my boobs and waist.
Matt — what gives?! Most women wouldn’t complain about boobs getting larger, but I workout a lot and they really annoy me. Any theories on the size increase?
Progesterone dominating your estrogen levels? Estrogen dominance is linked to women leaning to hypothyroidism.
Progesterone is the hormone that becomes more prevelent in pregnancy, causing (amongst other things) your boobs to grow.
That would be my wager.
I meant, why the breast size increase with of salt and sugar? I’ve been “eating for heat” for a year. My legs are lean, my arms are toned, but my boobs are two sizes up and waist is constantly bloated. Ideas?
Actually, precisely opposite (or at least i think!)
Estrogen causes breasts and the uterus to enlarge during the pregnancy, and also causes breast tendernss and little pain just slightly prior to menstruation.
Another breastimonial over here! I was always small chested, and even after nursing two babies, they are divine. DIVINE. Same goes for the butt. Matt you’d better watch out for the plastic surgery people!
That is so weird. How come it never happened to me?! I’m at a slightly lower weight now than when I started so maybe that’s why? I also went off the pill a couple of years ago and my boobs shrunk down a bit then (plus lost 5 pounds instantly), so I’m actually negative to where I started, boob-wise. On the plus side, my waist and belly are still very small.
Andrea, did you put on weight, or just boobage?
I think the solution to your dilemma is more ice cream :-)
Ha maybe :-) I’m screwed if that’s true because I am actually one of those rare people without much of a sweet tooth (ever since Rrarfing that is!). Usually I have no interest in dessert, and if I eat ice cream it’s maybe one scoop. I have no appetite for eating more than that.
Potato chips and cheese are another story…
Breastimonials galore. Ever so slight increase in fullness here too and that’s awesome because I lost some fullness last spring during a 6 week, super low carb diet that left me flatter everywhere (chest, butt, belly). Sad thing. Tush is also fuller and rounder. Haven’t noticed my heart palps as much. Happier all around. And I had a killer luteal phase last month–progesterone must be up.
When I launch the first annual Mow-Carb Cruise there will definitely be a wet t-shirt contest.
I’m going to enter that contest Matt…My Moobs can beat any woman’s boobs! :(
Count me in for that cruise!
There should be a law against posting about the pleroma of beauty that abounds here and not including pics. It was bad enough when the Real Amy was doing this and not sharing pics, but now the ranks are swelling :) I don’t mind this talk. In fact, I enjoy it, but please for the sake of my sanity (what’s left of it) provide links to pics. Show what you got.
Speaking of swelling, I have a breastimonial too but since there’s now a demand for pics, I’ll hold off. I’ll wait for the wet t-shirt contest.
*cue Thomas’ head exploding*
Cameron, hope to see you in the Wet T-Shirt contest. I can’t understand why those went out of style in the early 80s. What a loss!
Sorry bro, my moobs aren’t contest worthy. :-)
Julia, sister, you glow. I mean that. Let’s read your breastimonial. No pics needed. That’s just on my wish list.
And I should add, the point I really wanted to make was that you can get to a healthy balance of giving your body good building material that also tastes delicious the majority of the time, eat crap some of the time, and be physically AND mentally healthy.
We shouldn’t live in fear of being overly concerned about restriction and dieting any more than we should love in fear of saturated fat and carbbbzzzzz. Yum.
That’s pretty much exactly what I’m trying to convey with my work.
No way Matt, I developed that thesis on my own! Don’t try to steal my glory!!!!
Just kidding that was my interpretation of everything you say, ie a total rip off from you. Sorry, sometimes my well- upholstered bosom just makes me self righteous and arrogant.
Isn’t anyone going to raise a hand over the adulation of Palm oil? Rainforests, people, are being destroyed to create palm oil monoculture. Orangutans face extinction as their habitat is destroyed.
I hardly use any saturated fats at all, & I applaud this discussion. But it is very easy still to avoid this oil. Please avoid unless you are certain of provenance. It’s a major issue. Don’t hide under a log. Educate yourselves.
I didn’t realize how healthy I was until I went on my diet adventure with low carb (not necessarily a bashing post, just mentioning it). I thought having acne was a surefire sign I was unhealthy, bar none (along with being very skinny) and it wasn’t till then that I realized that being humorous, relaxed, having a thick head of hair, libido, etc, were all signs of good health. I learned that the signs of being unhealthy are not black and white.
Ah. I can relate to that. :P
I’d like to file a class action law-suit against Fabio, for the fake butter and his writing. Somehow I attended a three day megaphone reading of his first novel. So painful. Curiously, I stopped eating fake butter after that.
Ummm…does this mean you will not be buying any of Fabio’s Whey Protein powder he is pushing nowadays (I think it is called Healthy Planet Whey). lol.
Is there any benefit to (Peat’s recommendation) taking a vitamin E capsule when eating out, to help defend against the PUFA’s consumed? That was going to be my next step. Peat’s most practical argument to me is the fact that the ‘right’ oils thrive in warm (our body’s) temperature so what comes from non-pufa fed cows, pigs,or tropical climate crops, coconuts, olives, etc. are what is efficient in our bodies. Cold weather oil-producing crops, canola, soy, etc.will go rancid in our bodies’ warm climate. That’s the argument I share with the general public.
I think they are already rancid. Like Beth said above, if you avoid them for a while you will really be able to smell the rancid oils when you open a package of chips or something. At least I can.
I think so too. They smell ‘off’ to me.
BTW, Peat does not recommend Vitamin E capsules (most of them use soybean oil). He recommends Vitamin E Oil to be applied topically. I believe the Vitamin E by AC Grace is the brand usually recommended: http://www.acgrace.com/unique-e-vitamin-e/unique-e-mixed-tocopherols-concentrate-oil-1-ounce-bottle/
AC Grace makes capsules too, free of soybean oil. I take those for the convenience.
The AC Grace3 E is actually made3 from soybeans though. Look it up on their site. So while it’s not soy oil the3 E# is extracted or some3how made form soy.
I keep the pantry loaded with snacks, but they are all veggie oil free, you have to look harder in the groceries store, but I am able to find cookies, crackers, pretzels, etc, that have palm, coconut or butter oils. Most come from Europe, since pretty much all the domestic stuff is veggie oil. My daughter is allowed to plow through if wanted, but has good intuitive queues for a youngin! I keep veggie oils out of the house, and then when we eat out, don’t worry about the fact that every bite is PUFA drenched!
Oh and many haagen daaz flavours always in the freezer!
Sometimes I see that Sourdough pretzels don’t contain any oils =)
I made a comment about this earlier. If the majority of food places switched from vegetable oils to oils with more SF, I would be a very happy camper. That’s the only thing that worries me slightly when I eat out anymore… the PUFA content. Fortunately, I think I found a pizza place yesterday that cooks with olive oil, and I’m totally jonesing for more pizza right now :)
supermarket chicken breast is often super low fat or even 99% fat free (i know that is gross, but cook it in coconut oil and it could be alright), would there still be PUFA issues?
and the amino acids that are speculated to cause damage including tryptophan, cysteine and methionine don’t really seem to be that dominant in chicken breast, at least as listed here http://goo.gl/xZGFK and here http://goo.gl/Snkfy
i bring this up because this is a mainstream america supermarket protein source. this is what lots of people eat to get “healthy” and i wonder how bad it really is.
i know we could squabble and get all Food Inc about the chicken feed and the factory farm conditions and that could be completely justified (and possibly heading to the land of orthorexia ) … but i wonder, have the bodybuilders eating chicken breast been right all along?
ks
The PUFA is pretty low in chicken breast. However, the percentage of protein as tryptophan is much higher in chicken than it is in beef. There’s 233.64 mg of tryptophan in 20 grams of chicken breast protein and 93 mg of tryptophan in 20 grams of ground beef protein. http://goo.gl/v59J4
Can someone please help me understand this post by Chris Masterjohn regarding type of fat and fatty liver? Specifically figure 2, which appears to show that saturated fats increase fat in liver? I don’t think I’m smart enough to understand, ha, but it seems to show that saturated fat is harder for the liver to process? I’ve noticed the gross white coating on my tongue almost disappears when I keep my fat intake somewhat lower, and fat and protein seems to make me burp a ton. Thanks for any help.
http://www.westonaprice.org/health-issues/nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease
@Kari Yes,I wonder about that too……
But I also read, too much carbs/sugar especially fructose cause fatty liver, I guess both combined probably overburden the liver,exceed what the liver can store/metabolize…..so it seems to be that one should choose one or the other?
Also from what I’ve heard, Coconut Oil is the only sat.fat that doesn’t get metabolised by the liver.
From what I’ve read on Paleo sites,one can still get O3 from Grassfed butter(Kerrygold?) but I always wondered if Coconut Oil contains O3?
As I also seem to experience Mood Issues/Depression if I don’t eat some kind of high O3 fish,just as well as lack of Vit.D etc.
Wow, that’s a complex analysis, which is typical with Chris. I don’t think you can take away that you should eat less butter so simply from that. Your typical modern health researcher might see that same figure and come away with that, since it fits preconceived notions. But Chris also says there is evidence the polyunsaturated fats are responsible for the progression from steatosis to NASH. It might be, as you say, the saturated fats are harder to process and thus have a higher choline requirement. But if you want more choline, eggs, liver, and bacon are good sources. Nature tends to work that way.
If you read further down in the article, in one of the studies done on rats using beef drippings, it seems that casein is protective against fatty liver induced by beef drippings. So I guess eggs, liver and milk are all beneficial. Here is the quote…
” In 1932 a group of researchers decided to replicate the fatty liver seen in the dogs in a nondiabetic rat model. What better way to stuff their livers with fat? Feed them fat! It seemed simple enough and it did indeed work. Although they had trouble reproducing the fatty liver with different colonies of rats or during the summer heat, they produced fatty liver in certain colonies of rats during the winter by replacing 40 percent of their ordinary cereal-based diet with beef drippings. Choline-rich lecithin derived from egg yolk or beef liver or simply choline itself cured the disease.79-80
Another group of researchers, however, tried to replicate this experiment in a group of rats who were consuming sufficient protein to maximize growth.81 They thus fed them 40 percent beef drippings but replaced another 20 percent of their cereal grains with the milk protein casein. This experiment failed miserably (Figure 1a). The researchers suspected that the casein might have been the problem, and they were indeed correct: on a choline-free, 40 percent beef dripping diet, reducing the casein from 20 to 5 percent doubled the level of fat in the liver (Figure 1b).82″
thanks! that makes sense. i missed my mistake in overlooking % of tryptophan.
interesting to look at the list of foods highest in tryptophan per 100g, obviously gotta reduce the sea lion, dried egg white flakes are out (damn) and soy is still a demon: http://goo.gl/gdWZk
and looking at tryptophan per 200 cal http://goo.gl/4xLT1
ks
Hey I read that article a couple days ago, and then did a TON more reading about choline/b6/b12/betaine/methione… Here’s how it works —
Sat. fats are good and the body loves to have them around for when it is stressed. So it saves them in the liver to turn into triglycerides for later. PUFA’s are burned right away if possible as to prevent storage/future oxidative damage. After the liver takes in ethanol, fructose or fats it then needs to process them and re-release them as triglycerides. However, if it does not have enough available Phosphorylcholine it can not do so –> fatty liver.
You can prevent this completely by increasing Phosphorylcholine intake (egg YOLK, beef liver), or by taking the choline recycling nutrients (b6/12, or/and betaine). You can get betaine from wheat germ/bran or spinich (or Betaine HCL supplment). The problem with the whole egg is it contains a lot of methione, which SOME people (genetics) can not properly convert into choline, requiring choline to clean up the mess.
Hope that made sense… let me know if you need more clarity on anything. Hard to say the exact amounts needed since you don’t know how fatty your liver is, or if you have the methione->choline genetic defects.
In a previous post about omega 6 Matt said to eat non starchy veg? Why is starchy veg a problem? I eat lots of yam, sweet and red potatoes, tapioca, quinoa and plantain. In his extremely low list he said potatoes where okay so I’m kind off confused. I want to keep my 6’s low as i ate lots in the
Past. Does anyone know if these starches are okay please?
Heather,
Is the post you are referring to titled “Omega 6 Content of Common Foods”? Some starches do have Omega 6 content such as corn, wheat and oats and beans, but they are in amounts that are much less than cooking foods in vegetable oils such as soybean oil, corn oil, canola etc. I think this post is more about the adding of PUFAs to the foods.
Hi johno
Yes, I was looking back at the previous post but the food list matt included at the top of this post said to eat non starchy veg. Grains and legumes are not veg so what was he referring too?
Heather,
I believe Matt was referring to the fact that even though non-starch veggies such as spinach, kale, asparagus etc. have some Omega 6 Fatty Acids in them, their amounts are so miniscule that there is no need to add them in as part of one’s total daily intake of Omega 6’s. That post appears to have been written for keeping watch on a daily intake of O6 and, therefore lists the foods highest in natural amounts of O6. I hope this clarifies it for you.
Joni
do you know if yams, sweet potatoes, tapioca, quinoa and plantain are
all low in omega 6 and recommended by matt and ray p?
Heather,
They are all recommended by Matt, but Ray Peat would not recommend quinoa because it is technically a seed and he would prefer white potatoes such as russerts over Yams, sweet potatoes due to their beta-carotene content. I believe they are all low in Omega 6 although quinoa would have more than the others you listed. I love quinoa and the Omega 6 content would not have me worried since I am reducing my overall PUFA consumption. The key is to reduce your overall PUFA consumption by avoiding cooking with veggie oils, prepackaged food items, limiting fast food etc., but no need to go overboard and avoid wholesome foods like quinoa, oats, beans etc. because of their PUFA content.
Restaurant idea: a PUFA-free buffet . Think there’s enough of a market for it yet?
PUFFET?
‘The Magic Dragon, he lived by the sea.’
Sing it with me now!
I grew up in a butter only household (thankfully) and when my sister and I were kids we would see the Fabio I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter commercials and his shiny hair and exclaim in our best Fabio voices “I can’t believe it’s not shampoo!”
Someone mentioned it here already,but what about O3-PUFA from fish oil?(don’t care for flaxseeds) and by fish oil I don’t mean supplements,but actually regularly eating fatty fish?
Does anybody also know/have positive experience with eating grains,especially gluten grains again in regards to thyroid function? Bc all commercial breads/dough/pasta etc. contains veggie oils,lots of additives and sunflower seeds&other seeds,soy additives…so I was wondering if low thyroid-function is actually caused by all these PUFAS and not so much the damaging effects of the gluten/phytic acid? (which is usually stated as one of the biggest evils next to soy,in regards to hypothyroidism)
Or do you soak your grains,a la WAPF,to avoid the harmfull effects?….I ask,bc I can’t get the actual grains but only the ground flour,so I wonder if there’s still a method to diminish harmfull effects with flour?
Try making some no-knead bread with organic white flour and eat some of it with butter.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=0
I know it sits much better with me than store bought white or whole wheat bread, and even though its made with conventional yeast, I would assume the slow rise does allow for some fermentation ie increased digestibility… Obviously a wild yeast sourdough starter would be better (more delicious in my opinion, but I love tangy things) but its so much work to keep it alive that I don’t even bother making bread- so it defeats the purpose.
Bear in mind that nothing you eat will sit well or make you feel good if you are agonizing the whole time you are eating about whether it will affect your thyroid, feed candida, spike your insulin…. Etc etc. Eat slowly and enjoy your food- that’s the only sure fire way to know if something you eat truly bothers you or if its just anxiety causing your issues (and this is coming from a woman with a thankfully unused bottle of Xanax in her nightstand drawer- I struggle with anxiety so I am speaking happy hippy flowery words!)
@Edubs Thanx 4 the recipe,however yeastbread is still out of the question for me. The baker at the organic care farm where I do voluntary work,made a traditional sourdough starter,upon my request, from Spelt though it only fermented for 3days and I read on a lot of blogs to let the starter ferment for at least 5days. Anyway,he also baked it for me….so I’ll see what that’s gonna give.
(I actually always preferred the tangy sourdough breads too,kinda German style….though they were never exclusively sourdough-only. But as with all breads I tend to eat way too much of it….)
I wish it were that simple as you described to just eat what you like and be happy/not worry,I tried that lately and it’s coming back full vengeance on me again.I apparently am now totally iron deficient,digestive issues still,fluid issues/dehydration issues,energy imbalance,sleep/pee issues,advised to take mineral footbaths every other day even though I always put lots of Himalayan salt on my food,had an accident at the gym today and my total body hurts like hell! I’m totally feeling like this crippled 90-year old…..
I was never healthy&energetic/strong prior,let alone a nice bodycomp, to it all while being obese/overweigth,nor during this current state……so I wonder if I’ll ever be able to get out of the shithole and be able to enjoy food/feel good by eating it without detrimental effects.
I think its the bad oils and bare in mind that commercial foods often have slightly rancid flour in them anyway. I found that making my own (you can tell when flour is rancid, it smells awful.) baked goods was fine. I buy 10 pound bags of white flour, use coconut oil or butter, and my goodies are so tasty and they don’t pack on the pounds until you fry them in corn oil (which is why I don’t make corn oil fried pancakes.)
How happy we are to be back to quibbling over dietary details! Now would someone kindly tell me the form and amount of zinc supplement they are taking?
Are you secretly peering in the RP fans group? We have been talking about zinc lately. Nothing wrong with that.
Don’t take this personally Janelle, but there is NO WAY IN HELL that I will ever be peering into the RP fan group again, secretly or openly. I guess that you are talking about the one on Facebook. Been there, done that.
No, I am being entirely sarcastic. I am amazed how dramatically things change here over night. One day it *APPEARS* that people are on board with the idea that we shouldn’t focus very much on micronutrients, and then voila that I am proved wrong to have assumed that.
The impermanence of things..
I’ve visited the forum a couple of times and they’re really nice&helpfull people however I do sometimes find them a bit dogmatic regarding this “Ray Peat”diet.
What I also wonder is why they’re even afraid to get excess iron…..bc staples of that ‘diet’ is containing iron inhibiting foods; eggs,milk,cheese,icecream,coffee,coke,cacao…..I wonder how they’re not anemic!
Ctrl F “amemia”
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/iron-dangers.shtml
You’re clearly a big Peat fan……I’m not sure if I agree with him on this. Turned out I was,unsubconsciously eating/drinking,what I liked going back to my old ways even tough I now don’t dare to eat certain stuff anymore, all kinds of food that inhibit iron uptake even tough I ate lots of lemon with it(that must’ve been a clue)……yeah,I had energy(or did I?….still waking up peeing during the night,fatigued in morning…but it’s just such a familiar territory before this all started…) since a long time,wanting to exercise and did weigthlifting until I collapsed yesterday while squatting with a very heavy barbell landing on top of me.
Now I feel miserable,lots of aching,not being able to exercise or even walk normal steady state,don’t know how/what might heal it fast…….that must’ve been my punishment by the universe thinking I could get away with the things I’m doing (for a lot out of pure frustration of not getting a job,anxiety&fear of wanting to be normal/fear of getting fat again and still having all these issues).
So how does one even begin with ‘intuitive eating’& home preparing&cooking and introducing a whole range of foods to the body with so many constant disregulations?
Try some homeopathic arnica 30c for a few days. You sound miserable. Arnica is amazing for speeding healing from such injuries, aches and pains.
@SarahD I never heard of Arnica before,but they had Arnica gel at the place where I work voluntarily so I put on some gel the 2days I managed to get there and I must say,I do feel a lot better yet still not quite there…..and I seem to notice that the mineral/vitamin imbalances also are a factor in it unfortunately.
Would really love someone to explain why if me or my son eat coconut, palm or (the very worst) olive oil we break out in acne type pimples?? Even the organic versions. This doesn’t happen with pufas, or butter or any meat fat, it’s very frustrating and we are completely stumped!
I think coconut oil has salicylates and some people have trouble processing those. Not sure of their presence in other oils you react to – you can always check :)
Higher testosterone with coconut, olive, and palm oil?
Testosterone in those oils? Tell me more please! Haven’t heard about that, what would that mean for me? (I’m a bit thick re this stuff, still learning!)
Matt – you should look into seeing if you can speak at the NTA Annual Conference in Washington State in March. The theme of the conference is Inflammation – it’d be refreshing for everyone to hear, as we are mostly traditional foods/WAPF/low carb/blood sugar balancers, and to have your views, insight, and humor would be great. I would recommend you as your work has really helped me. . Message me if you want more info!
Hey All, I’ve been taking lecithin off an on for many years, starting in my early 20’s, after reading how it helped to keep your fat distributed. Tending to be on the hippy side, it did seem to keep my body more evenly distributed, not so pear shaped, with a decent rack (more boob references). My sister was much hippier and flat chested.
All along I’ve always felt lecithin was responsible for my very low cholesterol levels. I had slacked off for a while and developed very fine bumps (milia) under my eyes which went away when I really ramped up the lecithin.
My point is I am currently taking Lewis Labs which is the only no GMO lecithin I can find and it has linoleic and linolenic acid in it. Am I screwing my self?
I posted a while back that I was taking the thyroid meds… self prescribed, to help get my temps up… but worry, could that be the cause of my hypo-thyroid symptoms?
Any thoughts on lecithin use?
Ginderella,
I use a brand of NON-GMO Lecithin from Healthforce Nutritionals. It’s sold in glass containers and is a very fine powder (not granules). Its fantastic, I used make smoothies with it and it mixes very easily. You can find it at iHerb.com and Whole Foods stores. My understanding is that soy lecithin does not contain the anti-thyroid chemicals that are found more in the soy protein products.
JonO,
Lecithin does not contain anti-thyroid chemicals like isoflavones and enzyme
inhibitors found in the soy protein, but it does contain PUFA–unless the lecithin is de-oiled–which are bad for the thyroid.
According to Dr. Peat, as little as 5g per day of PUFA can cause problems; my lecithin contains 3 grams of PUFA in one Tbs. When you add that PUFA content to the PUFA that naturally occurs in most foods, including coconut oil and beef fat, then it is very easy for a hypothyroid person to get too much PUFA. A person with a high metabolism can eat more PUFA because their bodies will burn PUFA for energy.
Also, lecithin is high in phosphorous and if phosphorous is not balanced with enough calcium in the diet, that will cause problems for the parathyroid.
There are no nutrients in lecithin that are not also available in other foods that have less PUFA.
Thanks Ann for the info. I thought lecithin (whether it be from soy or eggs) was mostly choline and phospholipids. When I used to use that brand of lecithin I mentioned, I felt good taking it and it seemed to make my smoothies creamier (also experienced a small loss in weight although I can’t say for sure that it had to do with the lecithin). I am a fan of Peat, but I always gained weight eating his recommended foods and never felt particularly good eating his way ( I may have had too much fruit and OJ). I find Matt’s approach of eating starches such as potatoes, rice and even beans and corn with sat fats, to be the most beneficial to my health, so far. I may not have lost weight yet, but I have not gained weight, eating potatoes with butter for example, either.
JonO,
I used lecithin for my smoothies as well. It is a good emulsifier and that’s why it makes smoothies creamier. To be clear, I don’t think lecithin is harmful since one TBS of lecithin has less PUFA than a TBS of oil. But the PUFAs can add up. If you feel that the lecithin benefits you, then continue to use it. Now if you are using several TBS of lecithin per day, every day, that is probably not a good idea. It all depends on your total saturated fat/PUFA intake, the speed of your metabolism, and your activity level. I have not thrown away my remaining cans of lecithin because, honestly, I think I am going to use a teaspoon or two in smoothies in the summer. It makes a real difference in the smoothies, and since I will only live once, I want to enjoy a nice creamy smoothie.
But Ginderella mentioned that her cholesterol is low, which is not good, and lecithin is often recommended by complementary health practitioners to lower cholesterol. I don’t know if it does actually lower cholesterol, but maybe it does and is keeping her cholesterol too low. Lecithin does have choline but so do eggs and egg consumption does not affect serum cholesterol levels in either direction. One egg has more nutrients and about the same number of calories as a TBS of lecithin, but most of the fat is monounsaturated.
I don’t follow Peat strictly. It is not necessary. That is why I also incorporate ideas from Matt and others.There is no one way of eating that will be right for everyone or even for the same person at all times. I do drink a lot of milk but I also eat starch from rice, potatoes and occasionally bread a few times a week or whenever my body seems to be craving starch.
I was drinking lots of milk and orange juice and feeling fine until a few weeks ago when I started to feel cold and weak. I did not understand why things changed until I read EFH and I realized I needed to make some changes (less fluid, more salt and more starches) because of the cold winter. It is just too cold now for me to ingest as much liquid and fruit as I did in the summer and fall. And I need less potassium in the cold than i do in the summer. So I have substituted cheese and starches for some of the milk, juice and fruit and I am feeling good again.
People often gain weight eating Peat because they unknowingly consume too many calories from too much milk, cheese, ice cream and maybe even too much sugar. Calories matter, even on a Peat style diet. They increase their caloric intake at a faster rate than their metabolism is increasing. I mentally count calories and watch portion size because I don’t want to gain extra weight. I don’t expect to fix my thyroid and metabolic problems in a few weeks or months, so I don’t overeat.
Also, many people following strict Peat don’t do any exercise, which I feel is a mistake. Weight training a few times per week and other physical activity can be good for the metabolism. We humans were not meant to be sedentary. Our bodies have evolved to handle a reasonable amount of stress from physical activity and there is nothing wrong with breaking a sweat. Running at a reasonable pace on a treadmill for 10 or 15 mins or brisk walking is not going to destroy someone’s metabolism if they eat proper amounts of protein, sugar, calories etc. Many Peat followers are obsessively afraid of their bodies producing cortisol and adrenaline.
Wow! Thanks for your comment Ann. I have to admit, I did not take into account Ginderella’s comment regarding her cholesterol level. Yeah, I failed to take keep watch on my calorie intake when I was doing Peat style eating, good to know if I attempt to do it this summer.
Ginderella,
According to Dr Peat, lecithin is not much different from the PUFA’s.
Lecithin has less PUFA per unit measure than oils, but it is still mostly PUFA. Essentially, it is PUFA with phosphorous (phospholipid), Since PUFA
suppress thyroid, if you ingest enough lecithin it will suppress your thyroid just like the PUFA oils.
I am in a similar boat. I have low cholesterol and I have used lecithin to help keep my skin clear. I don’t use it anymore, but I have 3 cans which i can’t bring myself to throw away just yet because I hate wasting money.
You would probably be better off without the lecithin. Cholesterol is good. Dr Peat says that acne is caused by low thyroid and not enough vitamin A. Milia are similar to acne. Fix your thyroid problem, eat liver (or vitamin-A supplement) and hopefully the milia will stay away. My skin have improved greatly since I started eating Peat style along with some of Matt’s ideas.
How do you feel about eating eggs? Eggs have lecithin and choline and is nutrient dense but it is mostly MUFA.
By the way Matt, I loved Eat For Heat and I bought several for friends as gifts.
Always looking for a nice, easy bread recipe so I am off to try this, thanks!
Does anyone have a failproof mayonnaise recipe? I’ve given up trying as half the time, for no reason I can tell, mine just won’t ‘take’ and then I’ve wasted a ton of expensive olive oil.
On expense: if you can get minced beef fat from your butcher or ask at the butchery counter in a supermarket you might get it for giveaway prices (I get it for a quarter of the price of sunflower oil which makes it by far the cheaper option). You then heat it, strain out the traces of meat, and store in the fridge in a glass dish where it lasts as a white cake of pure fat for months. Just take care -tiny traces of meat sink to the bottom and can go moldy so scrape the bottom layer off when you use it. Also not best for food eaten cold as it has a greasy feel in the mouth.
I’ve used this one before and it works well (ignore the asparagus part, although it is yummy!). http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/content/white-asparagus-mayonnaise-imamie%E2%80%99si-version You can use olive oil instead of canola.
Also, the trick is this: at the beginning, add oil literally a drop at a time. If you ever reach a point where it seems to fall apart, you can add another egg yolk and whisk, whisk, whisk. It can save the mayo.
thanks, will try this!
You don’t even need to bring out the extra egg yolk – at least try this first: if the mayo starts separating, add one drop of the used vinegar in the center of the bowl, and starting from the center, stir *vigorously* in very small circles. the mayo will then start to emulsify again around the drop of vinegar. when that happens, increase the diameter of the circle movement, until the whole bowl has re-emulsified. That will usually do the trick.
I can get beef fat at my local food store and render it. Have some in the freezer waiting for me. Also “76 degree” coconut oil is cheap and doesn’t have the coconut flavor as it is refined. Still has the great fatty acid content, though.
There is a great recipe for mayo in elizabeth davids book, provincial french cooking. elizabeth was a british contemporary of julia child and well known for promoting french cuisine in england. Her books are considered classics. I know how to make her mayo recipe by heart. Many mayo recipes that I have seen and tried contain only one egg and often whole. I never had much luck with them. Ms. davids calls for three yolks per cup to cup and a half of oil. I stick witj one cup as it works best for me and I like very thick and creamy like store bought. Put the egg yolks in a cool or chilled bowl and run your handheld mixer on the yolks while slowly in drops to thin stream drizzle oil into yolks until it gets thick. Once that happens you can go a little faster with the oil. Once you have all the oil encorporated, season to taste with sea salt, lemon juice, vinegar, true lemon, that evaporated lemon juice crystals concentrate is good.
I’ve made mayo like this blogger describes and it was super easy. You just need a stick blender.
How about a link? Duh.
http://www.scdkat.com/2010/04/easy-mayonnaise-and-artichoke-dip/
Have you tried making mayo using an immersion blender?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ZylWJ1UXA
You just dump all your ingredients into a jar, let them settle for a minute, stick your blender in and a minute later you have mayo. It’s the easiest thing in the world and it always turns out excellent.
I used to do it that way and then it started failing, but it might be as simple as start at the bottom after letting it all settle. Will try again. Thanks for all the suggestions!
Kim and Christy, the hand held blender worked a treat when done from the bottom up, thanks for the tip! And super quick and easy too.
Is Lard off the list among foods in the Saturated Fat while eating for heat? Got a lot of lard and don’t know what to do with it :(
throw in some coconut oil and lye and make soap!!
I was using soap made from lard and lye that I bought from small town butchers and little shops in the country, that they sell as laundry soap, but it’s crazy to buy powerfully scented detergents for your skin and keep the good stuff for your clothes! When you are used to this, ‘normal’ soap, i.e. overly perfumed detergent, is as offensive to the nose as the rancid fats you smell when you don’t eat any yourself. You also smell the soap on other people and it seems nastily fake. It’s hard to find though. I suppose I should make some but the recipes seem complicated and they make you nervous about the lye.
The stuff marketed as “laundry soap” may be a little too harsh for skin. But there are plenty of very nice and gentle real, handmade, soaps out there. I’m a soapmaker. It’s not hard to make soap. Get a good book or read a tutorial and follow the directions, that’s all. Just do it when kids or animals aren’t going to get in the way.
Are LA and AA bad for dogs, too, does anyone know? I’d love to feed ours only pastured chicken like we eat, but it’s just too pricy, so he partially gets cheaper stuff that I’m sure is full of Omega 6.
P.S. I’ve been Eating for Heat for about 3 weeks, and I’m up from 96.7 to 98.3 this morning (Days 1 and 23 of cycle). Last night during dinner at a friend’s house, my hands were so hot the lower half of them was actually red.
Staying steady at size 12 and about 25.5 BMI (at nearly 6′, that’s fine with me) but I’ll be a possible breastimony since they went from a nearly A to a solid B since I first found 180 Degree Health in May ’11 and started avoiding PUFAs more AND got off the birth control pills. Wondering if the Pill had anything to do with the 20 pounds I gained (none in the boobs) over the 2 years after starting them several years before. Also could have been starting a new desk job, getting happily married and moving, drinking more beer in the evenings and/or getting Netflix. :)
Some would say this shift in fat consumption is a result of the industrial revolution. Living an agrarian life (having a small farm and living off the land, bartering with neighbors, killing the steer and the pig for food and using all the byproducts) was the norm back then. Post-industrial agribusiness has taken over. Seems pretty obvious to me.
Well all need to start e-mailing companies, requesting that they switch back to using palm and coconut oils in their products.
JonO and Ann
Thanks for the lecithin answers. I also have a few cans but will not part with them as info seems to radically change (saturated fat bad now good). I’ve always heard it was really good for the liver too.
I’ll stop for a while and see how my temps do.
My last 2 cholesterol readings were actually not that low as were in my 20’s but my good HDL are very high with low triglycerides. BTW I eat tons of eggs and butter.
This is off topic, but I dont know where else to share it so I will here. I tried matts high everthing diet a while back and couldnt do it because eating dissacharides and sugars gave me diahrrea. As a result I was on scd. I had tried many antimicrobial/antiparasitic herbs and natural treatments with limited results, but non cleared up the carb problem. Recently I started taking berberine, and it has completely cleared up the problem. Also I take some berberine containing herbs like barberry and oregon grape root. I had to take only a half a capsule at first if I took a whole cap per day I got really bad headache and nausea by day three, so backed down to half and slowly worked my way up. Apparently this herb/herb extract has a special affinity for the mucous membranes of the intestinal tract and was used by the chinese and other cultures to cure infectious diarrhea. Some sources list it as antimicrobial antiparasitic, but paul bergner has an article about it at his medical herbalism site talking about a study or studies that showed more of an effect of an adaptogen of the mucous membrane, increasing or decreasing mucous production as needed, increasing immunity or decreasing as needed, causing increase of immune factors like IGa or g cant remember, which fight pathogens in the gut, and normalizes epithlium in the tract causing tight junctions to close and heal. I had never gotten help from doctors as they just blew me off or gave me tests that showed nothing. Problem is the tests have very high false negatives. But drs dont want to do anything without a test to justify it. Clincal real medicine is all but dead. I am just so happy to be symptom free and had so much fun eating everything I wanted like a fiend over christmas holiday. I thought I would share all this for those I seen in the comments talking about being on the scd. Parasites like giardia, blasto and im sure others cause complex carb intolerance and diarrhea. Also, I wanted to ask matt if he has seen the articles on the work of zhao liping, a chinese scientist who has been able to cause or reverse obesity in animals or people by giving them intestinal infections with particular microbes, or eradicating the microbes with prebiotic and probiotic foods and substances like berberine, which he says they have discovered increases beneficial microbes and reduces bad ones. The disease causing microbes in the gut lower metabolism and thyroid and adrenal function. You probably have seen this info but just in case not I thought id mention. Anothet effect of the berberine for me is that I have had to cut my thyroid med by a third.
Thanks for your work matt.
Sincerely,
Lisa Truirr
Wow Lisa that is awesome, thanks for posting. Just wondering if you would mind sharing exactly what capsules you take and also the dosage.
I think Chinese medicine is awesome, btw. They have a definite edge over Western med for curing some chronic issues. (Although not trying to be totally down on Western med – for an acute situation, I’ll take an ER in the US any day)
This is sounding more and more Paleo. What happend to the eat-what-you-want movement on here? This sounds like the dietary advice that is usually proven wrong on here.
BTW, I don’t mean that to sound mean or anything…generally curious if this is a new path for this site.
I have the same question John. I think this has been bubbling below the surface. People are still afraid of food. It’s just that this deep-seated fear was momentarily suppressed by the “Eat-The-Food” meme.
Interesting, no?!
That’s not what I’m getting. Matt has said that vegetable oils are bad for the metabolism, but not to be anal about avoiding them. I think it’s more that because that’s the topic at hand, and with everyone talking about it it just appears that it’s being focused on more than usual. That’s how I see this thread. I’m still going to eat without being anal about PUFAs, but if I can easily pick one product over another, etc. in order to limit them, I will. That’s something I can easily do without becoming stressed or anal about the issue.
What I like about this site is that is truly exploratory and doesn’t get stuck in a single meme. I have serious qualms with ‘eat the food’ as it does not contain caveats to ensure normal development and at least average health. These guidelines seem like a step in the right direction.
Nira, I like your artwork, sister.
Thanks Thomas, I appreciate it :)
Well the big chains will hardly volunteer to use more expensive fats. But as the population becomes aware that saturated fats aren’t bad for them, their buying habits will slowly shift the market. Most people want to eat what tastes good, and makes them feel good anyway. =P
I’ve seen more and more products in my Canadian stores made with saturated fats. President’s Choice, the Canadian Superstore brand, had come out with a *low saturated fat, low calorie* health line a few years ago. It didn’t go over that well in my town I don’t think, cause I’ve seen less of those products. Now they’ve just come out with an overpriced gourmet food line of foods made with saturated fats and olive oil. They even sell a frozen lasagna made with olive oil and butter–no soy oil or anything like that at all. Pretty tasty.
Beyond Bugles and Captain Crunch (both of which are made with coconut oil), Hannaford’s (of America), produces cracker’s similar to Ritz but made with palm oil only. It’s in their “Natural” line, I believe. There are a few brands of cookies I get in Canada which are made with palm oil or butter also.
As far as chain restaurants, Outback Steakhouse uses butter in their genuine mashed potatoes. (When traveling to America, I couldn’t believe you have steakhouses that serve reconstituted mashed potatoes and microwaved rotten broccoli with oil on them. Ew. XD That one was called “Uno’s” I think.)
So yeah, I guess find the better products, and buy them. =P I hope the market will shift more quickly, because North America really needs it to. Whenever I talk to Europeans visiting here, they are in a state of distress because they are so grossed out by the food. Haha.
Thanks for the food tips. It’s hard to find products that are not made with vegetable oils, so it’s helpful when others point out a product that is free of it. I’ve already started my e-mails to food companies.
Matt, would you mind putting up a post titled PUFA free foods, or something to that effect? That way all of us could put product recommendations into one place and continue adding to it in the comment section as we find products to add to the list. Of course, a lot of things can be made at home, but I’m guessing the majority of us do not want to make our own crackers, chips, bread, etc. on a regular basis. The list would not be intended to throw us into paranoia over PUFAs, but it would be nice to avoid them when possible. Just a thought…thanks.
I live in Ontario, Canada and at Dollarama stores here (not sure if you guys have them in the US, or even in the rest of Canada) they have these awesome plantain chips and banana chips made with coconut oil and palm oil, respectively. And sea salt. Oh, and the banana chips have a little added sugar. They are both awesome, my three year old will eat over two bags of the plantains by herself!!
Hi, msanjap,
Thought it may be salicylates but hoped eating lots more would sort out the reactions, but obviously not :( So saturated plant fats out for us.
This has nothing to do with PUFAs, but I saw the most ridiculous thread on Facebook yesterday that I thought the peeps here would appreciate. Someone posted along the lines of “Eating healthy is supposed to make you feel good, so why do I feel so crappy?” and of course got some responses like, your body is detoxing, you need some time, etc. One guy recommended a juice fast! So then, this girl posted what she ate that day and it was juice for breakfast, a salad for lunch and a veggie burger for dinner. Um, helloo?! I think pretty much anyone would feel like crap after having that for their daily intake! The smartest comment she got was a girl recommending weight watchers, saying she was never hungry, it just made her think more about what she was putting in her body.
Haha, that reminds me of an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia…
Two of the main characters wanted to get healthy and fit at the gym so they wouldn’t die young, and ended up taking a bunch of supplements instead of actually exercising.
One of em had severe diarrhea and the other went “Oh that’s just the toxins flooding out of your body!”. The guy who said that mentioned that he, on the other hand, had not had a bowel movement in days. He justified it by saying that “My body has become so efficient that it uses everything I consume.”
I laughed so hard. It reminded me so much of crap I’ve read online.
having done raw foodism for a few years in my neurotic past, i used to occasionally frequent the blog of Angela Stokes (prominant raw foodist) where she used to list her daily food intake every single day, and it was always about 50 kcals in total, something like 20 chlorella tablets and a cucumber salad (no root veg or fructose). i used to get annoyed at the fact that many people are influenced by her and might copy her and develop an eating disorder believing it’s normal to eat so little everyday. plus her hubbie Matt MOnarch is always banging on about aiming to be a breatharian and earing a few mouthfuls a day in order to live a long life, oh and having a pipe up his bum to suck out all that food everyday. goodness knows how many eating disorders they’re responsible for with their youtube recommendations and that daily food log. at least i was moderately sensible with my food neurosis and made sure to get plenty of calories with lots of sweet fruit.
…although thankfully stopped that little experiment and now eat normally (just in case my post didn’t make that clear. raw food = not good. :O
…only now my family are all neurotic and on crazy heavily restricted veg diets (and they’re already skinny, freezing and hypo) much to my irritation always telling me i’m now so unhealthy and say i’m trying to sabotage their good health if i give some real Matt Stone dietary advice. they think i’m jelous! so i just shut up and leave them to it, at least i’m enjoying my food, and not starving on the little amount of bird food they eat, life’s too short, it’s sad they don’t believe me, and are sucked in by the PH diet and those raw peeps from natural news.
Yes, the raw food-ism / calorie phobia is one of the most damaging dietary dogmas of the last decade, IMO. The “Monarchs” did manage to have an (apparently) healthy baby, which is great for them, but probably bad for the other people who will try to copy bits and pieces of their practices and end up freezing and infertile.
Lulush,
I was never a raw vegan, but I too used to read the Monarch’s website as well as NaturalNews.com. The Monarchs didn’t just enable their followers to have eating disorders, their real dangerous activities came from the selling of some dubious supplements. They were involved in a scandal that had them selling a “magical elixir” water called Clarity(if I remember correctly) that turned out to be a high aluminum water that was imported from China, manufactured by makers of Car batteries!
Yeah I know about that, you’re absolutely right, all those two care about is money. … if you ever watched their YouTube vids you may have noticed that they even sold tickets to their wedding, everything they ever say or do is for money, other so called gurus have said they lie about a lot of things, no morals at all behind their positive vibe hippie talk.
I met a friend of Mike Adams and Angela Stokes this weekend, lol. Vegan family.
:o
I just wanna tell you guys that I think I just ate my body weight in PUFA’s at my local diner and I feel great. Shit, I don’t even think that was real cheese!
No way. You are obviously in the throes of some kind of hypothyroid hallucination. Who’s down for an intervention? Somebody needs to constrain her while I make her swallow T3 :)
Hahaha!
Yum! Yum!
Is there anybody out there who still believes saturated fats aren’t healthy? C’mon guys..
Yes, lots. Some lady just left a review of Eat for Heat aghast at all the “bad fats” I was recommending.
A friend of mine is being trained as a dietitian and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when I said I was avoiding PUFAs in favor of saturated fat.
Unfortunately yes, the belief is still pervasive. It sucks ass for all of us with a basic behind the scenes understanding of the issues. It’s like we keep saying “show us the money” and established dogmatists get to keep turning their backs. And any non-mainstream belief gets lumped with the majority of others that truly are destructive, like the Matt Monarch stuff posted somewhere above.
In case you haven’t noticed, animal products are still largely demonized in mainstream health movements. See Colin Campbell or Dean Ornish. Vegan and vegetarian are still seen by the mainstream as healthy.
I’m under the impression that vegetarianism can be healthy if it includes copious quantities of saturated fat and doesn’t go overboard on so-called ‘health’ food. Am I off-base?
I’m hoping that one day Matt will write an article about the importance of saturated fat for children and reproductive women. The USDA guidelines are a travesty.
Help! I’ve been having terrible sugar crashes at night for the last month or so. Before, I used to sleep occasionally through the night, most of the time woke up once. But since I started eating after the sugar crash occurs (sugar/salt or a bit of a date..) I have been waking up at at 12. 2, 4 and generally not falling asleep again after this. Do you know of a way this can be remedied??
if you have a taste problem with olive oil try ligurian olive oil or that from lake garda. this is what northern italians use.
Hi everyone,
Just want to add my opinion here regarding palm oil.
Even if palm oil is 50% saturated fat, like pork fat, there is a biological subtlety linked to the distrubition of fatty acids in the 1,2 and 3 positions of the glycerol.
The biodisponibility of a fatty acid is maximal when this one is linked to the position 2 of the glycerol.
In Palm oil, like cocoa butter for example, the unsaturated fatty acids are in the bioavailable position (position 2) whereas, for example, satured fatty acids occupy that position in lard.
Palm oil as to be considered like an oil which is rich of unsaturated fatty acids like cocoa butter and not like a source of saturated fatty acids because, when ingested and after digestion, palm oil’s saturated fatty acids are mostly evacuated via the bowel due to their position (1 and 3) of the glycerol and their non utilisation by the body.
And pork fat as to be considered like saturated fat when digested.
Source: http://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/lipids/tag1/index.htm
And so, chocolate is not a source of saturated fat, like we think it is, but a source of unsaturated fat….
But I still love eating chocolate.
Interesting, Wilfried! Would you happen to know what coconut fat would be considered as? Does it act like a saturated fat in the body when it’s broken down? I didn’t see it mentioned in the link you gave. Thank you!
Ah – PUFA-noia. I appreciate Ray Peat’s perspectives in general, but wonder whether he’s taking things too far.
Why?
Because the studies that he bases his theories on are all conducted with rancid, inert polyunsaturated fats. We can talk all we want about “quantity” of PUFA, but it’s a moot point because there is a major “quality” issue with the oils used in studies. Because inert and/or rancid PUFA behaves differently in the body than small amounts of intact, non-rancid PUFA, it’s hard to say how much of the negative effects are due to ingesting large amounts of toxic PUFA rather than small amounts of biologically intact PUFA.
The PUFA that most Americans are exposed to – refined vegetable oils – deserve the awful reputation they have from those of us in “the know,” but I have to wonder about the biological role that small amounts of fresh, high quality “essential” fats play. Yes, Ray Peat doubts the “essentiality” of these fats, but what if he is wrong? Some people, like Budwig, Peskin, and others argue that proper mitochondrial respiration *depends* on adequate high quality PUFA, though interestingly not fish oil, but ALA and LA.
For the last 4 years I have studiously avoided PUFA as much as possible, eating quite a bit of coconut oil and ghee. My metabolic rate still sucks as does my basal body temperature. When I think about the time I was the healthiest, strongest, and “hot-est” it was a few years when I was using moderate amounts of high quality flax oil along with saturated fats.
I am now considering abandoning PUFA-noia and adding maybe 6-15 grams a day of high quality PUFA to my high saturated fat diet because I am entertaining the idea that my shitty metabolism might actually need them. How’s that for some contrarian thinking? I am no longer buying the anti-PUFA platform. I think it has to do with quality and quantity.
Sean, I’ve had neuropathy in my feet for the past couple years. I recently stumbled on the Budwig protocol while researching offbeat food treatments for a family member who has cancer. Anyway, I decided to try the Budwig rercommended breakfast of flax oil (I use only 1T) blended into a w T low fat cottage cheese. I then blend in a bit of honey and frozen blueberries. It is delicious. I don’t do the rest of the protocol (no sugar, etc.).
Anyway, neuropathy is gone. I didn’t try flax oil for that – I had no idea it might have an effect.
So while I feature palm and coconut oil in my cooking and try to keep things low PUFA in general, I’m a bit in love with flax oil. This is something I need to look into further – could my kids benefit from high auality PUFAs? How to do this? Etc.
This is kinda Greek to me. All I know is flax oil (not the high lingan kind, btw) is kicking my neuropathy to the curb.
Oops! Please pardon the link associated with my name above, that’s not me, though that is the name of my old deleted blog. Also I think I should call myself Other Steph, as you have at least one other Steph.
That should say a few T cottage cheese.
I wish it were possible to edit comments here! Also stoopid iPad typing.
Sean, i actually echo all your sentiments and have had the same experience, hence i have eased up and am no longer so pufa phobic as i was, i just eat anything i feel like, stress free now.
Sean C,
Even if PUFAs are not rancid before ingestion, they will still become rancid after ingestion because of the high body temperature of humans. In fact, less damage is done when the oils are rancid before ingestion because the oxidation occurs outside the body.
Maybe you are one of those people who can handle more PUFAs. If that is the case, then ingest more PUFA, no matter what Matt or Dr Peat recommends. No one can know your body as well as you and we are not all exactly the same.
I know people who eat ton loads of PUFA and they are skinny (but may have other health problems). I am one of those people who gains weight with PUFA and I am glad I found Dr Peat because my health has improved greatly since eliminating PUFA. I can eat lots of saturated fat from milk, coconut and cheese and not gain easily, but even a TBS (14g) of added PUFA oil causes me to gain weight fairly quickly. Also, my skin is beautiful now that I ingest no extra PUFA. All along it was the PUFA that was messing up my skin.
Just as not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, not everyone who ingests PUFA will suffer ill effects. There are other factors besides diet–like genetics and environment–that affect one’s health and the amount of a particular nutrient or toxin that a person’s body can handle.
Maybe there is something else in the flax oil besides PUFA that is beneficial to you.
The idea that PUFA becomes rancid “in the body” is Ray Peat’s idea, and again, he is practically alone with that kind of belief. Oxidation/redox reactions are complicated in the body. It’s the same reason why taking lots of exogenous antioxidants is not always a good idea, at least for some people. Sure polyunsaturated fats, from a narrow perspective, can increase lipid peroxidation, but I’ve never seen any credible studies that take quality, or even quantity into consideration.
There is no doubt that PUFA is toxic if it is denatured, which most of it is, but to make grand sweeping generalizations in a subject that is obviously nuanced and subtle, is probably throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Like it or not, even a few hundred years ago, PUFA was not unusual in a normal human diet. Grass fed dairy and meat has a significant amount of ALA and LA. This is not the same thing, obviously (or it would seem, not so obviously), as frying your food in canola oil.
The main issue is, for me, is that major alternative cancer clinicians (Gerson, Budwig, etc) used fresh flax oil to jump start cellular respiration in people with cancer, and it would seem that they got some decent results. Since the issue of mitochondrial respiration is essentially what Dr. Starr is talking about with his Type 2 hypothyroidism theory, which is apparently, epidemic, and that it also mirrors some of the conclusions that George Watson (and Wiley) was coming to via oxidation problems and chronic degenerative diseases, it might behoove us to suspend disbelief.
Frankly, I am anti-dogma, and that also included Peatarian dogma. I am interested in what gets clinical results, and at least in my case, 5 years of a very high saturated fat (butter, ghee, coconut oil) diet with strict PUFA avoidance, did nothing but send my metabolic rate crashing. Since I do not get all warm-n-rosey when i consume coconut oil, I am open to other potential ideas on the subject. Most science is done poorly and anyone can quote a study to prove pretty much anything.
I find it also very very interesting that a multi-thousand year-old health science – Ayurveda – which is based on the empirical observations of many clinicians over a very long periods of time, consider saturated fats (coconut oil and ghee) to be anti-metabolic and they are prescribed precisely for people (pitta imbalances) who suffer from hypermetabolic issues. they are both considering metabolically “cooling” in what is perhaps the oldest living system of medicine in existence. Also, at least to me, very interesting, is that sesame oil – relatively rich in linoleic acid – is considered very heating in this same system, and is also considered therapeutic for people with “vata” imbalances, the symptoms of which just so happen to often mirror type 2 hypothyroidism. Given the weight that Budwig placed on fresh linoleic (and linolenic) acid as a spark plug for mitochondrial respiration, I find this quite intriguing.
Ayurveda considers sesame oil to be “warming” and to be used for people who are “cold” and “dry.” It considers coconut oil and ghee to be “cooling” for people who are overheated. Budwig, Peskin, and many others consider ALA and LA to be essential – in high quality form – for cellular respiration.
Ray Peat does not. He makes extreme statements and cites some studies that seem to support those statements. None of the studies that he cites likely used fresh, high quality LA or LA. Many used fish oil, almost all of which is toxic, inert crap.
I am simply suggesting some contrarians ideas on a blog that seems to appreciate contrarians ideas. I wish coconut oil made me all hot and toasty, but in practice, it has not….
Most of the research certainly suggests that linolenic acid/omega 3 is very pro-metabolic, and has the opposite funtion of linoleic acid.
Personally, I think fat in general is subpar compared to carbohydrates. I see lots of people who are actually trying to get in more fat shooting themselves in the foot in this regard. Assuming you are getting adequate calories, the metabolism is probably going to be much higher the less fat you eat. Fat’s main role as far as I’m concerned is increasing calorie density of the food you eat (a big factor in whether your food increases or decreases your metabolism when eating to appetite), but sugar, starch, and salt are more metabolically-stimulating than fat any day of the week.
Anyway, great thoughts, and things I think about as well. As you know, the longer I do this kind of thing the less “sure” I am about just about everything.
Thanks Matt – I wasn’t aware of that research re: alpha linolenic, but will do some hunting. That would make sense from my personal experience a number of years ago
I’m glad you mentioned this because I was trying to intentionally increase my fat intake in order to increase my calories, but my digestion seems to be worse when I eat a higher fat meal, even though my temps are consistently in the normal range now. I didn’t consider that this could be the cause until you mentioned it. My digestion is slow to begin with, but when I have a high fat meal, it seems to sit in my stomach forever. I just thought that maybe I was eating foods that my body didn’t care for, or something. I always thought that fat was easy to digest because it’s soft/liquid. I assumed that was part of the reason for the initial success that people see with low carb. Thanks for the light bulb moment. I’m going to decrease my fat intake and see if my digestion becomes better/quicker.
@Sean C I also notice no detrimental effects from the PUFAS in fatty fish,I actually think it makes my skin clearer/softer and my hair softer. So,I’m definitely not gonna skip the fatty fish.
Avocado,pork,(still on the fence regarding chicken) and ofcourse veggie oils,do seem to have negative impact on me. (Don’t know about nuts/seeds as I don’t really care that much for them).
I also once heard someone saying,the body can convert PUFA to saturated fats?
And that the old fat (I assume stored in the liver so that would be sat.fat) just gets replaced once the new fat enters and just leaves the body in one’s stool. I somehow can imagine this being the case for sat.fats as they are claimed to be taken up/used by the body for energy….
Sean C,
Maybe genetics play a part in this somehow.
My ancestors are from a tropical country and they ate lots of coconuts,
coconut oil, milk and fruit and they were all slim and healthy with beautiful skin. The only PUFA they consumed were the naturally occurring ones in coconut oil and milk/cheese, goat, beef etc from the animals they raised themselves. Their chickens were free range. All of their “junk” food–like banana chips and plantain chips–were fried in coconut oil. And they ate warm water fish, which is very low in PUFA. So they had a very low PUFA intake. Pastured ruminant animals do not contain a lot of PUFA in their fat, at least no where near the PUFA content of the refined oils that we use in this country.
My ancestors lived into their late eighties and nineties without modern medicine. If added PUFA is essential to health, they sure did well without them.
For years I ingested expensive and unrefined flax, borage and fish oil and other PUFA and I had acne that would not respond even to several courses of accutane and antibiotics. I gave up milk, cheese and all saturated fat thinking that would help my skin but it did not.
Eventually I started to figure out that the PUFAs were not good for me and then I found Ray Peat, whose writings confirmed my suspicion that the PUFA were bad for my skin. I now have clear skin and I take/use no medication or treatment for it. Lots of other health problems have all cleared up as well. Coconut oil definitely speeds up my metabolism.
All I know is that Ray Peat’s “diet” works for me. Coconut oil and saturated fats have been used for thousands of years in many, if not most, cultures, So I trust them a lot more than soy, corn and flaxseed oil, etc. Everyone in my family has given up the PUFA and gone back to coconut oil, beef, goat etc and they have all experienced resolution of long standing health problems.
Maybe some people have genes that allow them to tolerate lots of PUFA without developing inflammation. For example, can an Inuit tolerate more PUFA than an African? I think so, although I have no proof. Many people are of mixed ancestry, even if they think they are pure, and who knows which genes are controlling their metabolism.
Also, I have the original book by Dr Max Gerson. I don’t remember PUFA oils being a part of the protocol, but maybe my memory fails me because I read it maybe ten years ago. His daughter has made many changes to the original program and I wonder if it works as well as the original one.
The original Gerson Therapy is practically fat-free with the exception of fats naturally found in fruits/vegetables and calf liver.
Hey – I think genetics have a heck of a lot to do with all of this. It sounds like you are eating wisely, based on your understanding. Since I am of northern european stock, I might have a harder time desaturating long chain fatty acids.
It has always been one of my pet theories that people whose genetic ancestry are from northern latitudes, colder areas, might have an inborn error in regards to the enzymes that elongate long chain fatty acids; hence, this is why they are more available in those climates and latitudes.
I have also considered that people whose ancestors come from more equatorial areas would have a greater ability to make long chain fats as needed because they are not naturally found in those environments. Again, we’re talking about the desaturase enzymes.
This kind of falls under ‘macrobiotic’ thinking, but it would make sense, and it might have to do while some people might have different fatty acid needs depending on their genetics, and even the season.
This might also apply to macronutrient ratios, and oxidation tendencies, e.g. George Watson’s slow/fast oxidzer, and the weight of the different macronutrients in the diet.
If this is all true, then perhaps the origin of many of our problems is that humans have move all over the world, eat foods that are not seasonally and geographically correct, or live in places that their ancestors did not.
Some food for thought.
Hi Sean,
You clearly missed the point at least for me…
I don’t really care about PUFA in foods but if you re-read the post I made and the link below there is a huge problem with the ” essential fatty acid or so called Vitamin F”….When Burr’s thought to have discover this essential nutrient, they fed their rats with a fat-free diet and cured them with lard…this is the problem, because lard is absorbed like a saturated fat in animals (so as us, human) and the remaining unsaturated acids go throw the digestive system with almost no assimilation at all.
Considering the time of this experience, pigs were certainly not fed with soy or corn meal so their tissue was probably “saturated” with “good” fats.
So Yohanna Budwig, Catherine Kousmine and so forth based almost (if not all) of their works with an “essential fatty acid” which probably didn’t even cured the rats in the study that it served, even nowdays, as a reference in the world of those ” essential fatty acid”.
I’m not sure I quite get what the heck you’re talking about, but that’s ok…
Hahaha,
You’re right….I was not really clear on that subject…
So I’ll try again….I think that the problem it’s not the PUFA or saturated fat per se but what we digest and absorb….
I took the example of palm oil which is 50% satured and only 9-11% unsatured but, yet, when anyone eat palm oil, you absorb only 10-11% of saturated fat and 90% of PUFA after the action of human pancreatic lipase ( the unsaturated fatty acids are on the sn-2 position of the glycerol which is the optimal position for absorption)… almost exact the inverse ratio of the lipid profile of palm oil….
When Budwig used cold press flaxseed oil and cold press sunflower seed oil,emulsified in quark cheese, to supply the body with a mixture of LA and ALA, she had no idea if the ratio she tought to be optimal for cellular respiration was, in fact, really absorbed and utilized as such by her patients (the same is true with Burr’s rats and the discovery of “vitamin F”) because,at that time, pancreatic lipase hydrolysis for the analysis of the fatty acids of position sn-2 was not available….One of her follower, Catherine Kousmine, used the “budwig cream” and claimed to have great success with cancer, auto immune disease, you named it….but what she omit to tell, like Yohanna Budwig before, it’s that she used massive dose of different kind of minerals and vitamins injected intravenously. Kousmine even wrote a book ” Multiple sclerosis is curable” where she explain how to cure this disease and the importance of LA and ALA…. Now, here in Europe ( Swiss, France, Belgium, Germany…) you can find MD who still apply the concept of Yohanna budwig and Kousmine but, clearly, with not such great results….even with the importance of PUFA and “cellular respiration”…. and, so far, I haven’t see one of them making the statement that Kousmine or Budwig made about cancer or MS forty or thirty years ago.
I have a theory…it’s like when 200 or 300 years ago, psychics could move a 400 pound- piece of stone by the power of their thought…and then 100 years later, it was only a spoon….50 years later, it was a piece of paper…and then, now….it seems that they lost all their power……
What psychics and PUFA importance have in common is that knowledge and science are making progress.
I have the book “Know your fats” by Mary G Enig where she, like almost all of lipid “specialists”, says that Palm oil (again…) is a saturated fat…it’s not…..I sent her an email with scientific references and data so far no response…
But like you, I’m anti-dogma and still consume some olive oil or flaxseed oil along with other food stuff loaded with PUFA….so, no beef here.
One of the things that Budwig talks about – and stresses – that a lot of people ignore or don’t bother with – is the needed to blend the sulfhydryl amino acids from quark properly with the ALA to create an emulsified lipoprotein. She stressed that this step was essential for proper absorption and utilization. She also stressed that if this was not done, one could have diminished or even negative effects. Many people don’t bother with this step.
I also find it interesting that Revici used negative valence sulfur and PUFA for some of his cancer patients who had strong anabolic tendencies (build up of sterols in the cell wall that inhibited proper respiration).
I don’t think it was a coincidence that there seems to be something interesting about negative valence sulfur compounds and long chain, non-denatured fats.
Anyhow, this is all a side note, but interesting nonetheless…
Also, she said taking supplemental antioxidants would negate the effectiveness of the flax/quark. (Though I read elsewhere that it’s only necessary to avoid supplementing with vitamin E and alpha lipoic acid, so that’s all I gave up.)
Anyway, it is working for me re: neuropathy.
Hi Sean,
Yes, you are correct.
I forgot to mention that point (the importance of sulfur protein and ALA and the necessary of the emulsified mixture.)
In fact, the most recent (less than 3 years) books on the ” Budwig cream” (in French) are far from being the exact thing that Johanna Budwig used to recommend.
And she never used LA rich oil, like I said in mypost, but only ALA rich flax oil ( I made this statement according to one of my book on budwig cream but a quick search on the net confirm that she didn’t use sunflower oil or other LA rich oils…)
My bad.
@Matt/ Rob I’d love to see a great post or guest post soon,for clueless/lost noobs such as myself, on How to start/learn&love homecooking and preparing stuff from scratch! How to introduce oneself again towards a whole array of whole foods and then being able to distinguish what one makes them feel good and actually isn’t detrimental
……..and I’d love love love to see a list of breakfast/lunch&dinner ideas on a wide array of foods!(bc I know for instance common American breakfast foods are totally different in regards to here and other countries.Would be nice to see different kind of nationalities and their typical 180Degree-proof meals of the day for some healthy inspiration!:)
We just got an Amazon delivery of Good Health Avocado Oil Potato Chips. They are good!
Can anybody give me some help me with my skin problems? I’ve got both acne and eczema which isn’t a good combination as the acne treatments seems to make the eczema worse. I’ve been trying to increase my temperatures but I’ve noticed a few strange things, For example one time my temperature was 36.8C but for some reason my feet were still freezing cold. In fact, my feet always seems to be cold except when I wake up in the morning. One thing which haven’t tried yet in terms of improving my skin is to drastically reduce PUFAs. I find it quite hard to avoid especially since I’m Chinese so my mum puts vegetable oil in nearly everything she cooks. Any help will be appreciated.
I seem to have the same inverse relationship with my core and peripheral temps. When my hands and feet are cold, my core feels warmer. When hands and feet are warmer, core seems cooler.
I also wonder about skin issues. I have eczema as well. Used to have acne, but no longer. Acne did seem to recede when I decreased pufa and switched to gentle, chemical free skincare like handmade soaps and mineral makeups.
This might not be a popular thing to say on this site, but going off gluten really, really reduced my eczema. Gluten free does NOT need to be low carb. You can even get decent GF bread in regular supermarkets these days.
Does anybody else notice this inverse effect SarahD described? I don’t think my situation is quite the same because my hands are normal just that my feet are literally freezing all the time.
In terms of gluten, awhile back I actually took rice, noodles and bread out of my diet and my eczema did go away, my acne got a little bit better as well but only for a short while. Anyway I stopped that diet because it made me crazy but the interesting thing is that my eczema didn’t come back untill 3 months after I started eating normal again.
I think my plan of action is to continue increasing body temperature and make a serious attempt at reducing PUFAs and if that doesn’t get rid of my eczema I’ll cut gluten as well and see how that goes.
Good luck! FWIW I eat rice – with rice flour you can have bread, cookies, cake, muffins, whatever. I could not do without baked goods.
Intracellular Magnesium/Calcium Ratio and the Stress Response
Has anyone studied the connection between magnesium and the stress-response? I know you talk about extracellular/intracellular fluid a lot Matt, and I just read an article that talked about how the physiological change that allows the stress response to occur is a sudden influx of calcium into the intracellular space, creating a low magnesium to calcium ratio. Conversely, when in a low stress state, the magnesium to calcium ratio in cells is high. I’ve had a LOT of success dealing with panic/anxiety/depression just by supplementing with magnesium. Anyone else had this experience?
The flow of calcium into the cell, and other ions that don’t belong, is caused, by my best understanding, by the intra and extra cellular fluid becoming too alike. The strength of the cell membrane and it’s ability to maintain a stable environment depends on polar opposite environments inside vs. outside of the cell. That’s why when you dilute your extracellular fluid too much, as discussed in Eat for Heat, water (and calcium, and sodium, etc.) flows into the cell, making the cell swell and cause many negative stress symptoms. Or at least that seems like the most common scenario in the hypometabolic.
I would think taking in a lot of magnesium and calcium in addition to sodium would be highly beneficial. But just taking in a higher ratio of sodium, carbs, and calories to potassium and water is usually enough to help out a lot with anxiety, panic attacks, palpitations, 3am adrenaline surges, and so on.
Yea I definitely noticed some positive benefits following the Eat for Heat guidelines, and its pretty much a guarantee I can kill stress hormones really effectively with a salty meal. I just found it interesting that magnesium (and the kind I used is dissolved in water so it definitely wouldn’t qualify as hypertonic) puts me in a calm mood faster than pretty much anything else. I’ve noticed orange juice does the opposite, so you’re right on with the potassium.
What are 3am adrenaline surges? I ask because there have been times when I wake up middle of the night and have had a hard time going back to sleep. I’ll lay in bed and my mind is very active and I get very uptight, even angry at times.
Sometimes I would get up and take a hit of weed and that would calm me down and I would go back to sleep. However, I don’t smoke since I am back in college and I have to naturally try and go back to sleep. It’s really weird that I get so uptight, then something happens and around 5ish things just die down and I am able to doze off to sleep.
It hasn’t happened in a long time, thanks to changes in diet I am getting much more peaceful sleep. It has always bugged me why there is a two hour window when this happens, and why out of the blue my mind finally shuts back down and I am able to go back to sleep. When I saw you mention 3am adrenaline surges I was intrigued and want to know if what I have gone through is what you are talking about.
Sounds like it, Woodley. I used to experience this sometimes on a low carb paleo diet. The body has natural biorhythms, fluctuations of different hormones throughout the day. Around that 3am window is when some of these adrenal hormones hit their peak.
When those hormones are elevated to start with due to various factors, like the low carb diet in my case, that 3am peak would sometimes be enough to wake me from slumber keep me up with my heart racing and mind running non-stop.
Substances like sugar and salt can help can the stress system, and may be effective in those cases for blunting that response and helping you fall back to sleep.
@Rob – Interesting. This is all new to me and I really appreciate your feedback. When you say salt or sugar might help me get back to sleep, how much and in what form? I mean salt tablets or spoonful of salt or sugar?
Make a mixture of at least 5 parts sugar to 1 part salt (I would allow taste preference to dictate the ratio there). Put a spoon in it and keep it by your bed. Put a large spoonful under your tongue and let is dissolve. This way there is no searching for food, or even chewing, to disturb you and wake you up even more.
Ok, so I’m starting to waffle. Maybe I should crack open a can of my ALA and LA laden lecithin after all?
I notice a lot of people here saying they cut out pufa in t there daily eating,but what does that mean?vwggie oil stuff?or also pork,chicken with skin,nuts,avocado,fatty fish,eggs?
I just avoid the obvious…don’t use vegetable oils at home and pick low/no pufa’s products over higher pufa’s when I have the choice. I don’t worry about it past that because then you run into the danger of being obsessive about your diet, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.
Yay!
For the last months I’ve been applying the “changes that the majority of society can implement” suggested here, and they are really simple and totally doable. And yes, I still eat some fried foods but I squeeze out the oil left in them with a napkin.
It’s good to know that I’ve been on the right track, and even without it feeling as a restriction or becoming obsessive. :)
Fortunately I am picky about my food and rarely eat out. I love to cook at home and except for two or three meals a week I cook everything from scratch. I primarily cook with coconut oil, some olive, and when I make stir fry, I use a combination of coconut and dark sesame oil.
I like to have complete control over what I eat and what goes in everything I put together, I lose a lot of that when eating out, so I avoid it. Nothing beats fresh and nothing beats how I feel when I eat that way. Amazing how once you go on a fresh eating streak that when one tries to revert back to a can or box item food, it just doesn’t taste good. There have been many times I asked myself, “how did I used to eat this stuff and like it?”
“I don’t envision any major food corporations or restaurateurs volunteering to switch to using more expensive fats any time soon.”
Thanks, yet again, to the government interfering with the market. Soy and corn producers have a huge advantage of government subsidies and policies backing them up in the United States, compared to the “foreign” coconut oil and palm oil producers.
Remember, it was the American Soybean Association, and to some extent the corn industry, that spearheaded the propaganda attacks on tropical oils, which we are only recently starting to recover from as more people are becoming skeptical of mainstream information.
Hi Matt,
I was wondering about the baby formula we give our daughter. It’s composed of the following fats out of a total of 19g per 100g:
saturated 7,8g
monounsaturated 8,2g
polyunsaturated 3,0g
linoleic acid 2350mg
?-linoleic acid 335mg
Arachidonic acid 18mg
Docosahexaenoic acid 18mg
In your opinion are these levels are bad for her? She’s seven months so now we’re giving her mostly home cooked food based on butter and coconut fats and the formula is only a supplement, but our next child will probably need formula too since my wife probably can’t breastfeed enough.