So, if fat doesn’t necessarily make you fat . . . what does fat DO in your body?
Fat is absolutely necessary for survival. Your brain is primarily constructed from fatty acids. We cannot survive without essential fatty acids, which we can’t make and must get from our diet.
Essential fatty acids
Make up cell membranes, hemoglobin production, energy production, oxygen transfer, recovery from fatigue, precursors of prostaglandins (hormone-like substances that regulate cellular function), enhance growth, help with cell division, skin health, speeds wound healing, neurotransmitter production (brings a feeling of calmness), necessary for brain development and function.
Saturated Fatty Acids
Found in all cell membranes, but are primarily used for fuel to produce the energy necessary to drive chemical reactions and make life possible. Important for bone health, allowing for calcium to be incorporated into your skeletal structure. Protect your liver from alcohol and other toxins (such as Tylenol and other drugs). Saturated fats enhance your immune system. They are needed for proper utilization of essential fatty acids. Short and medium chain saturated fatty acids have antimicrobial properties.
Triglycerides
Triglycerides are excellent insulation material which dampen shock waves, protecting delicate internal organs. They form a layer beneath our skin to help keep us warm. Triglycerides are how we store energy reserves which we can use between meals, during exercise, while asleep, during famine, and when pregnant. Our body converts the toxic excess of the sugars required for brain function into the less harmful triglycerides. Excess Triglycerides cause health problems.
Cholesterol
This plays both vital and detrimental roles to our health. Cholesterol is essential to our health; so essential, that our body can make it and we do not need to obtain it from food. The more stress we are under, the more cholesterol our body produces, because cholesterol is the precursor to stress hormones. 999 out of every 1000 people can control their cholesterol level and cardiovascular health by nutrition alone.
Cholesterol allows cell membranes to adjust their fluidity for optimal membrane function. Steroid hormones; male and female sex hormones, including testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone are all made from cholesterol. Adrenal corticosteroid hormones are made from cholesterol, as is the very important Vitamin D. Bile acids are derived from cholesterol. Cholesterol is secreted by glands in our skin to protect our skin against dehydration, cracking, and wear and tear from wind, water, and sun. In a pinch, when mineral and vitamin antioxidants are low, cholesterol acts as an antioxidant!
How did we get so fat?
According to Dr. Bernstein, if you want to fatten yourself up, just start indulging on bread, pasta, potatoes, cake, and cookies- all high carbohydrate foods. If you want to hasten the fattening process, consume dietary fat with your carbohydrate. Two studies showed that dietary fat, when consumed as a part of a high-carbohydrate diet, was converted to body fat. Fat consumed as part of a low-carbohydrate diet was metabolized and burned off. . . . Interestingly and conversely, eating fat with carbohydrate slows the digestion of carbohydrate, thus the jump in blood sugar level isn’t as dramatic.
High lipid profiles (Triglycerides, LDL Cholesterol, lipoprotein A) often indicate high blood sugar from a diet with excess carbohydrates and sugars. Consumption of fat has very little to do with lipid profiles.
The primary source of body fat for most Americans is not dietary fat but carbohydrate, which is converted to blood sugar and with insulins help-to fat. Insulin is our main fat building hormone.
Fat is not evil.
It is the way our bodies store energy and maintain essential organs.
Udo Erasmus, a well known nutrition expert writes, “Next to water, which makes up about 70% of the total weight of a human adult, and 84% of that of a newborn infant, fat is the most abundant substance found in our body. We may not like that, but it is there.”
(Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy by Walter Willett MD; Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution; The Mood Cure by Julia Ross MA; Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill by Udo Erasmus; The Truth about Saturated Fat by Mary Enig PhD and Sally Fallon; Eat more Saturated Fat by Dr. Mercola.)
