The Fats of Life (1)

I was reading a book about fats, written by a cardio surgeon
sometimes ago.

In this book, the cardio surgeon repeatedly stressed that,
by his years of observation,
many modern degenerative diseases
from cardio vascular to diabetes, to cancer,
are highly related to the increasing incidence of
damaged oil consumption.

The book reinforced my understanding about oil and fats,
amidst the confusing information out there.

Combining the doctor's latest finding on edible oil,
with that taught by my other teachers,
I finally got one step further in clarifying the sticky oil issues.

From what I gather along my continuous learning path:

(I) The most ideal way of consuming oil is
via raw consumption of whole plant food
e.g. raw/sprouted seeds/nuts, raw coconut and raw avocado etc
~ By this way, the body gets all types
of undamaged fatty acids (SFA, PUFA, MUFA etc)
in the most balanced and controlled manner.

(II) The suboptimal way of consuming oil is
via raw consumption of cold pressed oils
e.g. extra virgin olive oil, cold pressed flaxseed oil etc
~ Cold pressed oils maintained most of
the benefits and nutrients oil, undamaged,
but it's easily oxidised if kept too long or in improper manners.
~ The ratio of different types of fatty acids within
is also slightly skewed (ie not optimally balanced).

(III) The most unpreferred way of consuming oil is
via conventional cooking cooking oils (even tho' it's plant oil)
e..g. any oil that allows high heat treatment
~ This type of oil confers almost no nutritional values (besides calories and taste).
~ The ratio of different types of fatty acids is totally out of balanced.
~ For safety, this type of oil should contain the least amount of
Poly-Unsaturated and Mono-Unsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA, MUFA).
~ Once PUFA, MUFA are heated,
they will be transformed into health damaging elements.
-- While PUFA and MUFA are meant to be healthy,
once damaged, they become one of the big culprits in modern health diseases.
~ It's very difficult to get safe cooking oil (with little MUFA and PUFA),
so, minimise or avoid this type of oil.

(IV) The not-so-wise-way is via
animal fats
~ animal fats contains high percentage of saturated fats that
lead to many cardiovascular conditions
~ the ratios of different type of fatty acids are also not balanced
~ animals fats carry over
residual antibiotics, compounded pesticides, artificial hormones and stress hormones
which will bring about detrimental effects to health in long term
-- this is another big culprit of modern health problems

(V) The fat to be avoided at all cost is
transfats i.e. chemically transformed fats (even tho' it's from plant)
e.g. margarine
~ transfats has totally no value and it's absolutely health damaging,
because the body does not recognise transfats
which is a kind of chemical that looks like fat.
~ our body, when can't get rid of transfats,
will prefer to store it away and this later lead to
clogging of our cardiovascular systems and other health conditions.

Hope the sharing will help raise awareness of good oil and bad oil :)


Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: my students at Vegetarian Wellness Course also did a comprehensive report on healthy oils (which benefited me a lot too!). Once, I have finished reviewing, it will be released for free public access online :)

The-Fats-of-Life

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}