Monthly Boost October 2006

What I would like to share this month is the ‘fat phobia’ that seems to have ‘saturated’ the grey matter. Now I can totally understand avoiding fries (chips to some of us), in other words potatoes that have been deep fried in polyunsaturated oils (such as sunflower, safflower, corn etc) but when one orders a ‘skinny blueberry muffin with a skinny latte’ I am amazed at the power of the brain washing media and totally understand why companies/individuals invest so much in PR and advertising and marketing. So whether it is false or true the media can really put a spin on it and lead us to believe that it is ‘true’. …anyway back to the point….

So why on earth would one go for the ‘regular blueberry muffin with the regular whole milk latte?’ Well, the so-called regular and full fat order has ingredients that are less toxic to the body. A muffin or any pastry/dessert made with pure butter and/or coconut oil is ‘healthier’ than a muffin made with low fat margarine or some polyunsaturated fat such as sunflower oil!

I advise all my clients, to avoid cooking with polyunsaturated fats, no matter what they have read, heard or even their dietician or doctor may have told them. Sometimes, experts are only experts in a very small discipline of their profession, dare I add. You may be saying well I am ok, as I cook only with olive oil….well as long as you are cooking with olive oil at moderate temperatures (so no stir frying or frying or heating at high temps in the oven) then great, however if you are cooking at higher temperatures with olive oil (known as a mono-unsaturated oil, for those who maybe remotely interested) then you are also creating toxins for yourself. All poly-unsaturated oils become rancid when they are heated, creating something called trans-fats even olive oil can become rancid when heated at even higher temperatures.

So what on earth are we suppose to be cooking with if we are to use higher temperatures, well the answer is the good old saturated fats! Yes the very fats that got an erroneously bad name a few decades ago….again the media brain washed us into believing that such saturated fats increase cholesterol and heart disease and obesity and the rest that I don’t want to waste time on.

I recommend using coconut oil, butter or ghee (clarified butter). Using variety is better than sticking to cooking with one type of fat. Let me share a brief client case. A 63yr old female client of mine came to see me in order to reduce her cholesterol and lose some weight and prevent getting diabetes which ran in her family. As I do, I went through her daily eating habits, there was not one drop of saturated fat in her diet, no butter, no coconut oil and she had not even heard of ghee. She would only use about a tablespoon of olive oil in cooking her main family meals and never added any fat to her toast, salad etc..but her cholesterol had increased and her doctor advised that she FURTHER REDUCE HER FAT INTAKE! ..and start cholesterol lowering medication.

So I basically recommended that she come off all her so-called low fat foods (which were high in sugar…roll on diabetes), such as low fat muffins, low fat margarine, and switch to using coconut oil for cooking and butter for toast and cooking foods such as roast potatoes, introduce the red meat into her diet again and all other so-called ‘natural foods’. Within 3 weeks her cholesterol came down, and she lost a few kilos (not much, but a starting point). It was sad to note however that her doctor was not that impressed as he still believed his nutritional advice was absolutely sound…but is not the proof in the pudding?

So why are the so-called trans-fats so bad you may ask? Well the body does not recognise them as ‘food or bi-products of food’. However, they still manage to get into the cells (the membrane of the cells to be more precise) and ‘screw up’ the cell to cell communication leading to all sorts of crazy toxic behaviour, such as high cholesterol, liver toxicity, lack of concentration, diabetes, obesity etc. It is critical that cells are able to communicate clearly and efficiently for good health just like we humans need to communicate effectively with our community, families etc to maintain healthy relationships. …otherwise this lack of communication does catch up on us, no matter what.

I will finish off here for this month, but I will most definitely share more on fats in November’s Monthly Boost including why your sunflower oil in plastic bottles may already be rancid before you even open the bottle!

To healthy fats!

Khush Mark