Standoff: Saturated Fats Versus Trans Fats
Today while perusing the Weston A. Price Foundation website, I found this table (below) about Saturated Fats (i.e. butter, animal fats) versus Trans Fats (i.e. margarine, hydrogenated oils). As you can see by the table, saturated fats are incredibly beneficial for the human body and trans fats are incredibly harmful to the human body–why would anyone ever choose trans fats?
A word about margarine: there are “low-trans” spreads, but they are not free of trans fats!
“New labeling laws allow ‘contains 0 grams trans fat’ on the label when the product contains less than .5 grams trans fat per serving containing 11 grams of fat, which means that it can contain up to 5 percent trans and still carry this deceptive label. Remember that government scientists have declared trans fats to be unsafe at any level” (Mary G. Enig, PhD, http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/1408-margarine-manufactures.html)
Saturated Fats Versus Trans Fats
| SATURATED FATS | TRANS FATS | |
| CELL MEMBRANES | Essential for healthy function | Interfere with healthy function |
| HORMONES | Enhance hormone production | Interfere with hormone production |
| INFLAMMATION | Suppress | Encourage |
| HEART DISEASE | Lower Lp(a); raise “good” cholesterol | Raise Lp(a); Lower “good” cholesterol |
| OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS | Put in tissues and conserve | Reduce levels in tissues |
| DIABETES | Do not inhibit insulin receptors | Inhibit insulin receptors |
| IMMUNE SYSTEM | Enhance | Depress |
| PROSTAGLANDINS | Encourage production and balance | Depress production; cause imbalances |
Source: Enig, M., Trans Fatty Acids in the Food Supply: A Comprehensive Report Covering 60 Years of Research, 2nd Edition, 1995, Enig Associates, Inc., Silver Spring, MD.
Conclusion:
Use real fats for cooking!
- Butter*
- Tallow and suet from beef and lamb
- Lard from pigs
- Chicken, goose and duck fat
- Coconut, palm and palm kernel oils
Real fats for salads!
- Extra virgin olive oil (also OK for cooking)
- Expeller-expressed sesame and peanut oils
- Expeller-expressed flax oil (in small amounts)
Real fats for Fat-Soluble Vitamins!
- Fish liver oils such as cod liver oil (preferable to fish oils, which do not provide fat-soluble vitamins, can cause an overdose of unsaturated fatty acids and usually come from farmed fish.)
AVOID new fats* (can cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, sterility, learning disabilities, growth problems and osteoporosis)!
- All hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils
- Industrially processed liquid oils such as soy, corn, safflower, cottonseed and canola
- Fats and oils (especially vegetable oils) heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying
*Read a PDF Trifold about TransFats here.
*Read a PDF Trifold about Butter here.