Fats, Are There Bad Fats on a LCHF Diet?

DittoDan

I'm new to the LCHF diet. I was food shopping tonight, reading the labels. There are so many different fats. Is there any particular ones I should avoid? Yes, I know I should avoid the "hydrogenated" oils/trans-fats. But there are:

Monounsaturated fats
Polyunsaturated fats
Saturated fats
Unsaturated fats
Omega-3 fat
Omega-6 fat

Thank you for any help you may give me....

Dan from Michigan

PatchEFog

Try this: http://www.balancedbites.com/PDFs/BOOK_EXTRAS/PracticalPaleo_GuidetoFatsOils.pdf

PatchEFog

Mark's Daily Apple (one of many posts http://www.marksdailyapple.com/healthy-oils/#axzz3D41gLYvV)
and
Paleo Hacks (several paleohacks.com)

Both have a lot of additional information... so do many other Paleo sites. Depending on how far you want to go down the rabbit hole, there's the opening.

Leonidas_meets_Spartacus

Keep poly unsaturated fats to minimum. Get most of your fats from saturated fat and rest monounsaturated fats. Omega 3 is good, polyunsaturated fats are very unstable and can cause inflammation. Read the book Art and science of low carbohydrate living, Dr Volek covers the fats and various foods with right types of fat.

DittoDan

@ Leonidas_meet

Thanks for the info. I read that book, but I must admit, my eyes got crossed because some of their chapters were too technical for me. I suspect that was one of the chapters. But I will keep that in mind now, because I have inflammation in my joints (very light).

DittoDan

@ PatchEfog

I'm reading it now! Thank you!.

Dan

DittoDan

@ PatchEfog

That was easy reading. My shortening I just bought says it has meat fats and vegetable oils (a no-no according to the paper you sent).

It also mentions: Ghee. I am 57 years old and I have never heard of that. I wiki'd it and it sounds like a wonderful product. have you ever eaten it? Can I buy it in a regular grocery store? If not, there are some Indian grocery stores near where I live, that I can probably find it.

Thank you!

Dan the Man from Michigan

radiii

Copying from the keto faq on reddit:

All foods containing fat - even pure oils - contain a mixture of three kinds of fat:

saturated
polyunsaturated, and
monounsaturated.

Foods are often identified by their predominant fat; for example, olive oil as “monounsaturated” butter as “saturated” – but all real foods contain mixtures of the three.

All three types of fats are necessary and important to human health and should be incorporated into the diet in a balanced proportion. The question is, what ''is'' balanced.

Saturated fat, particularly in the absence of high carbohydrate intake, is not dangerous to human health — on the contrary, when balanced with mono and poly-unsaturated fats in a controlled carbohydrate dietary environment, saturated fat may actually have real and measurable benefits in a number of different arenas. Saturated fat is quickly oxidized to energy, once you are keto adapted. So you can enjoy plenty of butter and animal fat guilt free. Interestingly, coconut oil is something very different: it consists of Medium Chain Triglycerids (MCT) which cannot be stored by the body, it has to immediately oxidize it. That means when you eat coconut oil, your body will immediately produce ketones, even when you are not keto-adapted. Nevertheless this does not mean you are getting all the metabolic advantages that you would get when keto-adapted state.

In addition, the benefits of monounsaturated fats (like olive oil) are well known and well documented.
Fats high in polyunsaturated fats, like vegetable oils, usually contain a lot of omega-6, and very little omega-3. The ideal ratio between omega-6 to omega-3 is 2:1 to 1:1, and in general this ratio is often 20:1 or even worse. It is therefore important to avoid oils high in omega-6, like corn or soy. Vegetable oils that are rich in omega-3 contains it in the form of ALA which the body has to convert to DHA and EPA to be of any use. The conversion is highly inefficient, so in practice ALA omega-3 rich vegetable oils like flaxseed oil or canola are no good choice either. The best way to get omega-3 is through fatty fish like salmon, or with a DHA + EPA supplement.


As a general rule of thumb, avoid fats high in omega-6, and run like hell from highly processed fat(anything that says "hardened", or contains trans-fats) like margarine. Eat foods naturally high in fat like meat, fish, and nuts; use plenty of olive oil, butter. In fact 50% butter with 50% olive oil approximates quite closely the composition of body fat - meaning that this is the type of fat that the body can make best use off.

DittoDan

@radii

Great resource!

PatchEFog

It also mentions: Ghee. I am 57 years old and I have never heard of that. I wiki'd it and it sounds like a wonderful product. have you ever eaten it? Can I buy it in a regular grocery store? If not, there are some Indian grocery stores near where I live, that I can probably find it.

Ghee is nothing more really than clarified/drawn butter. You heat it on the stove to cook out the milk protein and strain it. I put mine in a Pyrex in the microwave to melt it and separate it out. When I refrigerate it there is milk protein at the bottom (liquid) that I just drain and then blot the solid with a paper towel. You want to do this with UNsalted butter. Most people will tell you to use Kerrygold butter since it's from grassfed cows milked by leprechauns for the best nutrition. I just use generic unsalted butter.
Trader Joe's also sells ghee in a jar.
Ghee's strong point is that it tastes like butter (because it is), but since the milk protein is gone, you can fry with it more easily without it burning as butter might.
When you eliminate the milk protein, you eliminate the carbs. So I use either butter or ghee depending on the allowance of carbs I have for a meal.

DittoDan

Thank you PatchEFog. We have a Trader's Joe's nearby. I never liked using butter for cooking because it wouldn't do very well. This sounds like a much better oil to cook with. I want to put it on some broccoli or green beans.... (but not too many!)

camtosh

Here is a good little short video to watch about how canola oil is made, posted on youtube by Tom Naughten, who made the Fat Head movie (which you should watch too if you have not yet). The key point of this commercial video is where they start describing how the oil is bleached and disinfected... yuck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omjWmLG0EAs&list=UUo79qbil7BXihBa6jfDykxQ

I also love using coconut oil -- it is good in bulletproof coffee, or in any stirfry you can think of. It has lots of medium-chain triglycerides, the stuff we need.

mcpostelle

Bump for the info!