The Benefits of Saturated Fats
Further to and all those brainwashed fat phobics here is more data on the importance of saturated fats and the wisdom of traditional diets.
For example healthy lungs require saturated fats to function properly avoiding "the very important phospholipid class called lung surfactant is a special phospholipid with 100 percent saturated fatty acids. It is called dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine and there are two saturated palmitic acid molecules attached to it. When people consume a lot of partially hydrogenated fats and oils, the trans fatty acids are put into the phospholipids where the body normally wants to have saturated fatty acids and the lungs may not work effectively. Some research has suggested that trans fatty acids are causing asthma in children.
Recent research shows that having enough saturated fat prevents stroke; and to protect our kidneys from disease, research shows we need certain kinds of saturated fatty acids, which are found only in the natural fats such as animal fats and coconut and palm kernel oils."
The following extracts/article should help destroy the myths surrounding Saturated fats and allow many to regain their health through the use of of this healthy fat such as organic grass fed butter....
Chris Gupta
See also: Saturated Fat To The Rescue
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The Benefits of Saturated Fats
The much-maligned saturated fatsÂwhich Americans are trying to avoidÂare not the cause of our modern diseases. In fact, they play many important roles in the body chemistry:The scientific evidence, honestly evaluated, does not support the assertion that "artery-clogging" saturated fats cause heart disease. (44) Actually, evaluation of the fat in artery clogs reveals that only about 26% is saturated. The rest is unsaturated, of which more than half is polyunsaturated. (45)
- Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes. They are what gives our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.
- They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated. (38)
- They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease. (39) They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol. (40)
- They enhance the immune system. (41)
- They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
- Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues when the diet is rich in saturated fats. (42)
- Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated. (43) The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.
- Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.
(38) Watkins, B A, et al, "Importance of Vitamin E in Bone Formation and in Chrondrocyte Function" Purdue University, Lafayette, IN, AOCS Proceedings, 1996; Watkins, B A, and M F Seifert, "Food Lipids and Bone Health," Food Lipids and Health, R E McDonald and D B Min, eds, p 101, Marcel Dekker, Inc, New York, NY, 1996
(39) Dahlen, G H, et al, J Intern Med, Nov 1998, 244(5):417-24; Khosla, P, and K C Hayes, J Am Coll Nutr, 1996, 15:325-339; Clevidence, B A, et al, Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, 1997, 17:1657-1661
(40) Nanji, A A, et al, Gastroenterology, Aug 1995, 109(2):547-54; Cha, Y S, and D S Sachan, J Am Coll Nutr, Aug 1994, 13(4):338-43; Hargrove, H L, et al, FASEB Journal, Meeting Abstracts, Mar 1999, #204.1, p A222.
(41) Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, The American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL, 1978, 1-14; Cohen, L A, et al, J Natl Cancer Inst, 1986, 77:43
(42) Garg, M L, et al, FASEB Journal, 1988, 2:4:A852; Oliart Ros, R M, et al, "Meeting Abstracts," AOCS Proceedings, May 1998, 7, Chicago, IL
(43) Lawson, L D and F Kummerow, Lipids, 1979, 14:501-503; Garg, M L, Lipids, Apr 1989, 24(4):334-9
(44) Ravnskov, U, J Clin Epidemiol, Jun 1998, 51:(6):443-460. See also: The Cholesterol Myths
(45) Felton, C V, et al, Lancet, 1994, 344:1195
Extracted from the must read: The Skinny on Fats
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Saturated Fats and the Lungs
by Mary G. Enig, PhD
Yes fat? No fat? High fat? Low fat? Wrong questions! A better question would be, how much of what kind of fat and why? Yes, we need added fat in our diets or we lose the synergistic effects from the natural fats in our foods. Such fats provide us with appropriate satiety signals; they ensure absorption of important fat-soluble vitamins, phytonutrients and important minerals; and they provide the raw material for skin health, hormone production and adequate energy storage.
The use of lowfat diets is increasingly recognized as counter productive. Without good quality fat in the diet to promote proper satiety signals, we tend to overeat those foods that are readily available. And since "readily available" foods are either high in simple carbohydrates or partially hydrogenated fats and oils or both, and since these foods promote insulin resistance, it is easy to head in the direction of obesity.
Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap. For 30 to 40 years, they have borne the brunt of an anti-fat campaign. This campaign was promoted by individuals in the fats and oils part of the food industry who had great influence over government agencies, consumer groups and the media.
Recommendations about fat in the diet made by government agencies such as the USDA, the FDA, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, organizations such as the American Heart Association and consumer activist groups such as Center for Science in the Public Interest invariably paint saturated fat as the one bad actor in the diet that needs to be fired from the scene.
The spokespersons from these organizations don't understand the effects of the saturated fatty acids found in the diet and they don't understand how much and where saturated fatty acids are normally found in the human body. Everything these organizations report about fat is based on what they perceive to be the effects of saturated fatty acids on serum cholesterol levels.
So when a particular fat raises the level of the body's repair substance, which is what cholesterol is, the question that really should be asked is whether this is good because the body will now get the repair substance it needs, or whether it could be bad if getting more of the repair substance triggers the need for repair. The former makes sense, the latter does not. A well-known New York pathologist, Meyer Texon, MD, noted that accusing fat and cholesterol of causing the injury that led to the atheroma is akin to accusing the white blood cells of causing infection; they are both there to help repair.
We need natural saturated fat in our diets. The important phospholipids that form the membranes in all of our cells are made of mostly (half or more) saturated fatty acids. This is especially true for parts of our brains where more than 80 percent of the phospholipids carry half of their fatty acids as saturated fatty acids.
When it comes to our lungs, the very important phospholipid class called lung surfactant is a special phospholipid with 100 percent saturated fatty acids. It is called dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine and there are two saturated palmitic acid molecules attached to it. When people consume a lot of partially hydrogenated fats and oils, the trans fatty acids are put into the phospholipids where the body normally wants to have saturated fatty acids and the lungs may not work effectively. Some research has suggested that trans fatty acids are causing asthma in children.
Recent research shows that having enough saturated fat prevents stroke; and to protect our kidneys from disease, research shows we need certain kinds of saturated fatty acids, which are found only in the natural fats such as animal fats and coconut and palm kernel oils.
About the Author
Mary G. Enig, PhD is the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, May 2000. Order your copy here: www.enig.com/trans.html.
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A low-fat diet used to be touted as a cancer-fighter. Recent studies cast that into doubt.
The research found that women who switched to a low-fat diet later in life did not see a reduced risk of breast cancer, colorectal cancer or heart disease.
For eight years, researchers in the U.S. conducted three separate studies of 48,835 women with an average age of 62 who were randomly chosen to adopt either a low-fat diet or keep eating as normal.
Simply cutting the total fat in the diet generally didn't help reduce the risk of cancer or heart disease among these women, according to the studies, which were published in the Feb. 8, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Changing diet after age 50 may not work as well as eating healthy foods earlier in life, said Mara Vitolins, a dietician who co-authored one of the papers.
But researchers say older women shouldn't give up trying to eat healthy. They say the focus should be on reducing saturated fats and trans fats found in processed foods, meat and some dairy products.
Participants in the study filled out food questionnaires but the research did not account for types of fat, and the women may not have reduced their intake by enough to see a difference, the researchers added.
Cancer can also take years to develop. While women in the low-fat group did not show a reduction in cancer incidence overall, there was a small decrease in polyps that are precursor to colon cancer.
Meanwhile, the cancer-fighting benefits of a high-fibre diet have also been called into question. A review published in December 2005 found that eating a diet high in fibre does not reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.
The idea that fibre may protect against colon cancer is based on the notion that the foods help keep us regular. By bulking up stool, it was thought that insoluble fibre like wheat bran helps waste move through faster, diluting carcinogens in the bowel.
But proof that dietary fibre from fruits and vegetables, cereals or bran reduces the risk of colon cancer has been elusive, with animal studies, population studies and randomized clinical trials showing inconsistent results.
The latest study, published in the Dec. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed data from 13 international trials involving more than 725,000 men and women who were followed for six to 20 years. During the follow-up, 8,081 colorectal cancer cases were identified.
Researchers concluded that a diet high in fibre did not reduce the risk of colon cancer, after adjusting for age and other factors such as family history, smoking and red meat intake.
Extracted from: Chasing the cancer answer
posted by Chris Gupta on Monday March 27 2006
URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2006/03/27/the_benefits_of_saturated_fats.htm
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