Saturated Fat; Friend or Foe?

I know you all read my butter blog, and if you haven't read it go ahead and do me a favor and give it a whirl (Butter Blog) .

We lived past 1999 and there was no explosive computer apocalypse as was expected and now you're about to read that new research has surfaced that saturated fat isn't as bad as previously thought to be. So before you start going crazy buying chocolate and eating cheeseburgers, let me explain why and how the SAD ( standard american diet) is lacking in said fat and needs to rearrange itself for us to be healthy and balanced individuals. Here goes nothing; A common known but dated fact is that saturated fat is evil and leads to heart disease by raising LDL ( bad cholesterol) levels, but what we didn't know is that it also contains good cholesterol (HDL) and triglycerides which are both linked to lowering heart disease and in comparison to refined carbs which raise cholesterol (LDL) and lower triglycerides two really bad things that up your risk for heart disease, saturated fat from meat and dairy isn't so bad within reason.

Now i know what you're thinking, get her to the loony bin she's telling us that we should indulge in cheese and full fat dairy and meats? Yes and No. Unfortunately due to all the diet promises that come in those brightly colored packages, were eating more processed foods, more trans fats and less real foods (basically if it doesn't go bad toss it!). Due to all the misinformation were swapping out real meat, real cheese, real dairy for real fake low fat, trans fat filled processed packaged foods.

What's a trans fat?
 well to make it easy for you it's a really bad vegetable fat that is uber processed to add shelf life and give the food the "perfect" consistency, it sounds so great but really it has no health benefits tons of sodium and sugar to make up for lost flavor of real fat that's why you usually find it in packaged processed foods. Avoid Trans fats! avoid at all costs!  If you're already avoiding trans fats good job! and if you've just started trying to avoid trans fats it can be pretty tricky they're in a lot of foods. The worst part is big food companies are allowed to boast a 0% trans fat  promise on their packages/containers if there's less than 0.5 of a gram per serving. Terrible!

My best advice is ditch  the convenient packages and if you really want those cookies make them yourself! So to debunk the myth the answer is yes you can eat saturated fat if it means you're going to kick the french toast for eggs and bacon yes it's ok on occasion, i really like center cut it's lower in saturated fat and still delicious! Am i suggesting you coat your scrambled eggs in butter and eat bowls of cheese all day then No, as much as that sounds like tons of fun! ( i myself love tons of cheese)

As I've said over and over balance is key to a good diet and that balance includes eating different types of good fats from; organic butter, olive oil, raw nuts, unheated nut oils, avocados, eggs, palm oil and even *gasp* grass fed meat so don't be so hard on yourself when it comes to saturated fat.

To balance and moderation!
Trish


For further reading
The Truth about Saturated Fats

I can't believe it's not....Margarine

Away with the margarine I say!
Hey everyone! I'm so excited to introduce you all to my old best friend, I haven't hung with him in awhile since he was sorta shunned but now everything's smooth sailing and he's part of the cool kids club, so without further ado let me introduce to you BUTTER!

Yes! and with the food porn butter pic I bring good news! The good news is that butter is actually part of a heart healthy balanced diet. Yeah, no need to check your eyes, butter is not the enemy and heres some reasons why!

1. Butter has tons of fat soluble vitamins A, E and  most importantly K2 which is pretty rare in standard diets and it aids in bone healthy and regulating calcium in our body

2. Butter has friendly saturated fat, the kind that raise HDL or (good cholesterol) 

3. Butter can lower the risk of heart disease due to vitamin K2 intake

4. Butter contains an essential fatty acid (Butyrate) that protects the digestive system 

5. It's delicious! so go ahead and use butter, within moderation always but no need to fear it any longer!