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Yes indeed, these are the oils that humans and our hominid ancestors have been consuming for millions of years. The term saturated fats for designating animal fats and tropical oils is also somewhat misleading as most of these fats have a very high proportion of mono-unsaturates in them.
The most common form of "saturated" fat in human pre-history was from animal sources, but in the tropics palm oils have been a siginificant source of nourishment as well.
Dairy fats have been part of the diet of many civilisations in more recent human history.
Saturated fats and cholesterol have been a major source of nourishment for humans since humans have existed, so we should expect that some sort of adaption to this diet should have occurred within the last hundred thousand years.
As well as being part of the human diet, cholesterol and saturated fats are made by the body. Saturated fats and cholesterol make up about 20% of the human body.
So given the huge exposure our body has to these natural compounds, could they be dangerous in any way? I guess so if we drown in them!
Another reason we know that saturated fats and cholesterol are safe, is that all the attempts to prove otherwise have failed. In fact, most studies done to try to prove the link between saturated fats, cholesterol and heart disease resulted in significant findings about the danger of low-saturated fat diets. Foremost of this was the increase risk of suicides and cancers in people on low-saturated, high polyunsaturated diets.
The best sources of saturated fats is coconut and palm oils. These oils are very high in medium-chain fatty acids which have metabolism and immunity boosting properties.
Animal Fats are generally high in mono-unsaturated fats and saturated fats. Chicken fat is mostly mono-unsaturated fat. Fish oils are lower again in saturated fats and contain higher levels of polyunsaturated fats. The polyunsaturated fats in animal fats can be an important source
of essential fatty acids (omega 3,6 fatty acids). The higher levels of saturated fats infact helps the body absorb these essential unsaturated fats, and protects them in the same way that anti-oxidants would in an unrefined vegetable oil.
Animal fats generally contain many fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A and E.
Saturated fats are found in all vegetable oils as well, particularly nuts, but generally in lower levels than in animal fats. Except for the palm oils, saturated fats in vegetable oils are generally long-chain fatty acids. |
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Current Poll Results
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The milk I consume most is: |
Naturalea 4% unhomogenised (
12 %)
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Farmhouse (4%) unhomogenised (
4 %)
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Standard (3.3%) homogenised (
9 %)
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Low Fat Milk Homogenised (
31 %)
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Real Farm Milk - non pasteurised (
43 %)
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