You hear a lot about fats and oils these days. Much of it is confusing because many of those who talk about them are confused themselves. Anti-fat fanatics loudly proclaim that dietary fat is the cause of obesity, heart disease, cancer, and just about every other disease known to mankind. They seem to ignore the fact that in many traditional diets throughout the world people consume up to 50 and even 60% of their daily calories as fat and have little or no heart disease, obesity, or any of the other diseases of modern civilization. Others say it's not the amount of fat you eat but the type. This is a more sensible view, yet people disagree as to which fats are good and which are bad.

Oils that were once loudly promoted as being healthy are now exposed as dietary troublemakers. Those that have been labeled as dietary villains are now known to be among the most healthy. To add to the confusion, many people, including authors and health care professionals, who are not up to date on their fats and oils research still promote unhealthy fats as being good and good fats as being bad.

GOOD FATS,BAD FATS

So which are the good fats and which are the bad? The answers may surprise you. The key to understanding the difference between good and bad fats can be found in the studies of Dr. Weston A. Price. In the 1930s Dr. Price traveled extensively evaluating the diets and health of people in developing areas of the world. He discovered that those people who lived on traditional foods were relatively free from the degenerative diseases that plagued modern society. Dr. Price observed that when people adopt modern foods they begin to develop the so called diseases of modern civilization such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.

One the major differences Dr. Price discovered between modern and traditional diets is the types of fats consumed. Traditional diets consisted primarily of butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and animal fats (i.e., lard, tallow, etc.). The oils in modern diets were primarily margarine, shortening, and processed vegetable oils (corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed, etc.).

It is the traditional fats that are the good and the modern processed vegetable oils which are bad. For many people this is surprising because they have been told just the opposite for so many years. Modern research is now catching up with Dr. Price's discoveries and confirming his findings. In future issues of the JurakXpress I will explain why traditional fats are superior to processed vegetable oils.