Healing Our Children Book Excerpt
Just hearing the word “fat” might bring to mind all sorts of mostly negative images. In our culture we are taught to fear fat. It is rather odd that we are educated to avoid this food substance when it is actually the fat in our food that gives us a feeling of satisfaction from our meal. Healthy fats also aid in cleansing the body, as the fat lubricates the internal layers and promotes health. Many of us deny ourselves the basic pleasure and comfort of healthy fats. So, stop buying meat without the fat! Get full fat products like whole milk, full fat cheese, and start eating fatty pieces of meat and fish.

Healthy Fats

Healthy fats have been used in the human diet for thousands of years. They include:

  • Butter
  • Beef and lamb tallow
  • Lard
  • Chicken, goose and duck fat
  • Coconut, palm and sesame oils

Unhealthy Fats

Unhealthy fats require unnatural processing involving solvents and high temperatures. You cannot just go out into the corn field and make corn oil by pressing corn seeds. The complex processing renders it not safe for human consumption.

  • Hydrogenated oils (like margarine)
  • Soy, corn and safflower oils
  • Cottonseed oil
  • Canola oil

Traditional Fats Vs. Modern Fats

When our modern cultures says that it is unhealthy to eat fats, they are partially correct, and partially wrong. Traditional fats, the ones that taste good, and that the body understands and knows how to utilize, our said in our modern culture to be unhealthy. Meanwhile, modern fats, are said to be healthy. Yet the reverse is true. Modern fats, make our body sick and weak. They have been associated with physical degeneration of native populations. Meanwhile traditional fats, make us healthy, provide us with needed vitamins and building strong bones and a good energy supply so you feel good.

The National Academy of Sciences says that there is “no safe level” of consumption of trans fats. We therefore should avoid all trans fats. But why where they in our food chain in the first place? Just a question for you to ponder.

Health Problems and Fat

Many people find that if they avoid saturated fats from animal foods, that they can develop health problems such as poor immunity to disease and digestive problems.

Traditional Societies Eat Lots of Fat

Some of the most highly prized and relished parts of traditional diets are the fats. Many traditional groups did not have heart disease, but had a high fat diet.