What are they good for?
Raw and natural, fat containing foods are very beneficial for our skin and hair. Furthermore they create cushion-like layers between our tissues and organs in order to keep them floating. Fats from avocados and olives are best suited to be absorbed and processed by the body due to their high water content and simple chemical structure.
Natural and raw, unprocessed fats also allow our digestive system to absorb fructose in a very slow and well balanced way so that our energy level stays arise for a much longer period during the day. Well balanced, natural fats in vegetables, fruits and seeds act as anti oxidants and cause an increase of the electrical charge of a cell. This improves the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the cell.
Processed and heated fats do exactly the opposite. They increase non-endogenous oxidants in the body and damage the cells by eg. closing the cell membrane and cause the mitochondria to swell. As a result the mitochondria, the „power plant“ of a cell, cannot work properly anymore and the cell starts to loose its necessary energy supply. This is due to the missing lipase. The lipase in raw, natural oils gets destroyed by sunlight or increase of temperature. Following all raw fats of good quality should be packet in dark coloured bottles and stored in a cool place.
We see that it is life essential to choose the right good quality fats and oils for your body. Usually high quality has its price. To cut expenses the food industry mainly uses fats made from less expensive ingredients like sunflower seeds, rapeseeds, corn, soybeans or safflower seeds. Even when raw, some of them are toxic for our body by nature, like eg. rapeseed oil.
Rapeseed oil contains Eruca acid. Back in the days the percentage of Eruca acid was quit high. By means of gene modification its amount could be reduced. But still in nowadays rapeseed oils which you can by on the market, the amount of Eruca acid is high enough to damage our health on the mid and long term. It causes inflammation on the myocardium (muscles of the heart), dementia etc.
Other fats have a very imbalanced ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect, dilate the blood vessels and bronchi and increase mental as well as physical performance. Omega 6 fatty acids have the opposite effect. They have a vasoconstricting and inflammatory effect. The two fatty acids compete in metabolism for the same enzymes. If our enzymes are busy with too many omega-6 fatty acids, the body can no longer absorb the more valuable omega-3 fatty acids. For this reason, the ratio of fatty acids is very important.
The excess of omega-6 fatty acids and the consumption of processed and heated fats lead to damage to cells and our health. Weakened and destroyed cells are a threat to our immune system and sooner or later end in cancer, which is just a depot of the body for damaged and sick cell material.
The benefits of raw, natural and unprocessed fats are obvious. The best way to consume these fats is by eating the fruit or vegetable itself with all its vitamins, minerals, enzymes etc. which allow a well balanced absorption and processing of the fats. When using oil, make sure to choose one which still has the balance of its components, like eg. cold pressed, unpasteurised olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil or linseed oil.
It is very simple: if fats come in a transparent plastic bottle, the healthy ingredients have been already damaged in the fabrication process. There is no longer the need to protect the good ingredients from heat and sunlight.
When we look far back into history, we see that in the Mediterranean area people extracted oil from olives sine centuries. In Asia the fat from coconuts was and is easily accessible and consumed.
Fats that can be extracted from plants with ease at a low temperature like olive oil or coconut oil can also be absorbed easily by the body. This is due to the simple chemical structure of the fats and the high water content in the plants. Cold pressed, these fats need to be protected from sunlight which would destroy the beneficial molecular structure of the fat. Following they are packed in dark coloured bottles.
If a fruit or seed needs to be exposed to high temperature to extract its oil, the beneficial molecular structure is changed in such a way that it is no longer beneficial to the body. Usually you find sunflower oil, soybean oil, peanut oil etc. in transparent plastic bottles because there is no longer a beneficial content which should be protected from sunlight.
I hope I could give you a little insight on the topic of fats. Knowingly or unknowingly fats are present in our daly lives and often we don’t pay attention to it. Whenever we eat food in a restaurant or hospital, fast food, packed pre-cooked food or all other industrially processed foods, we consume processed fats which are toxic to the human body.
If your health matters to you, pay attention to which oils and fats you consume and have in mind that high quality products like organic olive oil, olives or avocados have their price. In the end you are investing in your health. You will benefit from it. And you are not increasing the profits of the big food industry which offers to you toxic fats.