The Truth About Cholesterol and Fat
By “balanced”, I mean that over millennia, we humans evolved while eating dietary fats in proportions available to us in our food sources, and came to function optimally on this ratio. In the past 70 or so years, this ratio has changed drastically in the modern diet, contributing all sorts of mischief to our health in the form of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and multiple other chronic degenerative diseases.
Let’s elaborate for a moment on that ratio. For optimal health, humans need a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids somewhere between 1:1 and 4:1. Unfortunately, the typical modern diet provides us with a ratio of way too much omega-6 — between 11 and 30 times the amount we need! Because we must feed these essential nutrients to our body in the correct proportions to support normal cell growth and repair, that means we must either radically change the source of fat in our diets or else supplement our intake of omega-3s to a significant degree.
What’s the easiest way to do that? See my list of recommendations below for how to get the best kind of fat, but briefly, eicosapentænoic acid (EPA) and docosahexænoic acid (DHA), both found in fish oils and algae, are the two omega-3 fatty acids most highly recommended in supplemental form, and have all sorts of good things going for them in the way of brain and heart health.
So what else is good about fat?
Cholesterol is the mother of all fat molecules in our bodies. We literally run on the stuff. It maintains neurotransmitter and brain function, builds brain and nerve tissue, and nourishes the immune system. It provides the insulation around nerves that transmit electrical impulses. It is a keystone of normal cell function and mood regulation and helps us digest fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K. Importantly for women, many of our most important hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, are made from cholesterol.
Our bodies equate fat in our food with safety and security. It’s an evolutionary thing. When we don’t eat enough fat, our brains become preoccupied with how to procure it. This is why most low-fat diets fail – at some point our biological imperative kicks in and we “cheat” or binge – and feel like we’ve failed!
Our brains aren’t fooled by “fake fat” either. Real fat breaks down slowly over 3-4 hours after eating. Eating fat in combination with other foods (especially carbohydrates) slows digestion and signals the brain that you’re full — so you stop wanting more. (You can imagine being hungry after eating a bag of chips — but not after drinking a glass of olive oil!).
Fat substitutes trigger the promise of fat through enzymes in the mouth but never deliver: they don’t break down the same way in the GI tract. Waiting for the real deal, the brain continues to transmit a “still hungry — eat more” message to your stomach.
In fact, there’s good reason why saturated and unsaturated fats are found together in whole food. Again, it has to do the energy stored in the bonds between atoms and our ability to stow enough away to survive famine conditions. And once again, balance is the key. Healthy fats and cholesterol should be part of a balanced diet the way nature intended, including an appropriate ratio of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. Healthy people with normal cholesterol levels can get up to 30% of their daily calories from real fat.