We know that saturated fat comes from animal products. There are some who tell me it is beneficial for us and we need it every day in our diets. One told me “our brain is made of it and we must consume it daily for our health!”
Not so! Saturated fat will clog our arteries and raise our cholesterol levels as much or more than consuming cholesterol itself. In 2013 I was consuming it in plant-sourced form. These were primarily from dark chocolate Peanut Clusters from Sprouts and in Thai Curry, which contain coconut milk. In January 2014 I had it checked at the Albuquerque Health Fair. It was up from the previous lab at the VA in May 2013. Many things have saturated fat in it. By May 2014, it was lower than the prior year’s reading. You can check out nutriton labels at nutritiondata.com in thousands of different foods. Also, learn to read labels. Jeff Novick, MS, RD, LN, has lots of youtube videos and articles on reading labels. The first rule of label reading: Never, ever believe what is on the front of the package. Ever. Don’t go by the percentages on the label. These are misleading if you don’t understand them. Saturated fat is found in tropical plants as well.
These tropical oils are coconut and palm oil. Palm oil is used by most manufacturers and can go by a myriad of different names, few of which resemble ‘palm oil’. Coconut oil is extremely high in Sat Fat. See nutrition Data. Check some of your favorite foods in this site. If you do this you may be shocked as I was. Michael Gerber, M. D. has an article on saturated fat, as many other plant-based Doctors and practicioners do. I am attempting to keep my intake to under 5 grams per day, from the best
crackers we can find to guacamole, etc. I now see that even 5 grams a day may be too much. Dr. Joel Furhman notes fat’s effect on breast cancer.
Plant-Strong, Plant-Based or PlantPerfect My suggestion is to get your nutrition from Whole Food Plant-Based sources. This includes dark leafy greens as the most nutrient dense foods, colorful vegetables, beans, (including lentils), a small handful of raw nuts a day, fruits and drink sufficient pure water. Soon your taste buds will adapt and animal products will sound as well as taste bad. Lose the oils and those won’t be desirable either. Our bodies have no need whatever for saturated fat. So Why is it in most processed foods we buy? Looking on Youtube for saturated fat, there are many videos Pro-Saturated fat! Then there’s this short explanation: He says meat and dairy are the primary sources of saturated fat at the end. But for vegans or whole food, plant based consumers? I dis-concur, it is tropical oils, palm oil and coconut oil as you can see if you check labels of processed ‘foods’. And from Matthew Lederman, M D, who was in Forks Over Knives documentary:
Is Coconut Oil Healthy or Hazardous? For several years now, coconut oil has been marketed as the new wonder oil, a cure-all with health benefits. At over 90% saturated fat, taking away the portion of MCFAs in coconut oil— which still requires us to make the huge assumption that MCFAs are all good and can’t be negated—then you are still left with 45% of the saturated fat. So even subtracting all of the theoretical goodness of MCFAs from the total saturated fat content, coconut oil is still worse than lard, which is only 43% saturated fat. And we all know that lard is not a health food.
There are no omega-3 fats in coconut oil. And furthermore, if people on a no-added-oil, low-fat, plant-based diet added coconut oil to their diets, the fat load on their vessels would cause serious damage. Inflammation increases and blood vessel flow decreases when exposed to any fat, including coconut oil. Overall, health takes a beating. 1 tablespoon of coconut oil has: Calories
116
total fat(g)
14
Saturated fat (g)
12
Monounsaturated fat
.8
Polyunsaturated fat
.2
Carbohydrates Protein
0 0
Vitamins A C E B6 B12
0
Vitamin K mcg
0.1 (1 romaine leaf has 30 mcg)
Iron
0
Magnesium
0
Potassium
0
Sodium
0
Zinc
0
There are 116 calories, which all come from fat, which is easily stored as fat on your body. The mostly saturated fat is 12 grams, half of which are not MCFAs, this theoretically good mediumchain fatty acid. Conclusion Make your own conclusion. I personally believe that some fats are beneficial AND essential. Saturated Fat is not one of these. Keep it as low as possible. Under 5 grams/day seems do-able to me. Here in my weblog: http://www.plant-strong-health-blog-by-gary.com/saturated-fat-healthy/