Fats and Oils

The evidence is clear – eat animal fats for health!

Animal fats and oils have been an essential aspect to my wellness and what follows is why. This is a controversial subject as the majority of people think dietary fat is bad news as far as health is concerned, so I have used two books as references plus other websites which agree to some degree on all points.

Udo Erasmus is author of ‘Fats that Heal and Fats that Kill’ and Mary Enig’s ‘Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol’¹. Udo Erasmus is a vegetarian and Mary Enig is not.

Udo Erasmus² is attributed (by his own website) to being the primary contributor to our knowledge of good quality fats and oils because of his commitment to the science of fats and oils since his book first published in 1987, despite his bias to flaxseed oil which according to Sally Fallon has the potential to cause poor health issues if too much is consumed³. Udo also encourages the use of hemp oil and here is what Sally Fallon from the Weston A Price foundation has to say about that⁴:

Q: Do you recommend hemp oil or grape seed oil?

A: We do not recommend either of these oils.  Hemp seed oil contains cannabanoids that have caused people consuming the oil to flunk their urine tests for drugs; and both hemp oil and grape seed oil are high in omega-6 fatty acids–we already have too much of these in our diets.

Mary Enig, PhD is attributed to being one of the world’s leading lipid biochemist according to Stephen Byrnes ND, RNCP who has written a review of her book: ‘Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol’⁵ and her name became more widely known when she and her colleagues at The University of Maryland published a paper in ‘Federation Proceedings’ that illustrated the opposite to the government’s own (misguided) view that animal fats were associated with cancer. Mary Enig and her colleagues concluded that the data indicated that it was the vegetable oils and trans-fatty acids that were the culprits.

Erasmus’ book is not without some merit and he states⁶ that we must understand how fats affect health and that there are good fats that cause good health, and bad fats that cause bad health. While bad fats cause disease, to remove them all from the diet would not stop disease if we did not introduce good fats and oils. Udo has a strong bias to vegetarianism and some of his work contains inconsistencies; as you will read later on, the body needs animal fats⁷.

Good fats and oils are also called Essential Fatty Acids. The word ‘essential’⁸ when used in nutrition implies that the nutrient is essential because the body cannot make it itself and must get it from food.

Udo Erasmus asks⁹:

What are the good (essential) fats?

• The body cannot make them
• They are required for normal cell, tissue, gland and organ function, for health, and for life
• They MUST be provided from outside the body, through food or supplements
• They can come only from fats (hence fat-free diets cannot supply them)
• Their absence from the diet will eventually kill
• Deficiency results in progressive deterioration, can lead to death
• Return of essential fatty acids to a deficient diet reverses the symptoms of deficiency and results in a return to health.

Fats and oils¹⁰ come under headings: fats, oils, cholesterol, lipids which include fatty acids – the main building block of fats and oils and all are necessary for health. There are short chain fatty acids and long chain fatty acids. Short chain saturated fatty acids are found in all fats and oils, more especially in butter, animal fats and tropical fats for example coconut and palm oil.

As Mary Enig demonstrates in her book, ‘Know your fats’¹¹, saturated fats are essential for the nerve covering called the myelin sheath, for the heart and for its protection capabilities against cancer; the view presenting the opposite by the US Government’s McGovern report¹² 30 years ago was misrepresented. More on this in the following paragraphs.

DHA¹³ is a brain food and is required for brain and retinal development, aging, memory, synaptic membrane function, photoreceptor biogenesis and function and neuro-protection¹⁴.

DHA therefore is very important and so fish oils that are rich in DHA are essential for wellness for those with CFS/ME and have been crucial in diminishing my symptoms, but it is important not to supplement fish oils too highly¹⁵ as this can cause harm to the brain and heart by thinning the blood too much. Fish oils, flaxseed oil should be taken in conjunction with animal fats¹⁶.

If consumption of good quality food from animal meats and fats, raw whole milk, eggs from kindly cared for animals is adopted, then there may not be a need to take a fish oil supplement for the DHA content, as those animals being allowed to feed on their natural food, naturally in the outdoors and daylight will have DHA in their fat – the essential brain food.

It is the work of the professional food bodies, including the US government that have allowed into the food chain unnatural fats and oils that can be toxic¹⁷ to humans causing heart disease and immune malfunctions.

When rats reacted to the erucic acid in rape seed oil, it was assumed rape seed oil was toxic to humans. Canada from 1956 to 1974 marketed all rapeseed oil containing up to 40% erucic acid safe for human consumption, but government concerns about the rat studies caused research to design a new variety of oil with low erucic acid rapeseed – LEAR, 18. Canola oil is considered to be unhealthy for humans[19.

The Canadian government then spent millions of dollars to get the US FDA (food and drug administration) to list canola oil on the USA’s GRAS register (generally recognised as safe). They succeeded and then banned import of natural (high erucic acid) rapeseed oil for human consumption.

However when the researchers continued with the studies and used sunflower oil (which contains no erucic acid) the rats produced the same problems. Rats cannot metabolise fats and oils very well, their natural diet is vegetables and grains. Erucic acid in rats causes fatty degeneration of heart, kidneys, adrenals and thyroid.

For the rare genetic disorder adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) it was the very erucic acid combined with oleic acid from Olive Oil called Lorenzo’s Oil (now a film) that provided a cure²⁰ if given to the child as soon as diagnosed.

This makes me ponder the disease progression of genetic disorders and the contribution to the development of disease by unnatural foods such as refined oils, canola oil and non-consumption of animal fats, as this has an effect on the immune system and the hormonal system²¹.

The fats that are bad for us are those that have been through a refining process which are: vegetable refined cooking oils, margarines,canola oil and low fat spreads, low fat milk, low fat yoghurts and the trans fats that are produced from pumping in more hydrogen molecules into margarines and low fat spreads.

Dr Fred Kummerow²² of the University of Illinois disagreed with the view of the McGovern report²³ in 1977 that there were links between saturated fat and heart disease and cancer. Fred Kummerow said that the real harm was caused by trans fat in products like margarine. He also warned against soft drinks, which contain large amounts of sugar. Kummerow pleaded for a return to traditional foods rich in saturated fats or there would be a rise in heart disease, obesity and cancer. And 30 years later that is exactly what has happened.

The McGovern Committee²⁴ was formed in 1977 by the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs and was led by Senator George McGovern which recommended dietary goals for the american people. The committee recommended an increase in carbohydrates (now considered not essential in the human diet), decrease in dietary fat, plus a decrease in sugar, and salt to 3 grams a day. The guidelines for salt in the UK are 6 grams of salt a day. Salt is essential for many bodily functions including digestion and is required for nerve impulse and the balance of water in the body.

Mary Enig^{25 26}, familiar with the research of Fred Kummerow and the McGovern Committee report, also noted in America that cancer rates were rising despite the reduction of saturated fat consumption. Greece, Spain, and the Netherlands all consumed dietary fat and yet had low or less mortality rates from cancer.

Her findings suggested that the link between fat and cancer was not from saturated fat but caused by refined fats with no correlation between saturated fats and cancer, in fact animal fats appeared to protect against cancer.

Walter Willett²⁷ from Harvard University with his team of Harvard researchers failed to make the distinction in 1990 until they brought trans fats into the equation. 

I feel that the following is so important that I am quoting it here in its fullness from the website STOP Trans fats²⁸:

“Once they took trans fats into account, they discovered that trans fats are often the real culprits in causing heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and other modern, degenerative diseases.
So before the 1990s, Walter Willett found, like most other researchers, that saturated fat “caused” heart disease and cancer. But in the early 1990s, his reseachers contacted Mary Enig for data on trans fats.
Working with the refined data, Walter Willett confirmed, in the Nurses Health Study II, that nurses with higher rates of cancer were those who consumed more margarine and vegetable shortenings – not those who ate butter, eggs, cheese and meat.
In other words, he no longer found any link between saturated fat and cancer, but he now found a strong link between trans fats and cancer.
This correlation between trans fat and cancer was never published, but was reported at the Baltimore Data Bank Conference in 1992.”

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1. Book Review by Stephen Byrnes: Mary Enig made her mark in the nutritional world in 1978 when she and her colleagues at the University of Maryland published a paper in Federation Proceedings that directly challenged government assertions that higher cancer rates were associated with animal fat consumption. Enig and her colleagues concluded that the data actually indicated that vegetable oils and trans fatty acids—not saturated fats—were the culprits for the rising incidence of both cancer and heart disease. In the ensuing years, Enig and her colleagues focused their work on determining the trans fatty acid content of various food items, as well as publishing research that clearly demonstrated TFAs to be potent carcinogens, prime factors in heart disease and immune system disrupters. http://www.westonaprice.org/book-reviews/40-book-reviews/386-know-your-fats

2. Udo Erasmus.com: “Because of Udo’s committment to the field of fats and oils, there are now a variety of high-quality, EFA-rich oils available in health food stores and dispensaries around the world. Udo’s contribution to the fields of health and nutrition, along with his pioneering work to establish standards of quality for oil manufacture will continue to benefit humanity for decades to come.” http://www.udoerasmus.com/firstscreen.htm

3. Sally Fallon FAQs Fats and Oils: Flax oil is fine if it is a good quality and in small amounts (see our Shopping Guide for recommended brands). People are taking too much flax oil–about 1/2 tsp per day is all you need. Remember to always store flax oil in the refrigerator.

4. Weston A Price, FAQ Fats and Oils: Q: Do you recommend hemp oil or grape seed oil?
A: We do not recommend either of these oils.  Hemp seed oil contains cannabanoids that have caused people consuming the oil to flunk their urine tests for drugs; and both hemp oil and grape seed oil are high in omega-6 fatty acids–we already have too much of these in our diets. http://www.westonaprice.org/faq/faq-fats-and-oils

5. Book Review by Stephen Byrnes: Mary Enig made her mark in the nutritional world in 1978 when she and her colleagues at the University of Maryland published a paper in Federation Proceedings that directly challenged government assertions that higher cancer rates were associated with animal fat consumption. Enig and her colleagues concluded that the data actually indicated that vegetable oils and trans fatty acids—not saturated fats—were the culprits for the rising incidence of both cancer and heart disease. In the ensuing years, Enig and her colleagues focused their work on determining the trans fatty acid content of various food items, as well as publishing research that clearly demonstrated TFAs to be potent carcinogens, prime factors in heart disease and immune system disrupters. http://www.westonaprice.org/book-reviews/40-book-reviews/386-know-your-fats

6. http://www.udoerasmus.com/FAQ/FAQ1_en.htm#1_3: FAQs Where do we start? “To understand how fats affect health, we must begin by realizing that there are two opposite stories about fats. There are fats that kill, which we should avoid. And there are fats that heal that we must obtain from our food.”

7. Weston A Price: A thumbs down book review. Fats that heal, fats that kill by Udo Erasmus: Fats That Kill, Fats That Heal is one of the few books for the lay public on the subject of fats and oils. It has sold well and is quoted everywhere. While there is some good information in the book, the facts about fats are so intertwined with error as to present a tangled skein, likely to do more harm than good. The author has worked as a salesman for several companies specializing in cold-pressed vegetable oils, which explains his bias towards polyunsaturated oils and against saturated animal fats and tropical oils, bias that is highly tinged with error.

8. Harvard School of Public Health: The Nutrition Source: “These are essential fats—the body can’t make them from scratch but must get them from food.”

9. Udo Erasmus.com FAqs: What are the good (essential) fats? http://www.udoerasmus.com/FAQ/FAQ1_en.htm#1_2

10. Fats that heal, Fats that kill, Udo Erasmus 1997 P.12 “Before we begin, a short list is in order . . . fats, oils, cholesterol and lipids . . . “

11. Stephen Byrnes Book Review The physiology of fats and cholesterol is fully covered in Chapter 2. Almost half of this chapter is devoted to shattering popular myths about saturated fats. Not mincing any words, Enig methodically demonstrates the faulty data and reasoning behind the ideas that saturates either cause or contribute to heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, mental illness, obesity and cerebrovascular disease. For example, after trashing the “data” that supposedly prove that beef and beef fat caused colon cancer, Enig flatly concludes: “And now, more than three (3) decades after the initial fraudulent report, the anti-animal fat hypothesis continues to lead the nutrition agenda. It was a false issue then, and it remains a false issue today.”

12. The McGovern Committee was formed in 1977 by the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs and was led by Senator George McGovern which recommended dietary goals for the american people. The committee recommended an increase in carbohydrates (now considered not essential in the human diet), decrease in dietary fat, plus a decrease in sugar, and salt to 3 grams a day. The guidelines for salt in the UK are 6 grams of salt a day. Salt is required for nerve impulse and the balance of water in the body.

13. http://www.omega3forchildren.co.uk/articles/article_details.aspx?id=231: DHA – Brain Food by Dr Sarah Brewer: “Very small amounts of DHA may be made in the body from an essential fatty acid, linolenic acid, but the amount made is probably low and most DHA comes from our diet. DHA is mainly found in animal products such as fish, eggs and meats.”

14. Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill 1997 P.263 – P. 264 – “EPA and DHA have other functions. In our retinas, these highly active fatty acids are involved with the conversion of light energy entering our eyes into the chemical energy of nerve impulses. In our brain, they have neurological functions that involve energy conversion and electron transfer. They attract the oxygen necessary for intense chemical activity of brain cells.”

15. FAQ Fats and Oils by Sally Fallon: “Second, if you are taking coconut oil and other saturated fats, your body actually needs very little omega-3 because saturated fats ensure that the omega-3s are used very effectively and conserved in the tissues.  So you don’t need to be adding extra omega-3s to your diet, in fact this could be harmful–it is dangerous to overdose on omega-3 fatty acids.  If you want to put about 1/2 tsp flax oil in your salad dressing, that is fine, but any more would not be good.  And you definitely don’t need to worry about getting enough omega-6–they are in all foods.” http://www.westonaprice.org/faq/faq-fats-and-oils

16. FAQs Fats and Oils by Sally Fallon: Q. If I wanted to supplement specifically omega-3s, what would you recommend? A.  It’s a difficult subject and there are many opinions.  Chris Masterjohn believes that we don’t need any of the 18-carbon omega-3s, but only the elongated ones (DHA and EPA), which are plentiful in cod liver oil.  The other key factor is saturated fat–the more saturated fat you eat, the less omega-3 of any type you need because with saturated fat, the body conserves them. Plus, people can get too much DHA and EPA if they are taking fish oils. Egg yolks from pastured hens, liver and oily fish are good sources of DHA and EPA.  You can also use a SMALL amount of flax oil in salad dressings in the context of a diet rich in saturated fat. http://www.westonaprice.org/faq/faq-fats-and-oils

17. http://www.udoerasmus.com/FAQ/FAQ1_en.htm#1_3: What are bad fats?: “Most of the health problems usually blamed on fats should be blamed on the destructive processing of fats, normally used to obtain longer shelf life and greater convenience for manufacturers and consumers.” Fats that heal, Fats that Kill, by Udo Erasmus P. 116: “Sugar, saturated fatty acids, oxidized fatty acids, oxidized cholesterol, trans-fatty acids, cyclic products of fatty acids, cross-linked fatty acids, fragments, and double-bond-shifted fatty acids can all have toxic effects.”

18. Fats that heal, Fats that Kill by Udo Erasmus P 116 Chapter 20 Erucic Acid Toxic or Beneficial: P.117 “when researchers repeated the rape seed oil studies with rats, but used sunflower seed oil (which contains no erucic acid) the rats ended up having the same problems. It turns out that rats do not metabolise fats and oils well.”

19. The Great Con-ola by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig: These studies all point in the same direction–that canola oil is definitely not healthy for the cardiovascular system. Like rapeseed oil, its predecessor, canola oil is associated with fibrotic lesions of the heart. It also causes vitamin E deficiency, undesirable changes in the blood platelets and shortened life-span in stroke-prone rats when it was the only oil in the animals’ diet. Furthermore, it seems to retard growth, which is why the FDA does not allow the use of canola oil in infant formula. http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/the-great-con-ola

20. Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, P 117 Lorenzo’s Oil “in fact erucic acid may have some beneficial effects. In recent years a preparation of 20% erucic acid and 80% oleic acids, called Lorenzo’s Oil after the boy whose condition inspired its development, has been used to treat a rare, fatal degenerative genetic condition known as adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) in which the build up of very long chain fatty acids (C22 to C28) destroys the white matter (myelin) in the brain.”

21. Fats that heal, Fats that Kill, by Udo Erasmus P.112 Toxic oils: “Since trans-fatty acids have detrimental effects on our cardiovascular system, immune system, reproductive system, energy metabolism, fat and essential fatty acid metabolism, liver function, and cell membranes, we should consider margarines, shortenings, shortening oils, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to be harmful to human health! “ http://www.udoersmus.com/articles/udo/hbaco.htm : How bad are cooking oils? Cooking oils are highly processed, using manufacturing methonds that are destructive to oil molecules . . . after oils are pressed or solvent extracted from seeds and nuts, they are degummed, refined, bleached, and deoderized … valuable ingredients . . . antioxidants, phytosterols, chlorophyll . . . lecithin . . . are removed too.”

22. http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/saturated-fat-and-cancer.html “Fred Kummerow pointed out that the real harm was caused by trans fat in products like margarine. He also warned against soft drinks, which contained large amounts of sugar. And, Fred Kummerow pleaded for a return to traditional foods rich in saturated fats.”

23. STOP Trans Fats: http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/saturated-fat-and-cancer.html The McGovern Committee report: “The idea that saturated fat causes cancer began to form in the 1950s, when Ancel Keys stated that saturated fat raised cholesterol levels and caused heart disease.”

24. US Department of Agriculture: History of Dietary Guidelines for Americans: “The Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs led by Senator George McGovern recommended Dietary Goals for the American people.” http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/report/html/G5_History.htm

25. STOP Trans fats: http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/saturated-fat-and-cancer.html “Mary Enig, who was familiar with the research of Fred Kummerow, noted that the McGovern Committee report claiming a strong link between saturated fat and cancer contradicted many real life situations . . . “

26. Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol by Mary Enig.

27. STOP Trans fats: http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/saturated-fat-and-cancer.html “In other words, he no longer found any link between saturated fat and cancer, but he now found a strong link between trans fats and cancer.”

28. STOP Trans fats: http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/saturated-fat-and-cancer.html “In other words, he no longer found any link between saturated fat and cancer, but he now found a strong link between trans fats and cancer.”