Dr. Surbjit Herr, B.Sc., D.C.

Last year, the Canadian Heart Association announced in the press that they have concluded that saturated fats such as butter and coconut oil are unhealthy and should be avoided to limit heart disease.

So, before we discuss this, Top Nepean chiropractor recaps the different types of fat.

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Different Types of Fat in Nepean

• Saturated Fat - this is the fat found in butter, ghee, and coconut. This is also the fat that has been the most villainized. But, what's important to understand is that saturated fats are important for immune function, nerve conduction, hormone activity, brain function, and enzyme activity just to name a few.
• Mono-unsaturated fats - this comes from plants and vegetables, such as olive oil, avocados and some meats.
• Poly-unsaturated fats - this is an essential fat. A fat we need, like Omega 3-6-9. That's one of my complimentary recommendations for patients - to supplement with omega 3 fish oils.
• Trans fats - these are made by heating vegetable oils and are common in packaged food because they don't go bad as quickly, so they have a long shelf life. Trans fats also create inflammation, affect insulin resistance and increase heart disease - so they are not so good for you.

What to make of all this. Over the last 50 years or so, we have been lead to believe that fat makes you fat and causes heart disease but, that's not the case for all fats especially saturated fats.

Investigators looked at the relationship between saturated fat intake and coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Their controversial conclusion: "There is insufficient evidence from prospective epidemiologic studies to conclude that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD, stroke, or CVD.

But as stated earlier, FAT is an important nutrient that needs to enable us to be healthy.

Start by consuming fat sources that are naturally made, such as eggs, grass-fed animals, butter, ghee, coconut oil, and olive oil. Avoid the fats that are man-made and highly processed such as vegetables, canola, and sunflower oils.

So, adding coconut and butter to your diet is healthy for you. You require fats to function.

I will touch on this topic in detail in the coming months but, thought this was a good place to start.