The Fat Foundation
I had the pleasure this past weekend of attending my first live IIN conference. Such an amazing experience 🙂
One of the first speakers was author Nina Planck who is an advocate for traditional foods. She spoke quite a bit about the importance of eating good fats since they are the foundation for many processes in your body.
The fats that you consume impact:
- your cell walls,
- mental health,
- digestion,
- energy levels,
- hormone levels
- and inflammatory or anti-inflammatory reactions in your body.
Most importantly in connection with endometriosis, the quality of the fats that you consume impact prostaglandins in your body. These lipid based hormones have a big impact on pain reactions in your body with endometriosis.
What are the Good Fats?
Nina went into the differences between the fats that we consume. In short: traditional fats are good and industrial fats are bad.
Traditional “good” fats are found in animal sources, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, nuts, seeds and cocoa butter.These are beneficial because they:
- balance cholesterol (which plays into hormonal health),
- raise bone mineral density,
- support the immune system with vitamins E, A & D.
Nina points out the significance of consuming animal products from those that were grass fed and/or pastured. These animals pass on more anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, immune boosting beta cerotene and vitamins E & K2.
Additionally, clean animal sources are not given antibiotics or hormones, which means that these additions are not passed along to you.
What Fats to Avoid?
Industrial “bad” fats include hydrogenated fats and oils from refined corn, soy beans, safflower and sunflower oils. These fats are harmful to your body since they:
- are highly processed,
- can mutate cells in your body,
- cause inflammatory reactions.
Trans fats are the worst. Watch out for anything on the food label that says “partially hydrogenated”. These highly processed oils are bad news, especially if you have endometriosis.
Pain trigger for sure.
Many oils turn rancid when they are heated up and induce oxidative stress in your cells, causing an inflammatory reaction in your body.
Because of this it is best to cook with oils with a higher smoke point such as coconut oil, ghee, or avocado oil.
While olive oil is considered a “good fat”, it is best consumed raw as it has a pretty low smoke point.
On the Positive Side?
Once I consistently added good fats into my diet I noted improvements in my energy levels. I also felt fuller for longer… Satisfied 🙂
When the bad fats slip into my diet I definitely notice it. In general it’s a good idea to avoid fried foods as they contain bad fats and oils that cause inflammatory like reactions in the body.
If I had a choice on the number one food to eliminate to help with endometriosis it would be fried foods.Â
Do you notice a difference with the fats that you consume? Do you make a point to get a good amount of fats in your diet? Avoid the bad?
I’d love to hear from you….
