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For the last 25 years, several recommendations from the government, the American Heart Association, medical prescriptions, and food advertisements have advised people to avoid fats in general, especially saturated fats from animal products and tropical fats such as coconut. Instead, they promoted low-fat and non-fat foods as “healthy” alternatives.
As a result, many have followed strict low-fat diets.
Are you fat deficient?
It may be hard to believe, but many people who follow anti-fat recommendations are in fact fat deficient. It is helpful to remember that your body’s visible fat stores do not necessarily result from fat consumption.
According to Dr. Mary Enig, a world-renown biochemist and nutritionist, the symptoms of fat deficiency include:
· Gradual weight gain
· Lethargy and low enthusiasm
· Still feeling hungry after eating
· Craving fried foods, sweets, and sugary snacks
· Experience a mid-afternoon energy crash and feeling the need for caffeine or sweets to get through the day
· Feeling too fatigued to exercise
· Suffering from chronic illnesses like depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, hypothyroidism, digestive problems, or hormonal imbalances
A low fat-diet diet can actually trigger food cravings that lead to overeating. Instead of making you healthy, avoiding healthy fats can undermine your health because you need fats for countless bodily functions.
Consistently using coconut oil along with other healthy fats provides crucial nourishment to your body’s cells. This supports the functioning of your nervous system, brain, hormones, immune system, and metabolism. Consuming healthy fat is also key to satiation.
How healthy fats can address health problems
Reintroducing health fats can help improve the following ailments:
· Chronic fatigue and low energy: The medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil combat pathogens in the digestive tract that contribute to fatigue. These acids also give quick energy and prevent low blood sugar.
· Anxiety: The combination of fatty acids and nutrients in coconut oil and cod liver oil prevents low blood sugar and supports the body in producing the adrenal hormones it needs to cope with stress.
· Depression: Cod liver oil contains nutrients that have a proven record of helping to relieve depression.
· Thyroid imbalance: Coconut oil used together with cod liver oil is highly beneficial for the proper functioning of the thyroid. This is because cod liver oil provides vitamin A that is needed in high amounts by the thyroid gland.
· Insulin resistance: Trans fats interfere with insulin receptors in the cells. Replacing them with healthy fats will be the first step in preventing and reversing insulin resistance characteristic of type II diabetes.
· Food cravings: Coconut oil is highly satiating, meaning that you will feel full for longer. Cod liver oil provides vitamins A and D that are used to assimilate other essential vitamins and minerals.
· Bacterial infections: Coconut oil contains potent antimicrobial properties in its medium-chain fatty acids.
· Fungal issues (e.g. candida): Coconut oil also has strong antifungal properties when taken internally for the gut and applied topically on the skin. Eliminating refined carbohydrates can help combat candida.
· Viral infections: Coconut oil’s medium-chain fatty acids help destroy the pathogenic lipid-coated viruses in the digestive tract.
· Skin problems (e.g. eczema and dry skin): Vitamins A and D in cod liver oil help nourish the skin, while the combination of coconut oil and cod liver oil helps maintain the right fatty acids in the cell membranes, contributing to healthy skin.
· Liver support: The combination of saturated fats in coconut oil and vitamin A in cod liver oil and bone broths provide your liver with amino acids, which the liver uses to detoxify your system and function optimally.
Consuming more healthy fats and eliminating trans fats and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils will set you on the path to optimal health.
Author: Jesamine Dyus
Images source: Freepik
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