Why we need to eat fats

Are we over the total fat phobia of the past few decades yet?  I hope so, food tastes much better with some fat or oil, and we need fats in our diets.  Some of the important roles and functions of fats include:

• source of energy 
• support and insulation for your organs and nerves
• fats form the bulk of the brain and coat nerves to enable messages to be quickly conducted
• form important chemical messengers such as thromboxanes which influence blood clotting and constriction of blood vessels and prostaglandins, which have many actions including regulating vessels constriction, inflammation, platelet clumping, cell growth, temperature and gastric secretions
• helps protect against changes in temperatures and shock
• absorption of nutrients (e.g. lycopene is better absorbed when lycopene-rich foods like tomatoes are eaten with oil/fat)
• fat-soluble nutrients like vitamins A, D and E
• fats help to slow gut emptying so you feel fuller for longer
• helps reduce insulin resistance as it slows how quickly your food becomes glucose in the blood
• increases the palatability of food, or who it tastes and feels int he mouth
• part of cell membranes

and

• we need fats to build steroid hormones, including sex hormones

The steroid hormones are produced by the ovaries, testes and adrenal glands and they all share a common structure based on cholesterol. The simple overview of the hormones is:

• The adrenal glands make glucocorticoids (e.g. cortisol) and mineralocorticoids (e.g aldosterone); they also make DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) which can be converted into oestrogen or testosterone.
• The testes make testosterone
• The ovaries produce oestrogen and progesterone

Vitamin D is also based of the sterol structure and is considered to have hormone-like actions.

Combine the importance of fats for making our sex hormones and cortisol (the stress hormone) along with its role in reducing insulin resistance (which is a key driver of most PCOS), then you can see why fats are our hormone allies.

So make sure that you include some fats in every meal for a more enjoyable meal and for your hormonal health.

Dud fats

• Rancid fats (they taste acrid, smell and butters and margarines turn bright yellow)
• Trans-fatty acids in processed foods
• Too much saturated fat from meats (some is fine, lots is not necessary)
• Fats stored in plastic

Fabulous fats 

• Nuts
• Seeds
• Fatty, cold water fish
• Fatty grass fed meat
• Olives
• Avocados
• Eggs
• Oils – olive, coconut, walnut, flax, avocado
• Butter and ghee