Fat - Good or Bad

Oh how i wish this was a simple question.

Fats are vital for health. For most of time, humans have been powered by fats. .. but more recently we have become carbohydrate powered .. and mainly this is not a good thing. Our bodies constantly have more than they need and store what is not needed for the famine season that (for most of us) never comes. The fats we do have in our diets are processed, refined, concentrated. .... and these are definitely for the most part bad for us.

Seed Oils (refined and processed using all sorts of nasty chemicals - although according to most research these don't make it into the final oil) are currently the topic of much debate and are considered likely to be one cause of chronic inflammation - certainly there is correlation, if not proven cause between seed oil consumption and inflammatory illness.

On the other hand the vilified "animal fats" may well not all be as bad as previously thought. For one thing no consideration was given in those original studies for what type of animal fat was being consumed - and in most pork fat was classed under "red meat" fat. We now know that pork fat is very poorly processed by our bodies and probably does lead to a lot of issues (epsecially as a lot of the pork eaten in the west comes under "processed meat"), whereas lamb/mutton fat is easily broken down and utilized well in the body by most people.

Currently I sit on the "avoid seed oils, eat good animal fats in moderation and alive oil in abundance" side of things - this may change. As I said things are not simple.