Michelle Woodworth

Fat is good for you!

Your brain is 60% fat.

Eating the right kind of fat is critical for optimal health.

Of course, the key words there are “right kind of fat”.  All too often, most of the fat in our diets comes from hard, saturated fats such as dairy products and meats.  But being fat-phobic and avoiding fats is really no better than eating the wrong kinds of fat.  Either way, you are depriving your body of necessary nutrients and increasing your chances for poor health.

What is the right kind of fat?  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about omega fatty acids.  The two families are the omega-6 fats and the omega-3 fats.

Omega-6 fatty acids perform some important jobs in the body.  They have a hand in lowering blood pressure, decreasing inflammation, maintaining water balance, and helping insulin work.  Omega-6 fats come exclusively from seeds and their oils.  Some of the best are hemp, safflower, sunflower, sesame, soybean, and wheat germ oil.

Our modern diet is generally more deficient in omega-3 fats than in omega-6.  This is in part due to omega-3’s being more unsaturated and more given to damage from cooking and processing,  and thus being excluded from convenience foods.  Omega-3 fats are essential for proper brain function (vision, learning ability, coordination) as well as controlling blood cholesterol and fat levels.  Flax, hemp, pumpkin, and walnut are great sources for omega-3 fats.  You can also get these essential oils in your diet by eating salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, anchovies, and tuna (to name a few fish).

Patrick Holford in his book The New Optimum Nutrition Bible offers up a simple way to get some of these essential fats into your daily diet: the seed jar.

1. Fill a glass jar with an airtight lid half with flaxseeds (rich in omega-3) and half with a combination of sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds (rich in omega-6).
2. Keep the jar sealed, and place in the refrigerator to minimize damage from light, heat, and oxygen.
3. Put a handful in a coffee or seed grinder, grind up, and put on cereals or soups.

I find that a tablespoon of this seed mix goes wonderfully in my green smoothie, bowl of cereal, or even on my salad.  It’s easy to incorporate with my normal foods.

Essential fats can reduce the risk of allergies, cancer, depression, eczema, and fatigue to name just a few.  Don’t those sound like good reasons to include them regularly in your diet?

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Michelle Woodworth
Enjoying the healing benefits of nuts and seeds.