healthy fats?

Quick question about coconut oil. How coconut-y is it if at all? Does it make everything taste like a Bounty?

silverharp wrote: »

I like coconut oil but a bounty would make me gag so shouldnt put you off the oil

Exactly what I was gonna say. Depending on how much you use and what your cooking u mightnt even taste it. Sometimes use butter with it but only on a very low heat.

brianw1 wrote: »

Ghee is basically butter with the dairy removed.

Wut?

rocky wrote: »

It's Seven Seas, sold by Tesco, not Tesco's own brand.

OK, but has that to do with my consumption?

rocky wrote: »

Weston A. Price against grains? Don't think we are talking about the same organisation. Granted I haven't read all their articles, but I would sum them up as advocating traditional diets including grains.

Here's an article in their 'modern disease' section entitled 'Against the grain'.
http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-diseases/against-the-grain/
Maybe it was a typo.

Perhaps they do advocate traditional diets (it depends on your definition of traditional so I can't argue you with you there) but that doesn't mean they are right about anything.

Excess linoleic acid from vegetable oils can cause a deficiency in DHA. An excess of the omega-3 fatty acid EPA from fish and cod liver oil can cause a deficiency in arachidonic acid. For this reason, cod liver oil should be used in moderation and in combination with a diet rich in egg yolks and organ meats.

I don't know where vegetable oil came out of but DHA is one of the two main components of cod liver oil, a deficiency in it is why you would take cod liver oil so I really don't understand how that was meant to help your argument. Linoleic and arachidonic acid are both omega 6 fatty acids, I don't think it is very likely anyone with the means to afford omega 3 supplementation will be deficient in them. I eat eggs anyway but that sentence doesn't supply any objective or even useful information.

Essential fatty acids are vulnerable to a process called oxidation, which can cause cellular damage

This applies to everything. Most things are vulnerable to oxidation, just because it's a big word doesn't mean it's scary. When steel is oxidised it rusts, when fat in the body is oxidised it means it's used as a fuel, when fats are oxidised they go rancid, when cooking oils are heated too much they oxidise. Oxidation just means it reacts with oxygen, nothing magic or evil. I keep my cod liver oil in a bottle in a fridge, it's not going to oxidise. They fact that the article targets only EFAs in this statement means they know they are lying and they know their target audience don't no much about science.

Replacing traditional animal fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils may increase the risk of heart disease, cancer and total mortality

Again, don't know what vegetable fats have to do with anything. You're shooting down your own argument again, cod liver oil is an animal fat. That's a contentious issue but the HFLC people who agree with that statement say it's the increase omega 6 from the vegetable fats that create these alleged increases. This increase in omega 6 can be offset by omega 3 supplementation (cod liver oil) anyway.

One gram per day of omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil reduces cardiovascular mortality in patients with chronic heart failure or who have recently had a heart attack. However, fish oil may increase cardiovascular and total mortality, especially when used for more than four years in combination with a standard modern diet.

You do realise it says that it's good there? They didn't give a reference for the second statement (surprise surprise) a four year study is nearly certainly an epidemiological study. There is always an increase in mortality as time progresses, especially 'with a modern diet', it's known as ageing. Unreferenced information from a biased website that makes obtuse statements like that shouldn't be trusted, unless of course you're clutching at straws to back up your beliefs.

The requirement for essential fatty acids is likely to be well below 0.1 percent of calories on a diet that is devoid of refined sugar and rancid vegetable oils...

No data to back this up, just a shot in the dark really.

None of these trials provided any evidence that healthy people benefit from taking fish oil or that doses higher than one gram of omega-3 fatty acids per day provide any benefit over smaller doses. The results of the DART 2 trial are particularly concerning because, like the results of the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital Study (see sidebar on page 29), they suggest that high intakes of PUFAs may increase the risk of morbidity and mortality when consumed over the course of many years.

I don't know what 'these trials' are but you can rest assured that are plenty of other trials that do show benefit. Again morbidity and mortality will always increase over time, epidemiological studies are good for inspiring controlled studies but bad things to put any real weight on. Anyway, PUFA covers a massive amount of fats, of which EPA and DHA are only a tiny fraction, it's a bit bold of you to make that statement as an argument against cod liver oil. PUFA includes omega 6, of which the general population gets too much of but which can be offset with cod liver oil, kind of shooting down your own argument again, again.

You mightn't like the idea of taking 15 grams a day and that's all right, it's probably the reason supplement companies make the little 1 gram capsules for people that don't like the taste, but there's no need to start looking for information to say taking more than what you take is bad.

Be comfortable with yourself, don't let what other people do annoy too much and you'll get on great life. I just take it because most studies used 4 grams of EPA/DHA a day, I take 3.5 grams because it's 3 teaspoons. I know it's not perfect but I'm happy with that, I'm not going to go out looking for information to 'prove' that 4 grams is too much. Know what I'm sayin, scan?