The Healthy Fats You Need to Age Well

It was a heady time…a time of big hair, Madonna, MTV, new wave, materialism, scrunchies, bike shorts, Dynasty, Family Ties, Duran Duran and EXCESS all the way…welcome to the 80s’!

Wow, notice how a few of these have come back full circle (I see you scrunchies and biker shorts)!

Another thing brought about during these heady all-out times was the fat free craze.  Think Snack Wells, Weight Watchers frozen entrees …people were ditching eggs for cartons of egg whites and swapping out butter for margarine right and left…and companies were making a ton of money selling all kinds of fat free snacks and sweets that made ‘fat’ enemy number one.

Thing is… while all of this craziness was swirling around and people were avoiding fat like the plague - Americas were not getting slimmer or fitter or healthier.  In fact, quite the opposite was true.  The absence of fat meant the body’s satiety mechanisms weren’t kicking in (turns out fat actually releases these hormones) leading to overeating lots of over processed foods full of sugar, chemicals and fillers (they had to do something to make them taste somewhat palatable).

So, how did it all begin?  Somewhere around 1977 the government decided the majority of Americans needed to decrease our consumption of saturated fats.  This is the message they really wanted to convey.  BUT, they somehow decided communicating this message would be too complex for us to grasp so they instead started pushing the message to ‘eat less fat’.

Thank goodness we came to our senses, the tides turned and research proved that fat is essential to a healthy diet.

Our bodies need good, healthy fats to thrive and fat is in fact, a super-important macronutrient.  So many systems in the body benefit from healthy fat.  Here are some of the benefits:

• energy production

• healthy, glowing skin and hair

• managing inflammation

• hormone balance

• makes food taste good

• feeds our brain (which is 60% fat) and aids neurological functions

• satiety

I love healthy fats and have experienced first hand how finding the ideal amount of it in my daily meals has contributed to my hair and skin quality as well as my energy levels.

Here are some of my favorites:

1.Olives -  olives are awesome - filled with tons of antioxidants and healthy monounsaturated fat, including oleic acid which has been shown to decrease inflammation and encourage weight loss.                                                                                                                           

Shopping tip:  choose RAW black olives (my favorite are Sunfood Raw pitted botija olives you can find at your local health food store or on Amazon).  Green olives are actually just unripe olives picked early from the trees and don’t yet contain the full spectrum of healthy oil and mineral content.  Canned or jarred black olives are best to avoid as well as many are cooked an soaked in an iron compound that darkens them.

2.  Coconut oil & coconut butter (butter contains both the oil and the meat/fiber).  Both are rich sources of lauric acid and are extremely nourishing.  

3. Avocados - SO many ways to enjoy and reasons to love avocados.  I honestly think if I had to be on a deserted island and could only have a few foods these would probably easily make the cut!   I put sliced avocados on big green salads, make raw avo pudding with cacao and add them to smoothies and wraps.  

Avocados a full of the good monounsaturated fats as well as a wealth of vitamins, fiber and potassium.

So, while I enjoyed the 80’s flashback in terms of fashion and culture… I’m SO glad that we are off the toxic ‘no-pain, no-gain/feel the burn, ‘fat will make you fat’ train.

Healthy fats are essential to look and feel your best, to age your best and to enjoy your food.  Who doesn’t want that (plus a good scrunchie or two).

xox