Fats, Oils and Health

The Basics on Calorie-Dense Hydrocarbons

Dietary fats are vastly more important than calories and energy. The body makes thousands of specialty molecules using fats, so we need to acquire (or produce) the needed balance of fats, but we cannot manufacture all we need.

For instance, brain matter is about 60-percent fat, one-quarter of which is omega-3 polyunsaturated fat (PUFA). Well, polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-6 and omega-3) are only manufactured in the chlorophyll cells of plants — and acquired only from food. So, consuming foods with nature’s balance of fats is important to health.

Fats and Oils — All Mixtures

We commonly refer to animal fat as “saturated.” That’s not quite right. For example, the fat on a beef-steak is only about half-saturated and the rest is mono and poly-unsaturated. Why is that important?

It matters because all three types are critical to good health and, say, butter is not as “saturated” as you might think (see below). Again, balanced and proportional to the needs of the body is key. Given that most American adults are now impacted by a long-term health challenge, our era is a radical swerve — a skewed imbalance in many areas of health. Our chronic disease frequency is the cost of this imbalance.

And it turns out, a major component of that “swerve” is the Standard American Diet (SAD): highly refined, high-calorie, high-hormone and insulin, added emulsifies, all rapidly absorbed.  Discussed at length on this page is the excess and imbalance of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). Conversely, the long-chain omega-3 fats crucial to brain cognition, vision, and cell membrane function have been intentionally removed from our SAD food supply. Indeed, shelf-stable omega-6 is a colossal part of the SAD problem (discussed further below).

Extra-virgin olive oil as we might use in a salad dressing is a healthy oil and is highly monounsaturated (good). But olive oil will also contain around 14-percent saturated fat. Wild-foraging game meat, such as moose, deer, ducks, or a Cape buffalo have been shown to contain much higher levels of polyunsaturated fat than industrially-produced beef, pork, or chicken.

The omega-3 fat found in cold-water marine fish, like salmon, cod, or halibut, is anti-inflammatory, relatively health, and very scarce in diets that favor highly-processed foods. And yet, about 20-percent of the fat dripping from a freshly cooked wild Alaska Sockeye salmon is saturated fat — the chemical equal to the saturated fat in a pork-chop.

This deficiency, further discussed below, impacts health in some surprising ways. As noted previously, our brain is about 60-percent fat, one-quarter of which is omega-3 PUFA. The deficiency caused by a highly processed diet — that specifically lacks the omega-3 PUFA, has a direct impact on cognitive development. That’s something our schools and indeed our entire nation should be deeply concerned about

“Essential” — nutrient only acquired in food, which includes both PUFA families. The body does not manufacture them.

“Unsaturated” —  their carbon chains are not saturated with hydrogen. Each place where a hydrogen atom is missing there is a double chemical bond—and a kink in the carbon chain.

“Poly” — multiple double bonds creating multiple kinks in the carbon chains that comprise the fat molecule. PUFAs are liquid at room temperature because multiple kinks prevent PUFA molecules from snuggling too tightly.

• Omega-6 fats have their last double bond on the sixth carbon from the end of the chain.
• Omega-3 fats have their last double bond three carbons from the end.

 Omega-9/Monounsaturated fats have only one double bond—one point of un-saturation located on the ninth-carbon from the end of each chain. They are “omega-9.” Olive oil and avocado oil are predominantly monounsaturated, omega-9 forms.

Math Convention for Omega-6, Omega-3 Ratios

Always place the omega-6 value before the omega-3 (O6:O3) and the math will work correctly. The ratio can also be viewed as a decimal or fraction: O6/O3.

Less Fat, More Health

Global health authorities recommend choosing polyunsaturated oils over saturated-mostly animal fat. Then they say, remember to avoid products high in omega-6 PUFAs, or to favor omega-3 PUFAs. Well, friend, that’s pretty impossible if you are regular at the deli-case, hot-case, or cookie tin.

Shown in the multi-colored table (above), darn few plant-based cooking oils have: a) healthy omega-6:omega-3 ratios, or b) high levels of (healthy) monounsaturated fats. They are olive, avocado, and canola. Canola oil (rape seed) is an odd duck. Absolutely a highly processed, industrial seed oil—but with a healthy O6:O3 ratio. Less fat is more health.

You want your body to fight disease, not promote disease, right? That’s why it’s important to return to the theme dealing with Earth’s most caloric food. More calories will not make you or America healthier, The advice to choose plant-based polyunsaturated cooking oil ignores several glaring facts about the U.S. today: nearly 60% of the SAD calories already come from highly processed foods, which include highly processed, free-radical-making high-omega-6 seed-oils.

Translation: lots of people with terrible diets, uncontrolled blood-sugar and excessive fat in the blood (triglycerides) that wind up jamming-up insulin receptors (insulin resistance).

Will selecting, say, olive oil help with your health? It’s better, yes, but here’s the caveat, once more. High calorie-living is “ground zero” for our unsustainable metabolic disease problem. THE SHEER VOLUME, CALORIC BURDEN, AND FREE-RADICAL PRODUCTION of ADDED OIL IS MAKING DISEASE.

Grocery stores with dozens of different oil products? An equal number of sweetened beverages with the no-fiber fruit juice on a different aisle? These business enterprises are not health-focused. To my point emphasized in cheeky all-caps above, the U.S. needs to lower daily fat intake and daily fat purchase-frequency. The important health-focused question dealing with fats and oils is, “How can I and my loved ones avoid a few tablespoons of oil today and tomorrow.”

Here is how!:

• Use less by switching to water-based cooking — steaming food instead of frying in oil — vastly healthier (see why under Insulin and Metabolic Disease) 
• Replace the cookie tin with a bowl of fruits and vegetables  — where they can be seen and eaten readily
• Reconnect your time and attention to meal prep and Real Food–rather than a dependence on ultra-processed heat-and-eat junk
• Find sauce recipes without added oil or sugar — not the expensive, gooey, fatty crap sold for “dressing”
• Take the snazzy deep-fry kitchen appliance to the landfill.

The dopamine neurotransmitter and our energy balance hormones have Americans in an addicted to highly caloric food on every corner: the deli muffin that leaves a grease stain on the napkin, or the 300-calorie barista beverage, the ready-to-eat on the go treats. All are like an old reliable dog or kitty cat. There to stroke and comfort and give meaning to our lives, while destroying our long-term health.

Extra fat added to food is savory and has a tremendous ability to motivate eating behavior, but modern America is already swimming in the extra calories. Our primal hormonal drive, combined with reward-seeking linked to chronic stress and insulin resistance motivates high-calorie emotional eating. It surrounds you every day, but is not physiological hunger! Enter the worlds’ most calorie edible — refined oil or fat.

Just about devoid of vitamins and minerals and possibly PRO-free-radical, we must be careful. The monounsaturated forms of refined oils have been shown to be healthier, but generally speaking, improving personal and U.S. health means consuming lower levels of fat.

Fat Recommendations and the Mediterranean Diet

“Western” science first described the Mediterranean eating pattern in the years after the Second World War while studying the hearty folks living “close to the land” in this region. By modern comparisons, these people lived with considerable post-war poverty — like herding subsistence livestock, growing big gardens, and transportation by foot or bicycle. Quite different from Americans today!

As summarized on the left, the Mediterranean Diet offers great flavor, diversity, and is viewed as protective, with plenty of veggies, nuts, greens, seeds, whole-grains, olive oil, eggs, diary, and healthy meats (poultry and fish), but restricts red and processed meats.

The “Mediterranean” approach is high in fiber and high in disease-fighting antioxidants. And its fat is not all from added oil. Far from it. Natural fats come with nuts and seeds, dairy, eggs, and selective meat intake — a healthy combination of saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated forms. Plus, the Mediterranean approach is fantastic for gut health, and all the disease-prevention that goes along with it. The well-cultured microbiome is what UCLA gut expert, Emeran Mayer, M.D. considers “the gold standard” for human health.

Near the top of the page Animal Products and Health, are two “healthy plate” graphics featuring: the Mediterranean “Healthy Eating Plate” from Harvard; and a high-performance “Vegan Plate” from Brenda Davis, RDN. The current U.S. recommendation is to keep fat under 30-percent of calories (dump the deep-fryer). For comparison, the Mediterranean approach will range as high as 40-percent of calories from healthy fat. Its restrictions — high-omega-6 oils, sugar, highly-refined carbohydrates and red meat — are crucial. A careful vegan/lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet might have fats ranging from 20 to 30-percent of calories.

Will a careful “Mediterranean” diet-style allow weight loss? When we dump the refined carbs, added sugar, and the excessive fat found in precessed foods AND increase dietary fiber, antioxidants and healthy protein — that’s a winner. As noted above, lowering our sources of modern stress are also crucial to weight-loss.

Will “Mediterranean” reverse diabetes or vascular disease? That depends of the individual and it is certainly an improvement. But “reversal” or complete remission are not likely solely through this diet. In essence, the vegan diet-style with no added fat — and strong clinical support — has been shown to be a disease reversal program. This is the wheelhouse of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

You can also read about these strategies through ground-breaking clinician-authors: Dean Ornish, M.D., Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., Neal Barnard, M.D., and Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Several successful disease reversal diet plans are outlined below.

The Omega-6 Imbalance and Inflammation

Polyunsaturated fatty acids are used to construct many cellular messenger molecules. Eicosanoids, for instance — biologically messenger molecules that signal a change, such as vasoconstriction, blood pressure up or down, inflammation and blood-clotting—or the reverse—vasodilation, anti-aggregation, or anti-clotting.

The thromboxanes are eicosanoid messengers that trigger inflammation, aggregation and clotting, so the blood can stop blood flow after an injury. The reaction might be quick and strong or slower and more nudge — depending how the molecule is assembled.[I] Other complementary eicosanoids can counteract the pro-inflammatory, pro-clot message, in turn.

The structure of the polyunsaturated fatty acids used to assembly these messenger molecules—omega-6 or omega-3—directly influences the strength of these signaling molecules.

By controlling our intake of PUFAs we exert indirect control over our body’s signaling for inflammation or clotting:

• Higher levels of dietary omega-3 fats mean our cellular messenger molecules signal lower/slower more nudgy levels of clotting, aggregation and inflammation.
• Higher levels of dietary omega-6 fats mean our cellular messenger molecules signal higher/faster more explosive levels of clotting, aggregation, inflammation.[ii]

Common pain-meds—like aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, naproxen, and the COX-2 inhibitors, Bextra and Vioxx—mechanistically block a single enzyme that reduces eicosanoid production. That is how these medication reduce inflammation and with it pain. In other words, the dietary PUFA imbalance that elevates inflammation and pain has a direct role in our high use of pain-relief and anti-inflammatory drugs. To what extent we do not know.

This raises a profoundly important question about processed foods and pain. Shall we reduce pain and needless inflammation with a healthy diet, or through billions spent yearly on anti-inflammatory drugs? Omega-6 PUFAs are by no means the only pro-inflammatory agent in processed foods. Let’s see, there’s the sugar, refined starch, the lack of polyphenols (antioxidants) and insufficient fiber.

• The O6:O3 imbalance for a typical American family who routinely consumes the SAD is perhaps three to ten times that of our ancestors just a few generations ago.
• The myriad of chip products, crackers, savory dips, white bread, sweet-fat sauces, processed meats, snack food, beverages—tens-of-thousands of products. Omega-3 PUFAs we must have for optimal brain function, vision, calm cellular signals, health, and balance continue to be removed from the vast majority of highly processed foods.

[i] The Queen of Fats—pg. 35

[ii] The Queen of Fats—pgs. 96-102

Today, U.S. consumers spend billions suppressing inflammation. Is FDA or USDA trying to change the connections between disease and high-omega-6 in the diet? No. In fact, the US Farm Bill appropriation does the exact opposite by subsidizing grain, confined animal feeding, and high omega-6 seed-oil production.

The Danish scientists, Dyerberg and Bangs, showed how a diet very high in omega-3 PUFAs greatly reduced the inflammatory signaling, clot-formation, and aggregation—factors that change the risk for cardiovascular disease dramatically.

Japan provides a different cultural clue. The traditional Japanese diet contains less saturated and omega-6 fats and more omega-3 (and lots of starch), and Japan has much lower rates of heart disease than do Americans.

The physiological basis for negligible heart disease among early Greenland Inuit (in the 1970s) seemed to have little to do with saturated fat. The difference apparently was by calmer, less explosive signaling by their cellular messengers (ecosanoids)

Cellular messengers assembled with the omega-3 PUFAs backbone signal less-inflammation, clotting and aggregation. When deficient in omega-3 fats—and most Americans are—you’ve got trouble. Natures O6:O3 ratio (ranging from 1:1 to 1:4) normalizes the body’s signaling for inflammation and clotting.

Three decades after his research on Greenland Inuit blood chemistry, the Danish scientist, Jorn Dyerberg, Ph.D explained to author, Susan Allport, how we can easily misunderstand “normal” as meaning what occurs in the dominant Western culture, which in the 1970’s “was assumed to be American.”

We must be very careful about the term ‘normal,’ because normal may be very far from optimal. Maybe the ‘normal’ bleeding time is closer to the Eskimo’s, and it is we who have abnormal, shortened bleeding times.

After all, what are we dying of? We’re not dying of bleeding, are we? We’re dying of clotting, which is a much more severe problem.[i]

Is there, perhaps, a paradox at work—an Omega-3 Paradox? When saturated fat and omega-3 fats are high (and fiber low)—such as among Alaska’s early salmon-dependent Tlingit/Haida, or marine mammal-hunting Inuit/Eskimo peoples—is the inflammatory nature of very high saturated fat consumption being suppressed or overwhelmed by the preponderance of eicosanoids constructed with less-inflammatory omega-3 PUFAs?

[i] The Queen of Fats—pg.67

Read This Before Going “Keto” or “Adkins”

If you are a person who hopes to lose weight — or perhaps your doctor says you need to “get your A1c number down” — you can absolutely lower insulin and blood-sugar by eating more fat and protein through a diet higher in meat, nuts, and seeds. Of course, we all know the importance of avoiding sugary, refined, or high-glycemic (starchy) foods.

A “ketogenic diet” means a diet that promotes fat burning. The body cannot enter a state of “ketosis” (fat burning) if the insulin hormone is elevated, so big sources of starch are NOT on a “keto” menu: potatoes, rice, bread, refined wheat; a keto diet might even limit beans and lentils (legumes) — very healthy foods.

The ketogenic approach to weight loss was popularized by Robert Adkins, M.D. in the 1960s and 1970s. Adkins was a medical doctor who made a lot of money, got very famous, ignored his health, and died of heart disease at age 72. It’s still widely used, widely supported, and indeed bares some similarity to the American Diabetes Association “Diabetes Diet.”

Please remember the low calorie disease-fighters: the high-fiber, high-nutrient vegetables, all green veggies, alliums (onion family), mushrooms, and brightly colored vegetables. These are watery, carbohydrate-based foods that SHOULD NOT be removed from the diet!

On a keto weight control program fruit may be kept low because of its natural sugar. Yet, high-nutrient, high-fiber, gut-healthy, low calorie vegetables will always help to maintain the stable blood-sugar and low insulin that weight loss requires. The above-noted, watery veggies are not “high-carb” foods, The listed groups help to lower insulin, improve blood sugar and A1c, and lessen insulin resistance.

No question, “Keto” can induce weight loss. People who struggle to lose weight, including David A Kessler, M.D., former FDA director and author of Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine (2025), explain — they fail repeatedly. Why? Addiction and —

weight loss strategies where there is not a permanent lifestyle modification have very poor track records.

Here is the major concern I have about going keto. Getting a major share of calories from fats, oils or animal-products is sub-optimal for antioxidant protection and disease-fighting. With or without the calories from fats, or starchy plant foods, variety is super-important to diversifying the microbiome, empowering the gut-lining, ending bowel stagnation, and controlling the oxidative stress (excessive free radicals) that is a foundational factor in all disease.

The Mediterranean Diet and its derivatives contain plenty of healthy fat (30 – 40 percent of calories). It is a proven longevity diet, as are careful vegetarian/vegan options (not vegan junk-food).

“Mediterranean” can be a fantastic template for weight loss and can be adapted on a permanent basis. Elevate the filling colorful veggies, and fiber — but restrict the starchy, limit the dairy fat, and dial-back on the olive oil. At the top of the page Animal Products and Health, are excellent graphics of two high-performing diet-styles, including Harvard Public Health’s “Healthy Plate” (Mediterranean) approach to nutrition.

By the time Mark reached his early sixties, the standard American system of cardiology had installed two stents to “treat” Mark’s heart disease. Six years after its onset, this height-weight proportional man of considerable energy, an active hunter and fisher and a volunteer in the local Big Brothers Big Sisters program, was still suffering from “unstable angina.”

In 2010, Mark and Mardell realized the “stents were not working.” They had read about lifestyle medicine and soon traveled to Santa Rosa, CA, to True North. There they met Michael Klaper, M.D., a specialist in treating disease with a whole food plant-based diet. At the time, Mark was taking a statin (Simvastatin) and a blood thinner (Plavix). Soon, the most ancient of treatments—whole plant food—would be his medicine.

He described the initial experience as one of “boot camp.” “No oil, no sugar, no animal products. I asked, can I have a pizza. Silently shaking his head with a smile, “They laughed and said, ‘You’re not getting pizza here!’”

True North introduced Mark and Mardell to Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., the food-as-medicine pioneer and author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (2004). Over the coming years, Esselstyn supported Mark’s treatment with occasional consultations by phone. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so Mark and Mardell made the switch to a vegan diet and lifestyle together.

For the next thirteen years, they consumed no refined oil, sugar, or animal-products. All the fat in their diet was entirely natural, coming from whole plants. This dietary “treatment” is best viewed within the context of life or death, with no quarter for backsliding. Indeed, several of Esselstyn’s early patients who wouldn’t stick with the plan were kicked out of the trial, and they died a few years later. The phone conversations with Esselstyn gave Mark a distinct impression about this lifestyle medicine pioneer, “He’s a hard ass about staying with the treatment.”

True North and Dr. Klaper remained Mark’s primary, lifestyle treatment provider. “That’s the place! I can’t say enough about True North and the whole foods plant-based system.”

In 2024, fifteen years after beginning food-as-medicine, his new Cardiologist reported: “I am 99-percent convinced that your arteries are clear of blockages.” Mark say he resisted the invasive angiogram procedure that would definitively show the “all clear.” He’s back enjoying life, an active 76-year-old who loves XC skiing, keeping up on the firewood supply, and many other chores.

Mark and Mardell believe the triggers for his heart problems were related to a diet high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Complications may also relate to sleep apnea and the unstable sleep-work environment—25 years aboard the Alaska Marine Highway. Mark now sleeps with a C.P.A.P.-unit to provide stable oxygen flow. Daily breath-work and meditation with a vocal “omm,” a humming sound—both ancient methods—help Mark lower stress.

Mark and Mardell have again begun consuming wild salmon occasionally, but no longer other meat, nor the wild game Mark loved to hunt. They might enjoy a sweet treat at a potluck or birthday, but not very low sugar overall.

Standing as a testament to “modern” cardiology, the arteries that feed oxygenated blood to Mark’s heart still contain the useless metallic stents installed years ago. Their story of heart disease reversal is a love story and a classic Hero’s Tale involving deeply personal change in lifestyle, nutrition, and stress-reduction.

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