Fats

Okay, so let's talk about fats now. And as I mentioned earlier, you know, fats are something that was demonized in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up. Oh, fat makes you fat. A lot of low fat, no fat diets out in the, you know, touted around. And we've since realized that actually fats are really important for us, because, especially from a hormonal point of view, fats are the building block and therefore our hormonal production. So cholesterol is the building block for all of our sex hormones. We convert cholesterol with thyroid and retinol to make pregnenolone, which then makes progesterone and all the other hormones as well. So fats are really important when it comes to overall, you know, hormonal health. They're also important for skin health, for cognitive function. There's a variety, you know, lubrication of joints, all these kind of things. They're really important. But what I see in my practice is a lot of women actually overeating fats and eating a lot of the wrong type of fats, especially with things like, you know, a lot of. Even women that are, look, wanting to eat healthily, they're eating a lot of nuts and seeds and nut butters and nut milks. And this is not bad per se. You know, we don't want to be demonizing these foods. They're all. They have a place as well. But very high amounts of these fats can actually cause problems. Now, first of all, when we're talking about, you know, beans and legumes, earlier we were talking about them being a seed. And so from a digestive point of view, they don't want to be digested. So they contain some anti nutrients that stop us from digesting them properly because they want to go through the digestive system undigested, pooped out, and they want to become a plant. That's the same for, you know, nuts and seeds as well, because they want to become a plant. Right? So first of all, from a digestive point of view, they can be quite hard to digest. And so generally, if we're eating nuts and seeds, we want to make sure that they are soaked beforehand so that, or, you know, sprouted so that they are easier to. On the digestive system. But from a fat point of view, there are different types of fats. There are saturated fats, and they're unsaturated fats. And the unsaturated fats there's two different types, but polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. The polyunsaturated fats, which are the ones from the nuts and the seeds are actually, from a chemical point of view, are actually a really delicate chemical structure. So from a chemical point of view, because they're so delicate, they are very prone to oxidation if they are exposed to light, if they are exposed to heat, for example, and even just to air as well because they're so delicate. So a lot of these foods that are made with nuts and seeds can be actually very prone to rancidity very quickly. So if you think about a seed oil, for example, or nut, let's actually, let's forget that seed oils for now. Let's look at a nut milk, a milk that's made from these nuts because it has quite a, um, a delicate structure. When we are heating it up to make our, you know, nut milk, cappuccino or oat milk, you know, nut milk flat, white, for example, then we are actually creating heat. And that heat itself, it can make it more prone to oxidation. And this can make these foods much more inflammatory, in the system overall. So they, polyunsaturated fats are very highly unstable. And so we want to minimize the consumption of these fats as much as possible. They've been shown to cause inflammation because they oxidize so easily. They are also shown to suppress thyroid function if consumed in large amounts. And they're also been shown to be quite estrogenic as well. Now, I'm not saying that if you're eating like a few nuts and some seeds, sprinkling some seeds here or there, that that's going to be a problem. The problem that I see is when we're relying on these foods for say, our protein intake, you know, a lot of people think that nuts and nut butters are very high in protein. They do contain some, but most of it is fat and these polyunsaturated fats. So if they're consuming a lot of them or having a lot of nut milks or nut butters and nut butter on everything, nut milks on everything, etc. That's when we start to see some issues. Now the other issue with these polyunsaturated fats are the oils that are made from these seeds. So things like sunflower oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, cotton seed oil, all of these oils, corn oil, etc, these again are very unstable. They are very highly processed. More often than not they're already rancid before you even open the bottle because they'll be stored in like transparent bottles sitting on the shelf. And remember they can be oxidized in exposure to heat, light and air. So even just by sitting there they can become rancid. And so these are very highly inflammatory oils and they can suppress thyroid function, really suppress metabolic rate. They've been linked to things like insulin resistance and diabetes, etc. So these are the ones that I would really avoid as much as possible. Now nuts and seeds here or they're fine. It's when the things that we want to really avoid are these pro inflammatory thyroid suppressant, oils specifically. These are found in so many products. Like pretty much every package product that I see contains these oils in some form. Even, you know, healthy products like hummus or you might see some lentil crisps and then they've got sunflower oil, even if it's organic or organic rapeseed oil. So it's really important to read the labels and just prioritize. Again it's impossible to avoid them altogether, especially if you go out to eat. Most often than not you're going to be exposed to these oils. If you're buying foods like takeaway foods and things like that, even if the healthy versions, you're going to be exposed to these oils. Again, we don't want to stress ourselves out too much, but what we consume on a day to day basis, we want to make sure that we are avoiding them as much as possible. So if we're buying products, just make sure you're reading the labels that we don't have these oils in them. If you're cooking with fats, then prioritize more saturated types of fats which actually are more heat stable. So saturated fats as opposed to polyunsaturated have a much more stable chemical structure. So they withstand heat in a much better way. So when you're cooking with foods they are much more stable and so they don't oxidize, they don't become pro inflammatory, they have a higher smoke point. So these are things like coconut oil for example, or butter, or cacao butter or tallow, you know, animal fats for example, even palm oil, although palm oil has a bit of a obviously ethical question behind it as well. But from a chemical structure it's more saturated. So these are the ones that you'd want to prioritize when you're cooking with, avoiding all of these polyunsaturated fats. Now there's another type of unsaturated fat. This is a monounsaturated fat. And this is the types that you found in things like olives and olive oils, avocado oil to an extent, those are fine too. But we don't want to be cooking with them at high heats. You would use them more for like dressings for example, versus cooking, frying, etc. So hopefully that makes sense. Now when it comes to fat, as I said, most women that I see tend to overeat fats. And this is where again you might see some issues with the inability to maintain your ideal body composition, for example, especially if you're starting to include carbohydrates back in. A lot of clients of mine, they're like, oh, but every time I eat carbs I gain weight. First of all, yes, if you haven't eaten carbohydrates for a long time, you might gain a little bit of water weight because of the glycogen storage stores that are being restored in your muscles and in your liver. But if you're combining carbohydrates with a very high amount of fat in the diet, then that's going to cause weight gain because fat and carbs kind of compete a little bit for energy production. And so if we have too much fat in the diet, that can actually impede our ability to utilize glucose from carbohydrates. So you don't want to go down an 80s style fat free diet, but you want to be a little bit more mindful of how much fat you're using and consuming in your meal. So when you're putting a meal together, if you are consuming a higher fat type of protein, like say for example eggs or beef or lamb for example, or something like that, or mutton, then you wouldn't add lots of extra fat in the cooking process. Whereas if you are, for example cooking something that's a bit lighter in fats, like seafood or white fish, for example, then you, or maybe a lower fat type of dairy product, then you can add more fats in your cooking process. So say for example, if you're cooking with, making some white fish, you can add some butter or some coconut oil in the cooking process. So you want to kind of balance that out. You don't want to, you don't want to obviously go no fats because we need it for optimal hormonal health. But we also want to be careful not adding too much fat in our diets and again specifically trying to avoid having loads of things like nuts, butters, nut milks, etc, nuts, and seeds in moderation in our foods, but not relying on them as our main sources of protein, which they're not, they're more fat than protein. So hopefully that makes sense. Let's see if there's anything else that I missed. Coconut oil, butter ghee, beef tallow, cacao butter, olive oil for dressing, minimizing, reducing things like avocado and avocado oil, nuts and seeds, nut butters, nut milks and avoiding if possible where possible because it is impossible to avoid when you're going out to eat. Hey, it's okay. But if you're eating out every day, that could be a little bit of an issue. Or if you're buying products every day like a hummus or something that has sunflower oil, you might want to switch to one that doesn't or make your own very easy to make. So just be, start to read the labels and see what's in these products. Again I'll put everything in my, you know, in the resources so you can see what you know, the best sources are. These are the ones that you want to prioritize. Have the majority, in the majority of your meals and, you know, avoid where possible, especially in your everyday life the other sources that might be more thyroid suppressant, inflammatory, and estrogenic. So let's move on now to some specific foods which I personally consider hormonal superfoods that I would like for you to include in your diet on a weekly basis if possible.