PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) and Weight Gain
You may have heard that conditions like diabetes and heart disease are on the rise, but what you may not have heard is that it’s really not about how much sugar one is consuming, but rather how much PUFA one is consuming.
PUFAs make you puffy…and sick.
What is PUFA, you say?
Polyunsaturated fatty acids. Fats that are touted as “essential” or “healthy”. But it couldn’t be farther from the truth.
There are basically two types of fats in our society. Saturated fats, and unsaturated fats.
Saturated fats are solid at room temperature, while unsaturated are not.
Unsaturated comes in the form of mono-unsaturated (think olive oil and avocado oil), and polyunsaturated (think vegetable oil and flaxseed oil). And it’s the latter, the polyunsaturated that oxidize or degrade more quickly than others. So, when we ingest them or rub them on us, we basically are consuming rancid, toxic oils, that raise the toxicity level in our body.
And like a Visa card, PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats) are everywhere you want to be. Restaurants, fast foods, convenience foods, and even some so-called “healthy organic bars, chips, and other products” are chocked full of PUFAs.
Speaking of Restaurants and fast food joints, these places love to cook with vegetable oil, soybean oil, and corn oil because it’s cheap.
Food companies who package foods that need a longer shelf-life love to package stuff with it because it gives it can stay on the shelves of the stores a good long while.
And even organic “so-called-healthy” potato chips and protein powders add it in the form of “so-called healthier” sunflower oil and safflower oil.
But healthy it is not. So keep reading to find out just what all oils are PUFAs.
Firstly, consider the mechanism, or in other words, the “why” it is not healthy:
At high temps or in light, these oils are unstable meaning they oxidize and become toxic very easily. Humans are warm-blooded at 98.6 degrees and we are daily exposed to light, meaning it’s the perfect environment for the oils to degrade negatively (if they haven’t already from processing they go through). Oils degrade with exposure to light as well as with exposure to heat. This degradation or oxidation promotes free radicals, or nasty little villains that cause damage to our cells, break down our skin, lower immunity, and essentially reak havoc on our system. In addition, PUFAs inhibit the thyroid from functioning optimally, they inflame the body and create a “stress response” in the body, preventing weight loss, and increasing weight gain. Just what we were looking for, right?
But wait there’s more! Consider these facts about PUFAs:
You’ve heard about Omega 6 and Omega 3s? These are both PUFAs, and this study tells the truth about how specifically Omega 6 oils are related to a 16% greater risk in cardiovascular events (think heart attacks) than with saturated fats.
Mitochondrial function, which is essentially the energy factory of virtually every cell of our bodies, DECREASES with the intake polyunsaturated fats.
PUFAs have shown to increase the risk for cancer and cancer progression!
They make the eyes more susceptible to retinal injury and they make the brain more sensitive to fatigue.
And metabolites (or an end product after the metabolism of PUFA) of PUFAs drive heart failure and possibly diabetes.
So are their PUFAs in your pantry that are making you Puffy? And possibly more? Consider eliminating the following:
- Mayos and Salad Dressings with soybean oil.
- Crackers, Chips, and Pretzels (and even gluten-free crackers and snacks) with soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil.
- Peanut butter or another nut/seed butter with rapeseed or cottonseed oil.
- Margarine, Crisco, Vegetable oil, Mazola oil, Canola Oil, Corn Oil, and eating out at places that cook with the stuff.
And instead, find foods made with:
- Coconut oil (refined and cheap coconut oils are just fine too)
- Palm Oil
- Butter
- Ghee
- Bacon Grease
- Lard
- Coconut butter
- Beef Tallow
- Olive oil (not to cook with but just to add to certain foods)
- Avocado Oil (for adding to salads and such)
Saturated fats are where it’s at when it comes to preventing and reversing diabetes, heart issues, and many other conditions. Makes sense too, since the first food for humans (breastmilk) is 50% saturated fats. So if PUFAs are making you puffy, start crowding them out today and don’t just feel better….actually be better.
