Category: Nutrition
8 hour Lamb/Hogget/Mutton shoulder
Ingredients:
- Whole shoulder of lamb/hogget/mutton
- carrots diced
- onions/shallots whole/quartered
- celery diced
- beetroot/parsnip/turnip as optional vegetables
- Dash of white wine
- lamb/vegetable stock
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- garlic
- rosemary
Recipe
Prepare the shoulder of lamb by inserting slices/chunks of garlic into the meat, seasoning with salt and pepper and covering with sprigs of rosemary. Fry gently in a crock pot/slow cooker pan to brown the meat. Remove meat from the pan and brown the vegetables of your choice which will make the gravy. Return the meat to the pan, add a splash of white wine (optional) and some lamb/vegetable stock to cover the vegetables. Place in the oven at a low temperature for 8 hours, basting the meat occasionally, or place in slow cooker until tender. Remove the meat which should simply fall off the bone. Use the vegetables to make the gravy – remove any excess fat and mash the vegetables in to the remaining juices – add additional water from the kettle or any vegetables you are cooking to go with your meal. So easy and absolutely delicious.
The Power of Muscle
Regenerative agriculture emerged from a paradigm of regeneration that applies to a range of other disciplines such as leadership, economics, business, design and, most importantly, how we live and behave as empowered citizens – regenerative living
Vaca Vieja
Regenerative agriculture emerged from a paradigm of regeneration that applies to a range of other disciplines such as leadership, economics, business, design and, most importantly, how we live and behave as empowered citizens – regenerative living
Real Changemakers
Regenerative agriculture emerged from a paradigm of regeneration that applies to a range of other disciplines such as leadership, economics, business, design and, most importantly, how we live and behave as empowered citizens – regenerative living
Carbon Wash
Stop the carbon washing. We need to create viable, interdependent, complex and holistic solutions, instead of simply waging war on carbon.
Nourishing Our Children
With Nutrient Dense Foods This Summer
By Teri Clayton
Summer holidays enable us to spend quality time with our children. Whether going away for a week of sun, sea and sand, or remaining on home turf, it’s a time to treasure the time we have available with one another.
The holiday period also offers us the perfect opportunity to ensure our families eat the best quality nutrition. We can load up their stores of fat soluble vitamins and nutrients, whilst we have a little more say about what they eat.
Many parents dread the sudden extra workload of children being out of school for an extended period. However – with the right mindset and approach – it can be reframed as an opportunity to invest in a healthy and happy future for the family.
Yes it might involve proactive planning and a decent amount of extra work, but the long term rewards will definitely be worth it. This kind of work travels down through generations.
Your family will still benefit from the nourishment you put into them long after you have gone.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to support personal education and offer individuals the opportunity to research a range of approaches to achieving wellbeing. A Primal living or ancestral approach to wellbeing is a path that some people choose for themselves and is in no way intended to replace professional medical, healthcare, dietary or wellbeing advice. Consult your healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet or lifestyle, especially if you take prescribed medications.
Building Upon the Good
Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride MD reinvigorated forgotten cultural knowledge in the world of nutrition after permanently reversing her son’s autistic symptoms through diet.
Now considered a leading light in reviving a truly rooted and wise approach to diet, Dr Campbell-McBride has written several books, dedicated to empowering people to heal naturally through nutrient dense foods, gut health and supporting a healthy gut microbiome.
Her latest book ‘Gut and Physiology Syndrome’ (GAPS), is a refresh and re-titled version of her previous revolutionary book – ‘Gut and Psychology Syndrome’.
GAPS offers a natural treatment approach for auto-immune illnesses, allergies, arthritis, fatigue, gut problems, hormonal issues and neurological disease, (including ADHD and autism).
To have good health we need to eat foods created by Mother Nature, not man. Mother Nature took billions of years to design our bodies, while at the same time designing all the foods suitable for our bodies to use. How arrogant it is for humans to think that they know better than Mother Nature after having tinkered in their laboratories for a few decades!’
Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride MD, MMedSci (Neurology), MMedSci (Nutrition)
Dr Campbell-McBride’s approach focuses on feeding children nutrient dense foods, grown by loving farmers taking good care of their soil and animals, prepared in time honoured ways that maximally enhance their digestibility. Through this approach Dr Campbell-McBride has helped many families turn the tide on severe chronic illness and restored children back to a picture of health.
Dr Campbell-McBride’s work should have been making headlines, given that it offers hope for reversing what Dr Martin Blaser terms the ‘Modern Plagues’ in his brilliant book ‘Missing Microbes’.
‘Man is the only species clever enough to make his own food and the only one stupid enough to eat it’
Zoe Harcombe
These modern plagues according to Dr Blaser are the result of something going terribly wrong within the past few decades. Despite the medical advances, we appear to be getting sicker. He goes on to say that the incidence of autism continues to soar. The disorder was first described in 1943 by Dr Leo Kanner and was uncommon, but according to Dr Blaser, in his book published in 2014, the incidence of autism underwent a three to fourfold increase since the 1960s. This many in part be due to a growing awareness and change in diagnostic criteria.
Dr Campbell-McBride has been reversing these ‘modern plagues’ yet many parents are still enduring the torment of witnessing their children suffering from them.
It seems that we have lots of profitable solutions available to us for suppressing the symptoms of disease that do not address root causes. Why are natural, non profitable solutions – rooted in optimal nourishment – being ignored?
‘There are many theories attempting to explain the cause of this increase in autism cases, including toxins in food, water and air; exposure to chemicals and pesticides during pregnancy; and particular characteristics of fathers. But no-one knows’.
Martin Blaser, Missing Microbes.
Creating a Better Future
A groundswell of parents can be the ones to turn the tide on the destruction of children’s health…..not scientists, or healthcare professionals, or experts.
Parents do not have to wait for ways forward to be decided in the lab, or through statistical analysis on paper, when their children are suffering and need them urgently…NOW. At least, not when the solutions can be simple, time tested and rooted in real food from healthy soil.
There are parents all over the globe who are learning how to restore their children’s health, inspired by those who have been courageous enough to break away from the mainstream train, now veering way off track. Following on from healing her own child, Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride left her career as a neurosurgeon behind and has now become a regenerative farmer alongside working to expand the reach of the GAPS approach.
There comes a point when adhering to outdated beliefs becomes more destructive than stabilising – and that’s where we are right now, when it comes to dealing with chronic disease.
The evidence for the health restoring power of nutrient dense foods and wise traditions is now mounting up behind a dam that WILL inevitably burst. The word incurable will be forced to shrink back to its appropriate size, as it has no place being attached to many of the man made ‘modern plagues’ we are experiencing today.
Introducing Hilary Boynton
Hilary Boynton is a parent that is leading the way, inspired by such people as Dr Campbell-McBride, Sally Fallon Morrell, Dr Weston A Price, Dr Thomas Cowan and pioneering scientist Elaine Gottschall. Hilary is a mother of five who refused to accept chronic ill health in her own children and the continuation of poor nutrition in schools.
Upon healing her family using the GAPS diet, Hilary went on to publish a cookbook with Mary G Brackett entitled ‘The Heal your Gut Cookbook – Nutrient Dense Recipes for Intestinal Health Using the GAPS diet’.
Hilary became the ‘Lunch Lady’ in her local school, transforming the nutrition of hundreds of children and has now founded the School of Lunch (SOL), with a mission to:
‘joyfully give the ancestral knowledge, wisdom and nourishing benefits of our culinary and lifestyle philosophies to the maximum number of human beings possible’.
Hilary has joined the ranks of those who have gone beyond the current paradigm. Having learned and experienced for herself how the right food, grown and prepared in the right way has the power to restore wellbeing and vitality to our children.
Find out what Hilary has been doing in schools, here:
https://www.schooloflunch.com/education
Hilary will be joining us in our private social platform – Primal Web, introducing her work to restore children’s health through real food and taking part in live webinars where you get the chance to ask your own questions.
To attend and participate in the conversations, webinars and events join HERE
So how can we nourish our children and find out more about the return of traditional food wisdom?
First and foremost we do not need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to feeding our children. This would be foolish and ignorant, given the experiential wisdom our ancestors have already amassed.
We do however need to draw forward forgotten nourishing traditions and build upon them, with our own real life learnings. When it comes to offering our families the deepest nourishment, the best knowledge we have is that which has endured the harshest of all tests…time.
Only that which is useful, valuable and has real substance endures the test of time and becomes embedded as a tradition, anything surplus is thankfully discarded by the wayside.
Sandeep Agarwal in conversation with Hilary Boynton about valuable traditional knowledge remarks:
‘Before we learn from each other, we learn from traditions’
Sandeep is the fifth generation to take on his family business creating traditional foods using time tested wisdom. Sandeep remarked that his mother used to say that ‘no knowledge is lost’, that knowledge is like sunlight. Knowledge is there, just as sunlight is there. You only need an open mind to receive it.
There are no shortage of way showers to hold the hands of worried parents as they embark on a journey back towards solid nutritional ground once more. As the months and years go by, there will be many more walking this path together, connected by their mutual desire to offer their children truly nourishing food.
There are others too, leaving their mark upon the path less travelled. Perhaps one of the most significant contributions is from Sally Fallon Morrell. One of her books; Nourishing Traditions – The cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats – is truly a life saving and changing book. A book that has surely earned its place on every parent’s books shelves through bringing nourishing traditions back into our homes.
Remarkable Forgotten Discoveries
Many people reading this will perhaps have already heard about the remarkable work of Weston A Price, a dentist who travelled the world with an open, curious mind, attempting to uncover the secrets to good dental health. As is always the case with profound discoveries, what he ‘noticed’ took him well beyond his initial line of enquiry.
He noticed that what led to good dental health, also held the key to impeccable overall health and longevity. All the populations that experienced immaculate dental health, also appeared to enjoy perfect physical health.
The common thread that ran through Dr Weston A Price’s observations was the decline in dental and overall health after processed western foods were introduced to the diet.
Very quickly – within one generation – of consuming processed foods, children developed overcrowded teeth, their nostrils became more pinched (making breathing more difficult) and their skeletal and sinus structures began to degenerate into lesser functional forms.
Of course, there are many factors at play, including ones that led to western foods being available and chosen in the first place, but the correlation is certainly an interesting one. These findings open us up to many more questions and discoveries.
What is truly astounding is that most dentists today are not even aware of the life’s work of Dr Weston A Price. Dr Steven Lin, a disenchanted dentist experiencing somewhat of a crisis of meaning in his career, discovered the work of Dr Weston A Price by chance whilst travelling.
The ah-ha moments triggered by Weston A Price’s work led to Dr Steven Linn writing his ground-breaking book ‘The Dental Diet’.
This book – filled with a revival of ancestral wisdom – offers parents hope for ensuring their children can enjoy great lifelong dental health, instead of expecting dental degeneration with age.
So how (practically speaking) can we use this knowledge to better nourish our children this summer?
According to the holistic dentist – Dr Steven Lin – we should not be focused on the right amounts of food, but the right kinds of food that are rich in the nutrients your body needs most. He explains that every meal should contain sources of fat soluble vitamins A, D and K2 as well as the support elements that work alongside them in the body including magnesium, zinc and dietary fat
He lists the following foods that are a source of these fat soluble vitamins:
- Whole, full fat animal products, including the skin: beef, chicken, lamb and duck
- Organ meats
- Whole fish and shellfish
- Milk, butter, yoghurt and cheese
- Eggs
- Natto
- Colourful vegetables and salads cooked or dressed in fat.
The bottom line is that a healthy diet necessarily includes animal products with gelatin rich skin, bone marrow, collagenous joints and slow cooked stocks and broths.
Dr Steven Lin
Dr Lin’s summarised guidance is a really helpful place to start when planning meals that are truly nourishing for our children.
When it comes to taking practical action to better nourish your children this summer, start with the simplest most impactful next steps. Without a doubt the quickest win here is through incorporating one of the most nourishing foods available into your child’s diet – bone broths.
Bone Broth
Nutrient dense staple
Bone broth can be consumed as a meal in its own right, but it can also be served as a starter, or used as a base for other dishes or sauces (like stir fry or gravy) to enhance the nutritional profile of various meals .
In its simplest form bone broth can be consumed as a cup-a-soup to top up hungry bellies.
Although the summer holidays may be full of fresh vibrant salads, fruits and BBQs, to truly optimise nourishment, the slow cooker should still be in action on a regular basis!
Why start with Bone broths?
Benefits of Bone Broth
- High in collagen which turns to gelatin when dissolved
- Potential source of bio-available minerals complexes
- Source of anti-inflammatory amino acids arginine and glutamine
- May support the health of the gut lining
- High levels of collagen may have an anti-aging effect and support healthy skin, hair and nails
- Great post workout recovery drink to support muscle repair
For those who want to try bone broths, but haven’t got the time to make it. Why not try our ready made broths.
If you would like to attend our live webinars with Hilary and other inspiring advocates for nourishing traditions and nutrient dense foods, then join our Primal Web platform HERE
Meet and train with Hilary:
For those who want to meet and learn from Hilary in person and have enough passion to travel to California, you can book a space on her SOL training academy here: https://www.schooloflunch.com/TrainingAcademy
Sample recipe from Hilary and Mary’s ‘The Heal Your Gut Cookbook, Nutrient-Dense Recipes for Intestinal Health Using the GAPS Diet’
Scrumptious Chicken in a Crock-Pot
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried sage
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 onions
1 whole chicken
Animal fat or ghee
Combine the dried spices in a small bowl. Place the onions in the bottom of the slow cooker. Remove any giblets from the chicken, wash it and pat it dry. Rub the spice mixture all over it. Pop some spices under the skin and in the cavity if you can manage it. Rub some fat over the chicken. Put the chicken on top of the onions in the slow cooker, breast-side down, cover it and turn it on high. There is no need to add any liquid. Cook for 3-4hours on high or 6-8hours on low (for a 3-4lb chicken) or until the meat is falling off the bone.
Further reading/listening:
Ancestral cooking for schools
Hilary Boynton: How to Feed Your Family with Real Food
https://boldjourney.com/meet-hilary-boynton/
Join our New Primal Stakes Club
Benefit from wholesome nutrition and help us support a transition towards more regenerative farming!
Be the first to hear about cow shares, offal boxes, half lambs, pigs or mutton boxes produced by farmers up and down the UK. Receive progress reports on their journey to low input regenerative agriculture. Get involved in open days, farm tours and events!
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The Big Wide World Of Primal Living
Unleash Your Inner Greatness With Jake Mahal
We are really pleased to introduce some Primal living guidance from Certified Health and Wellness Coach Jake Mahal.
Jake is a Primal Health Master Coach, MovNat Instructor, Breathwork Coach, Barefoot Coach and Permaculture Design Consultant. He has been a long standing supporter of Primal Meats and is a member of our Primal Web community.
Contents Page
Food – Recap of nutritional principles of ancestral health
Move – Incorporating primal movement patterns
Sleep – Healthy environments and routines
Play – Access the inner child
Relax – Stepping out of fight/flight/freeze
Relate – Developing good social connections
Bathe – Absorb the full spectrum of available light
Connect with Jake
Disclaimer: This article is intended to support personal education and offer individuals the opportunity to research a range of approaches to achieving wellbeing. A Primal living or ancestral approach to wellbeing is a path that some people choose for themselves and is in no way intended to replace professional medical, healthcare, dietary or wellbeing advice. Consult your healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet or lifestyle, especially if you take prescribed medications.
By Jake Mahal
Nutrition is the prime mover when it comes to our health – it’s the external environment that we’re literally merging into our internal environment. That said, there are some other big pieces we need to factor in if we’re looking toward optimal human gene expression and therefore optimal human health.
If you’re already buying regenerative meat but not too sure on the wider nutritional principles of ancestral health, let me give you a quick recap:
- Eat plants and animals – the more diverse the better – and get these both from wild/regenerative sources.
- Avoid grains, refined seed and vegetable oils and refined sugars.
- Don’t eat well presented poison… the type that has many ingredients and is packaged in brightly coloured plastic (junk food).
Ok, what other behaviours do we need to stack in with our food?
Move
Let’s kick things off by talking about movement. Primal living is all about getting in touch with our primal selves, and that means embracing our natural inclination to move. So, lace up your minimalist shoes (if you’re well adapted to a barefoot lifestyle – if not, you need to ease into this), and prepare to get closer to the ground. Here we’re talking about lots of low level movement at regular intervals along with the occasional all out effort of lifting something heavy, or moving our body very quickly.
When it comes to moving like our ancestors, guess what they didn’t do?….. Long cardio sessions. These modern exercise modalities are not what our genes are expecting and leave us overly-inflamed, injury prone and teetering on burnout.
Trying out new movement patterns or intensities might feel difficult to begin with, but research shows that the more we move, the more we want to move. So, engage in activities that make your inner child jump for joy. Think hiking, sprinting, climbing, or even joining something like a yoga class. Ditch the boring treadmill and venture outdoors to explore the untamed beauty of nature. Let your body move freely, and you’ll unlock a level of vitality that’s off the charts!
Not sure where to start with this?
I highly recommend checking out MovNat (natural movement fitness) – I’m happy to talk to anyone who wants more info – get in touch.
Research shows that the more we move, the more we want to move. So if you don’t know where to start – just start moving a little bit more – and let your primal nature drive you forward.
Sleep
Sleep Like a Sloth (in a Good Way). Ah, the primal art of snoozing! Quality sleep is essential for restoring our primal bodies and minds.
Create a sleep sanctuary that would make our ancestors proud. Banish electronic devices from your bedroom, make sure your den is cool and dark and get into bed on time each and every day. Embrace your inner sloth and give yourself the sleep you deserve (minimum 7 hours per night and ideally 8 or more unless you’re taking an afternoon siesta). Then rise and shine, on time and expose your eyes (and therefore brain) to natural daylight as soon as possible. You’ll find yourself revitalised and ready to tackle the day!
More sleep tips here.
Play
Unleash your inner child. Remember the days when play was an essential part of life? It’s time to reconnect with your inner child and infuse your primal lifestyle with an ample dose of fun and adventure. Break free from the mundane and explore new frontiers!
Play is actually our primary way of learning and yet play seems to get side-lined as soon as we start primary school… and I probably don’t need to mention our working adult lives.
Engage in activities that challenge your mind and body at the same time – just like a hunting and gathering session would have done. Join a local sports team, take up martial arts, or try your hand at a coordination task like juggling. The world is your playground, so let your primal spirit roam free!
By no means am I side-lining the more sedentary methods of play. A family board game is a great downtime activity that I’m sure honours the spirit of our ancestors story-telling merged with problem solving and deep relational ties.
Play is our primary way of learning
Relax
Slow Life Down. Our modern lives are far too hectic and have us operating, in a moderate way, in our flight/fight/freeze (sympathetic) nervous system far too often. Our ancestors would have been resting and digesting (using the parasympathetic nervous system) predominantly with the occasional huge spike from the sympathetic nervous system when a bear decided to give chase.
To honour our primal nervous systems – we need to slow down. Reconnect with nature regularly, whether it’s through a leisurely hike, or simply finding a quiet spot to sit and contemplate.
Practice deep breathing, meditation, or indulge in a relaxing bathing or massage ritual. Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who nourish your primal soul.
On the flip side of this (health permitting)- occasionally give your nervous system an intense and short sharp stressor (otherwise known as a hormetic stressor) to mimic the bear, the lion or the sabre-tooth-tiger. These intense stressors actually help keep our nervous system well toned and allow us to better adapt to the regular stressors of life, build tolerance and actually spend more time in our rest and digest system. Sprints or very brief, high intensity workouts, cold plunges, saunas or some breathwork practices can all be good examples of healthy stress to include in your life… and there’s no risk of being eaten alive… win!
Relate
Embrace Community and Connection: Humans are social creatures, and our primal ancestors knew the importance of community. In the modern world, it’s easy to get caught up in our own little caves (or phones… doom-scrolling anyone?), but a primal lifestyle reminds us to reconnect and forge meaningful connections.
Find your tribe, whether it’s through joining local rambling groups, participating in woodwork workshops, or regularly interacting on Primal Web. Share your experiences, swap primal recipes, and inspire each other to live life to the fullest.
Bathe
Catch some rays. We’ve been conditioned over the past decades to be fearful of the sun and to cover up at every opportunity. We didn’t evolve slathered in factor 50 or wearing sun hats. We need the sun on our skin. This is vital for our Vitamin D production (actually a pro-hormone) which has cascading effects on our body from DNA function through to mood states and regulating our sleep cycles. Head outside first thing after waking and do some literal sun salutations – preferably naked – or as naked as appropriate for your surroundings! Then repeat the process at midday and before sunset – try to catch all the spectra of visible and invisible light on offer.
IMPORTANT… never burn. It’s just common sense. Skin, radiated until it is red and painful is not a good idea. A good approach to sun exposure is to spend half as much time in the sun as it would take your skin to burn and no more. If you’d burn after 50 minutes – get 25 minutes and then head for the shade for the rest of your natural movement inspired stretching session.
Final thoughts
So, there’s a quick prescription of primal lifestyle to complement your already tip-top eating. Remember, it’s all about moving, sleeping, playing, stressing less, sunning more and connecting with others. If you’d love to put this all together in a tried and tested way to find #alldayenergy, ideal body weight and long-term success, get in touch with Jake HERE.
Jake loves empowering busy parents to cultivate a lifestyle leading to #alldayenergy, ideal body weight and lifelong success. You can interact with Jake and other health, wellbeing, food and farming experts in our social media platform Primal Web click below to join.
Join our New Primal Stakes Club
Benefit from wholesome nutrition and help us support a transition towards more regenerative farming!
Be the first to hear about cow shares, offal boxes, half lambs, pigs or mutton boxes produced by farmers up and down the UK. Receive progress reports on their journey to low input regenerative agriculture. Get involved in open days, farm tours and events!
Join for free – click the button below.
The Truth About Saturated Fats in Your Diet: Debunking Dietary Beliefs
By Teri Clayton
For decades, fat has been demonised as a dietary villain responsible for various health problems. However, recent research has shown that not all fats are created equal and that certain types of fats are essential for a healthy diet. While polyunsaturated fats from sources like avocados and nuts have been touted as “good” fats, saturated fats have been largely rejected as unhealthy. But is this really the case? In this article, we’ll explore the truth about saturated fats in the human diet and debunk some of the dietary beliefs surrounding them.
Contents
1. The Role of Saturated Animal Fat as a Potent Energy Source
2. Unlocking the Power of Fat: The Surprising Role it Plays in Our Energy Levels
3. Exploring the Benefits of Saturated Fats in Our Diet: Breaking Down the Myths and Misconceptions
5. New Research on Saturated Fats: Expanding Our Understanding of Their Role in a Balanced Diet
6. A Balanced Approach to Incorporating Saturated Fats into Your Diet
The Role of Saturated Animal Fat as a Potent Energy Source
A key part of our work at Primal involves supporting the regenerative and holistic management of livestock, with a particularly strong emphasis on cattle. We consider cattle to be a vital component in the regeneration of many types of ecosystems.
Why?
There are innumerable reasons cows are vital, not least their production of manure. Cows ingest forage and convert it into something overflowing with diverse varieties of life and fertile nourishment. Not only does this manure support the life of many species above ground, it also feeds organisms deep below the soil line. It builds soil organic matter, drawing down carbon from the air and enhances soil nutrient bioavailability, through the production of microbial metabolites….phew, that’s quite a list.
We can say with confidence that cows and their manure are pretty amazing when it comes to improving ecosystem health!
Whilst cows create and nourish more life through their amazing digestive processes and manure, we also love another aspect of their biology that receives little recognition. Cows can produce concentrated energy in the form of fat, from seemingly indigestible, tough and fibrous, cellulosic plant material. Read more HERE
Due to a cow’s ultra-efficient digestive capacity alongside their exquisitely evolved digestive microbiome, they can literally turn even dried up dead leaves into energy that can power life.
Unlocking the Power of Fat: The Surprising Role it Plays in Our Energy Levels
We all know that energy makes the world go round and we certainly know about it when we don’t have enough of it. But how many people can say they truly value the role of fat in relation to our energy levels in our day to day lives.
Through a cow’s digestive capacities, sunlight energy – stored up in plants – can be transformed into fats that we humans can utilise as an energy source. We certainly would not get that amount of energy from chewing on indigestible lignified material ourselves. This is quite a remarkable benefit to us – enabling us to access the energy from the sun in a concentrated form that our bodies can process. Yet there is currently a great deal of controversy surrounding the consumption of energy dense – saturated animal fats.
What do you currently believe about saturated animal fat and it’s role as a source of energy in our diet? We’d love to know! Share on our platform HERE.
Exploring the Benefits of Saturated Fats in Our Diet: Breaking Down the Myths and Misconceptions
Fat has been vilified in the human diet and blamed for a whole manner of human diseases and ailments. But as with all things to do with diet and health – the story is complex, nuanced and not at all black and white.
We have recognised for a while that not all fats are bad – that good fats are in fact an absolutely essential part of a healthy diet (1). But whilst we have been quick to put polyunsaturated fats from sources like avocados, seeds and nuts on a pedestal, we have largely rejected the possibility of saturated fats offering us a positive source of energy and nutrition.
Saturated fats have been undergoing somewhat of a revival when it comes to choosing cooking fats in the kitchen. This is because saturated fats do not break down into inflammatory oxidised fats after heating, as extracted polyunsaturated fats tend to do (2). Whilst this small win for utilising saturated fats is a step in a more balanced direction, there are many dietary beliefs that are acting as barriers to a more widespread adoption of saturated animal fats in our diets.
Are these barriers helpful and protective or could they be hindering us?
Saturated fats have been embraced as a long lasting source of energy, fat soluble vitamins and other nutrients by many following a more ancestral/wild type diet (3). But is this truly good for us? There are many people who follow the guidance about eating a very low-fat diet and there are others who focus solely on including plenty of ‘healthy’ polyunsaturated fats – yet there is still a great deal of confusion around the benefits of consuming saturated fat.
‘Recent research, coming from the popularity of low-carbohydrate high-fat diets, is challenging some of these concerns about high fat and high saturated fatty acid (SFA) intakes and disease risk’ (4)
‘Studies carried out in animals that were fed high-fat diets did not show a specific causal relationship between dietary fat and obesity. On the contrary, very-low-carbohydrate and high-fat diets such as the ketogenic diet have shown to be beneficial to weight loss’ (5)
Perhaps it’s time we started to explore, think and – in some experienced cases – take action a little bit further outside of the box, to gain some clarity? Have a look at this video of holistic Doctor and decathlete Dr Sten Ekberg, showing what happened to him after eating 100 tablespoons of butter in 10 days, click HERE to view.
Given the anecdotal cases of fats improving people’s health, is it possible that we have got things totally wrong?
Could a diet higher in fat, (especially certain types of saturated fat, known to confer beneficial effects) offer us greater health?
Dispelling the Top 5 Myths about Saturated Fats in Diet: Separating Fact from Fiction
Myth: All fats are bad for you. Reality: Good fats are essential to a healthy diet. Misconception: Polyunsaturated fats are the only healthy fats. Reality: Saturated fats can also be a positive source of energy and nutrition. Myth: Saturated fats are unhealthy and should be avoided. Reality: Saturated fats can be a long-lasting source of energy, fat-soluble vitamins, and other nutrients. Misconception: High-fat diets lead to obesity and disease. Reality: Recent research challenges this belief, with some studies showing that high-fat diets can be beneficial for weight loss. Myth: Eating too much fat is always bad for you. Reality: Consuming certain types of saturated fat in moderation may potentially confer beneficial effects and improve health.
Understanding Ketogenic Diets: Benefits, Risks, and Adaptation for Mitochondrial Energy Production
Ketogenic diets are now increasingly popular, working with the capacity of mitochondria to produce energy from fat through the production of ketone bodies. With purported benefits including blood glucose stabilisation in diabetes, to reversing the severity of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s (6,7,8), there is certainly sufficient cause to explore this diet more thoroughly.
There are many theories about why ketogenic diets offer health benefits and also many that declare it to be dangerous (9). It is said by some that when mitochondria burn ketones for fuel instead of carbohydrates, it reduces the oxidative stress placed on the mitochondria and thus enhances their longevity (8).
Disclaimer: We do not advocate following a ketogenic diet and offer no specific dietary recommendations. Please seek the advice of your healthcare provider, or a qualified nutritional therapist/practitioner or dietician before you make any sudden dietary changes. This article is intended only to stimulate thought and further personal research into what might better suit individuals.
Whilst it is widely accepted that the body, including the brain, are well suited to using ketones as an energy source when needed (10), it is also understood that the brain needs at least some glucose (11) and many people report not getting on well with a ketogenic diet at all.
There are adaptive mechanisms in the body that allow people to adjust to ketogenic diets. The majority of people do not understand how to work with the adaptation required to move from burning carbs for fuel, to burning ketones derived from fat. This is a complex topic, well beyond the scope of this article and the matter is anything but settled, even for avid ketogenic diet followers or researchers.
Those who regularly undergo intermittent fasting, or other forms of fasting will have a different capacity to produce energy from ketones, than those who have consumed carbohydrates to excess for years without a break. It is certainly true to say that a one size fits all approach definitely does not apply and one persons version of a ketogenic diet may vary significantly from another.
Interesting videos to explore:
New Research on Saturated Fats: Expanding Our Understanding of Their Role in a Balanced Diet
Our knowledge about nutrition will always be growing and expanding and we are barely scratching the surface of our understanding of the nutrients we need to thrive. Soil health, seasons, microbiome diversity and functionality, diversity of species, secondary metabolites in plants, animals and soil and so much more, govern the effects of what we eat on our bodies.
Researcher Stephan Van Vliet has been exploring the impact of farming methods, soil health, microbiome and pasture diversity on the nutrient density of the food produced. His research results offer key insights that will undoubtedly expand the concept of what ‘nutrients’ are. Through the development of technology in metabolomicshttps://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/online/courses/metabolomics-introduction/what-is/ we can now more easily view nutrients in our food, revealing a vast and complex array of compounds that vary and emerge unexpectedly.
One of Stephan Van Vliet’s findings was that grass fed beef had a higher level of long chain saturated fatty acids – such as arachidic acid and behenic acid (12). These saturated fatty acids are associated with a reduction in the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes (13). Whilst this does not allow us to assume that grass fed meat, high in these long chain saturated fats will reduce cardiovascular disease – it poses a key paradigm shifting question.
Could certain types of saturated fats be necessary for achieving optimal health? Could grass fed beef, high in very long chain saturated fats actually improve our cardiovascular health?
‘Increased levels of circulating very long chain saturated fatty acids have been found associated with lower risks of incident heart failure, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, mortality, sudden cardiac arrest, type 2 diabetes, and with better aging’ (13).
Final Thoughts on Saturated Fats: A Balanced Approach to Incorporating Them into Your Diet
Could a diet that contains very long chain saturated fatty acids derived from grass fed animals, combined with a diet that burns ketones for fuel, offer a viable way to better support energy production and longevity in our precious mitochondria?
When it comes to considering the role of fats as a key source of energy in our diets, the final analysis must rest with each individual and their own lifestyle choices. One thing is for sure however – cows are a great gift when it comes to converting sunlight energy into physical forms of energy. As with most processes and forms found in nature, saturated fats could potentially be a lot better for the health of the human race than we currently have the capacity to understand.
Nature is not designed to offer up carbohydrates all year round, nor an all you can eat buffet of saturated fats. Instead nature offers us a balance of many types of nutrients at different times of the year. In all cases when it comes to what we consume on a daily basis – the poison is in the dose.
It is the diversity of nature’s energy sources that offers us the greatest protection from toxic imbalances, because everything in moderation does not permit us to consume anything to excess.
If balance and diversity are the solution and extremes of thought, belief or action are the problem; when it comes to fats, perhaps we would be wise to include all varieties found in nature, in balance and moderation.
Further Reading: Exploring More Resources on Metabolomics, Nutrients, Microbiome, and Agro-Ecological Meat
- The science of plant based meat vs grass fed meat
- Agro-ecological meat vs supermarket
- Meat is a health food
- Rumen Microbiome – conversion of cellulose into fatty acids
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218759/
- https://www.nuffieldhealth.com/article/cooking-oils-a-guide-to-the-healthiest-fats
- https://chriskresser.com/what-is-an-ancestral-diet-and-how-does-it-help-you/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6628852/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22905670/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8755961
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1865572/
- https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/health-and-wellness-articles/ketogenic-diet-what-are-the-risks
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JhnZok5qxI&ab_channel=HEALTHISTATV%7CTheArtofWellness%E2%84%A2
- https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/does-the-brain-need-carbs
- Dr. Stephan van Vliet: Beef Nutrient Density Study Preliminary Results
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34907969/
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