I am sure that you have heard all those government warnings, issued to us “for our own good,” telling us that saturated fat should not be contained within a diet and it is really bad for us, but on the contrary we should view it as being highly beneficial. We are told that saturated fat will just clog our arteries and lead to high cholesterol and heart disease, which as one of the leading causes of death is enough to scare us all away from buying this product. Basically, it is trendy to denigrate the use of saturated fats and other, so-called “healthy” options that are recommended in place. Yet, if you go back to the dawn of time, humans have been consuming diets that are naturally high in saturated fats for all these years. Could it be that our evolution in more recent times has led to a significant change in the way that we handle these saturated fats, causing all the negativity that we hear about, or is it that we’re just being fed a diet of basic misinformation? This would appear to be far more likely.

Think about all the ways saturated fat can benefit you:

Fat is a very important source of fuel, essential for our daily energy needs. Almost half of the fat in our body is composed of saturated fat and is what ancestors used to survive in difficult times, as it is fairly easily stored within our bodies. There is a large difference in composition between fats that are saturated and those that are unsaturated and cooking can be hazardous for us, unless we know all about the associated risks. In the case of polyunsaturated fats, whenever they are heated they could destabilize and this can generate free radicals which will, in turn, attack our cellular structure. A reliance on polyunsaturated fat can lead to heart disease itself, despite the option being touted as good for our hearts. Monounsaturated fats, in more than small doses, have been linked to the early onset of cancer and premature aging, while the unsaturated fat alternatives such as coco or corn oil can lead to a diet low in essential Omega-3 fatty acids.

For good bone development and structure, saturated fat has a good concentration of calcium and as such, is essential. Two particular vitamins, vitamin D and vitamin K2, are readily found within saturated fats and are also needed. Just consider what saturated fat can do for your skin. We are at increasing risk of developing skin cancer and premature aging damage caused by the effects of the sun, while saturated fat has been shown to make skin cells much more resistant to this damage.

Saturated fat has been linked to essential stabilization and signaling activities within our bodies, the production of hormones, “padding” around the essential organs such as the heart and even the quality and function of our lung capacity. Trans fats have been shown by some scientists to result in asthma and poor lung function.

We have heard much about essential fatty acids and how important they are to our health. They must be consumed through diet and cannot be produced by the body. If we compromise the amount of saturated fat within our body, we expose the essential fatty acids to oxidation, preventing them from providing us with optimal benefit.

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