Saturated Fat

Something else I’d like someone to explain to me - where my experience and the standard advice contradict each other: Saturated fatFatty acids with no reactive molecular component — normally solid at room temperature. Typically animal fats. → more.

The body is an organism that stores certain energy reserves in the form of fat. This is fat that the liver produces, among other things, from carbohydrates (de novo lipogenesisde novo lipogenesis is the process by which the body creates new fat from carbohydrates, with the purpose of storage for later use → more), when these are present in excess.

The fat produced this way consists predominantly of palmitic acid (C16), but also stearic acid (C18) and myristic acid (C14). These are all saturated fatty acids⁽¹⁾.

That means:

• The body builds saturated fats from excess carbohydrates, which are then stored
• Nutritional guidelines advise against eating saturated fat, on the grounds that it’s harmful.
• Nutritional guidelines recommend >50% of energy from carbohydrates - so carbohydrate stores are regularly so full that no more glucose can be absorbed or glycogen stored.
• Should the body ever get around to tapping its own fat reserves (weight loss), it “burns” precisely these saturated fats - apparently that’s what the whole system is designed for.
• Reaching a fat-burning state (ketosis) is something the standard guidelines discourage even more strongly - yet they’re all for weight loss…

What nutrition has done to the composition of body fat

Evolutionary Association, Chapter 1: The Composition of Body Fat

Your love handles are a food diary of the last few years - and many of the entries come from the deep fryer.

So which is it?

What’s the verdict? Are saturated fats good or bad? Only good when the body builds them itself? (Note: it does that during periods of high insulin levels, because glucose and glycogen stores fill up very quickly. You can follow the insulin level right next door.)

I’ve made my choice, and trust current science ^(*) considerably more than the standard nutritional guidelines. Especially in light of my own long-standing experience with UV sensitivity and sunburn, and the contradiction between fibre and saturated fat, I feel I’m on solid ground: (Natural) saturated fats have been shown to be harmless in enough scientific publications ⁽²⁾. And the arguments against studies claiming the opposite seem more than plausible to me.

With that:

…Everything is better with butter…

More about saturated fats

Evolutionary Association, Chapter 1: The Composition of Body Fat

Your love handles are a food diary of the last few years - and many of the entries come from the deep fryer.

Fibre and Saturated Fat

The classic mantra “fibre == good, saturated fat == bad” contradicts itself (and what butter specifically has to do with it)

Sunburn and UV

A surprising side effect of switching to a ketogenic diet: a new built-in sun protection factor

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