Dietary fats: you are born to be fat (not sweet)
This is my take on fats vs sugars debate.
We are told that fat is bad and carbohydrates are most optimal source of energy for humans. In last 40 years our dominant paradigm is represented by a food pyramid with carbohydrates, mostly starches, depicted at the bottom of the pyramid, which means that this should be our main macronutrient. Then we have fruits and vegetables, dairy products, milk and then fats and oils. We take it for granted these days, but why? No one seem to ask this basic question — what is your body made of? Especially which part of your body is made of sugars that we need so much of it?
Plants are dominant life form that works with sunlight, water, with a little bit of magic in form of chlorophyll they can capture energy and store it in form of chains of glucose. They mastered working with these chemicals. If you ever asked yourself why your body is wobbly, but the tree is not, it’s because tree cell walls are made of carbohydrate cellulose. That’s what we use to make paper. It is not elastic at all, but trees, plants generally don’t need to be elastic. Plants use some of these carbohydrates in form of seeds, fruits, nectar etc. for reproductive purposes, to attract more mobile life forms to eat some of them and spread the seeds far from the parent plant. Many animals can eat plants for energy trapped in carbohydrates. We can’t digest cellulose for instance, we don’t have enzymes that can break that carbohydrate, but grazing animals do have bacterias that can do that for them. We can use simple sugars and starches. Main point of this paragraph is that plants are made of sugars, animals are not. Animals use it only for energy.
Next observation that I want to share with you is that sugar is very dangerous to your body if not strictly controlled. It is very reactive. Your body at any single moment shouldn’t have more than a spoonful of sugar in a bloodstream. Single can of soda has at least few. Your body needs to remove the excess of sugar out of your bloodstream as soon as possible. Obviously the first and most important purpose of sugar consumption is cellular energy. If cells refuse to absorb it, some of it is stored in form of glycogen, starchy like energy storage in a liver and skeletal muscles, that can be readily released to blood (from a liver only) and then the last line of defence from excess of sugar is your fat tissue. Main point of this paragraph is that your body can use glucose efficiently for energy purpose, but it is more like plutonium type of fuel, for nuclear plant. It works with good results, but it has to be very tightly regulated and when things go bad, then you are in trouble. Your body gets inflamed, stressed and then sugar resistant. Diabetes type 2 can cost you your sight, your limbs and cause whole plethora of terrible conditions.
Let’s talk about fats. I already mentioned that your body is composed partially of fat tissue, the fluffy part, that we usually are very painfully aware of, but what we don’t hear often is that fatty acids are essential building blocks of every single cell in your body. Do you remember that the cell walls of plants are made of cellulose, yours are made of particles called phospholipids, combination of fats and phosphorous that has very specific properties. Because our cells have walls made of fats we are wobbly, elastic, agile, generally we can move. Next thing of significant importance is that fats are important players in our endocrine, hormonal system. There are studies that show that people that take statins to lower cholesterol have reduced libido, due to effect of that drug on sex hormones. Fats are required in your brain to produce nerve cell fibres coating in form of myelin. Fat tissue stores vitamins, is hormonally active, insulates your body from cold weather. Your body knows how to work with fat. Main point of this paragraph is that your body is made of proteins and fats, not sugars.
We know that body can very effectively run on fats. Not that long time ago summer and autumn were seasons for carbs consumption and for growing fat tissue, winter and spring were fat seasons, body was digesting itself and using the body fat for energy and insulation. It was happening every year. Recenlty it was discovered that while your body runs on fats there are very important maintanance works done. The enregy that was used on digesting carbs and building fat tissue in absence of carbs is used on cleaning and repairing. It is called autophagy.
Today we don’t have seasons, fruits and starches are available all year long, you don’t have to be insulated from cold, you have a jacket and also your house is insulated, big part of population don’t even work physically, therfore glycogen storages are not really useful and are always full. Yet it is easier than ever to get carbohydrates as a main source of energy and dominant food, that was always intended to build fat tissue, and for some reason we are surprised that people get fatter and fatter. Fats as a nutrient misbehave only in presence of excessive sugar consumption (or if they are manufactured, not grown).
Based on these observations the answer which of macronutrients is safer and more required for you to be healthy seems to be no-brainer. To be healthy we should flip the food pyramid.