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Are We Oil And Fat Eaters By T.C. Fry

It is well known that most meat eaters trim the fat off meats because they have an aversion to it. This is not without a sound physiological basis.

However we witness millions eating foods fried in oils and fats. Millions eat foods smothered in oils, butter, margarine and other fats. Oils and fats constitute about 40% of the American caloric intake.

For this heavy indulgence Americans pay dearly. Indigestion is an American institution. Pathogenic effects are rife. It is said that 50% of all American meals result in indigestion. Antacids are a multi-billion dollar business. At the door of oils and fats can be placed much of the blame.

Humans are constitutionally frugivores. All the fats needed in the human system are self-created from the raw materials furnished by carbohydrate foods just as cattle elaborate their fats from a grass diet. It is not necessary that humans eat oils or fats of any kind to have the body oils and fats necessary for great well-being. One of the chief complaints of many who eat sugar and wheat products is that it turns into unwanted fat, thus indicating how efficiently our organisms convert carbohydrates to the oils and fats we need.

Fruits we digest with dispatch, efficiency and comfort. Most are discharged from the stomach in from 10 to 30 minutes, whereas oils and fats lay heavy on the stomach for hours before digestion really begins.

To be sure, our diet can profit from certain foods with an oil content. From nuts and seeds we can obtain the linoleic and linolenic acids that we need. But if nuts, seeds and avocadoes constitute a mere 1 1/2% to 2% of our diet, that is ample.

Professional Hygienists point out that the body’s needs for oil are very small. All condemn free oils, that is, oils out of context with the food in which nature developed them.

Most Americans eat oils and fats with foods that are of a differing digestive character than oils. In the combination of bread and butter or bread and margarine or bread and peanut butter—quite common combinations, the bread requires an alkaline medium for its digestion. Within two or three hours starches are usually ready to pass into the intestinal tract for appropriation. Fats and oils usually do not begin to digest until about the fourth hour.

Hence, when oils and fats are eaten with other foods such as starches they coat the food particles such that little or no digestion results, but indigestion does! By the time the oils or fats surrounding the other food particles are digested, the starches and sugars are food for bacteria instead of us. Bacteria convert carbohydrates into poisonous acids (especially acetic) and alcohol. Our stomachs become a fermenting mess. Caustic bicarbonates end the process by killing off the bacteria and neutralizing the acids.

But this is merely a first step in a chain of problems. Indigestion is bad enough, and employing antacids begets yet other problems. Fats degenerate into butyric and other acids. This begins a long train of pathology that can exhibit as inflammations, ulcers and eventually cancer. Rashes, pimples, biliousness, a “tired feeling” and other complaints are often a direct result of a heavy oil or fat meal.

Fats are often in association with cholesterol, another form of alcohol. We create this in our bodies for our own needs, but we cannot handle foreign cholesterols as true meat-eating animals do. To be sure, cholesterols are found only in animal fats such as cheeses, butter, eggs, meat and animal products such as milk, ice cream, etc. When the cells reject alien cholesterol, it combines with blood contents, especially wastes and inorganic minerals, and forms plaque in the circulatory system.

Free oils and fats are a disaster in the human digestive tract no matter how eaten. Oils on salads, popcorn, bread and other foods (most of them unwholesome in themselves) interfere with digestion as heretofore stated.

When we eat fried foods, we are invariably inviting disaster. Even before eating such foods, the heat of cooking has converted some of the fats or oils to acroleic acid (or it has become acrolein) which is deadly poisonous and carcinogenic in humans. Fats in animal foods are always bad for us. Oils in vegetable and fruit foods should be eaten rarely, say not more than once every two or three days. We handle nuts, seeds and avocadoes fairly well, but our need for them is small. Further, great caution must be employed in eating such foods. Always eat them with vegetables, never with foods that contain a carbohydrate complement. Tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, cabbage family members and green leafy foods such as lettuce combine best with these oil-bearing foods.

It is noteworthy that legumes are heavy in oil but, once beans and pulses are sprouted, their fat content is converted into easily digestible vegetable matter.

There is no truth to the widely circulated belief that oils are good for dry skin. In digesting oils and fats, the body converts them to sugars anyway. Then it reconstitutes them to its specific needs in the body’s own chemical factories. Thus dry skin is the result of impaired function of the sebaceous glands, not a lack of oil in the diet.

Oily foods should not be used as fuel foods. Carbohydrate foods serve us amply in this regard. Loading up on oily foods will not enhance the performance of athletes or manual workers. Their need for the oils and proteins of concentrated foods such as nuts, seeds and legumes are no greater than for sedentary people. It is well to repeat again that carbohydrate foods supply this best, and fruits are our most wholesome and efficient sources of carbohydrates.

Only one meal in any given day should contain a heavy oil-bearing food. And only one concentrated oil-bearing food should be eaten at a meal. Thus, if you eat an avocado with a salad, your oil license for the day has run out. If you eat two to four ounces of nuts or seeds with a salad, your oil license has expired, not only for the meal, but for the day.

Studies have shown that peanut oil is more “atherogenic” than even cream from cow’s milk in inducing arteriosclerosis in monkeys. It has been suggested that free oils actually promote the deposition of cholesterol and other lipids in the arterial walls.

Proceed with caution with oils. Never eat them outside of their natural context and then eat them in restriction as above noted.