Nutrition · Protocol 5 of 7
Make friends with the right fats
1In 30 seconds
Get most of your fat from unsaturated sources such as olives, avocados, nuts, seeds and oily fish, and cook mainly with olive oil. Keep saturated fat to 10 percent or less of your calories and total fat to about 30 to 35 percent. Avoid industrial trans fats altogether.
2Picture it
3Why do it
- 1
Fat slows the rise of sugar in your blood and keeps you full between meals.
- 2
Your cell walls, hormones and brain wiring all depend on fatty acids from food.
- 3
A little satisfying fat stops you reaching for processed low-fat snacks, which are often worse for you.
4How to do it
- Cook mostly with olive oil and use it in salad dressings; switch to avocado oil for high-heat cooking because it has a high smoke point.
- Add a source of unsaturated fat to most meals, such as olives, avocado, a small handful of nuts or seeds, or oily fish.
- Keep saturated fat, from ghee, butter, cheese and fatty meat, to 10 percent or less of your daily calories.
- Aim for total fat of about 30 to 35 percent of calories, and keep added fat on any starchy serving to 1 or 2 tablespoons at most.
- Avoid industrial trans fats; health bodies advise keeping them under 1 percent of calories, which is less than a tablespoon a day.
- Do not add extra fat after workouts; on hard training days, add clean starch instead.
5Make it work in India
- Vanaspati, some bakery shortenings and oil reused again and again for frying are the main trans fat risks in India. Avoid vanaspati and keep street fried food like puri, pakora and samosa occasional.
- Olive and avocado oil are costly here. If they do not fit your budget, the bigger wins are using less oil overall, never reusing frying oil, and keeping ghee to a teaspoon or two a meal. Mustard and groundnut oils are mostly unsaturated, though the author himself prefers olive oil.
- For snacks, a small handful of almonds, walnuts, peanuts or roasted flax and pumpkin seeds works well. They are dense in calories, so count out a handful rather than eating from the packet.
6The long read: the science2 min read · tap to open
Dietary fat and body fat share a name, which has caused decades of confusion. In 1990 American guidelines told people to cut fat hard. Shops filled with low-fat products that were often loaded with sugar and starch. People lost two things fat gives you: a slower rise in blood sugar and a longer feeling of fullness. Weight and heart disease kept climbing.
Fats are built from fatty acids, and the shape of those chains matters. Saturated fats have straight chains that stack neatly, which is why butter and ghee stay solid at room temperature. They are harder to digest and can raise some forms of cholesterol.
Unsaturated fats have kinks in their chains, so they stay liquid. These are the ones to favour. Some fatty acids help your brain stay able to learn and form memories. Fat in your gut also tells your brain you are satisfied. Your body fat releases a hormone called leptin, which signals fullness and plays a part in fertility, since it tells the brain there is enough stored energy.
Trans fats are the problem group. Small natural amounts in meat and dairy seem harmless. Factory-made trans fats, from partly hardened vegetable oil, damage heart and metabolic health. The book’s view is that a little saturated fat beats replacing it with processed snacks.
Good evidence Trials of Mediterranean-style eating support olive oil and unsaturated fats, and the harm from industrial trans fats is very clear, but the arguments over saturated fat and seed oils are not settled.
Questions people ask
Is ghee bad for me?
Ghee is mostly saturated fat. The book allows small amounts of butter, ghee or tallow, as long as your total saturated fat stays at or below 10 percent of your calories.
Should I eat more fat on exercise days?
No. Keep fat steady at about 30 percent of calories. On hard training days, add clean starch to refill your muscle energy stores instead.
Are seed oils dangerous?
The evidence is mixed. Some studies show health improves when seed oils replace saturated fat, while critics worry about high-heat processing and their link with processed food. The author avoids them and prefers olive oil.
7Be careful
If you have high cholesterol, heart disease or a family history of it, get your blood fats checked and follow your doctor’s advice. Fat has 9 calories per gram, more than double protein or carbs, so measure oil with a spoon.
8Try it for 7 days
Tap a day each time you chose healthy fats today.
From the book: “Consume Healthy Fats as Part of Most Meals and Snacks” (Nutrition Protocol 5). Evidence rating and India notes are our own.