The Joys of Natural Fats

Here is a great new year's resolution; love and utilize the power of animal fats! Get into your kitchen and spread some raw butter on a slice of freshly baked bread, cut some homemade lard into a pie crust, and infuse some rendered bear fat for a salve...stop fearing fat, and help your body back to health.

Our western modern world has looked down upon natural animal fats as unhealthy and disease causing. Yet, our bodies are designed to process fats. A main function of our gall bladder is to produce bile at the presence of fats in our small intestine. However there is one thing our bodies and gall bladder despise...and this is BAD fats. Highly processed corn, canola, cottonseed and soybean oils (processed under high heat, pressure, and industrial solvents, such as hexane) are poison to our system and are found excessively in our processed food diets. The reason these fats are so bad for us is that they are mostly comprised of polyunsaturated fats. In actuality unsaturated fats are not the better kind of fats for our system. Unsaturated fats are more reactive to heat and light, making them unstable and inflammatory in our bodies. This leads to blood clotting, clogged arteries, and high blood pressure. Saturated fats are stable and anti-inflammatory in our bodies. However, though healthy fats are an essential part of our diets, they are NOT the main part. Fat is a major energy source, and if your life style is gentile, very little is needed. Also, the source of your natural fat is key. Fats store toxins, so if you're using butter that came from a cow that was fed GMO corn, growth hormones, and antibiotics, that is what your eating too. Source your fats from local organic farms and wild game.

Another way to incorporate the usefulness of healthy fats in your life, besides the joys of eating them, is to make fat based body products. Infused fats are an ideal way to harness the medicinal properties of plants. Making salves, lotions, soaps, and other products with natural fats is a fundamental homesteading skill. In the past, all of the infusions that I have created have been in natural plant oils such as olive, coconut, almond, or walnut. All of these are great vehicles for plant medicine. However, our skin absorbs animals fats just as good, and if not better than plant oils, animal fats being much more a kin to the natural fats we have in our skin and bodies. On top of that, animal fats are more readily available and easy to process in your own home. The plant oils we commonly use are highly processed and would be much harder to come by in a situation where you couldn't bop over to the store and buy the materials needed to craft body products!

Another important thing to remember is that the skin is our largest organ. Is is covered in tiny pores that are each an entrance into our bodies and blood stream. Everything you put on your skin is absorbed into the blood, circulated, and metabolized through your body. Many store bought lotions and body products are packed with chemical stabilizers and preservatives. Cosmetic Parabens are in a wide variety of products from shampoo to tooth paste and have been linked to breast cancer. A good rule to follow when choosing body products is this: If I wouldn't put it in my mouth, I shouldn't put it all over my skin. Food grade body products a the mark of well cared for skin.

To recap...do not fear fats... intelligently and joyously include them in your life.

• Incorporate natural fats in your diet in place of synthetic or highly processed ones. Keep your fat intake low if your life style is not rigorous. If your life style is rigorous, you can utilize natural fats as they are a major energy source. Be careful not to over do a good thing. Our bodies can function and thrive on much less than our culture teaches us.  
• Use natural oils and animal fat based body products. Food grade body products will keep your skin happy, and minimize the likelihood of allergic reactions and further problems down the road.

Stay tuned for the follow up article on 'Rendering your own natural Fats!'