The big lie about fats these past 25 years seems to have been that fat=bad.  We now know it's actually the type of fat that is the issue.
 
The last few emails covered the facts (as we know them today) about the omega oils, 3s(fish)  6s(plants)  and 9s(olive oil) as well as the saturated fats, butter and coconut oil.
 
What we know from history is that humans have, for centuries, had access to olive oil (presses in the mediterranean are thousands of years old), butter from cows, lard from pigs, and oil from coconuts.  The omega 6s from seeds were primarily consumed as the plant or seed itself, from corn, sunflower, soy, etc. More recently, they were, through a difficult and high-heat form of extraction, made into a commercial product for sale as a cooking oil.  
 
Prior to WWII, coconut oil was the oil of choice for baked goods not made at home as it has a fairly long shelf life and does not go rancid.  When cooking at home, more often people used a combination of butter and/or coconut oil or lard.  During WWII, trade was cut off from the Philippines and other Island empires and our source of coconut oil dried up in this country.
 
Drum roll:
Enter the soy (and corn) oil explosion.  There was suddenly a need for cooking oil and the Soybean Association of America came to the rescue.  Factories were built and soy and corn oil became big business.  At the end of the war when trade resumed with the coconut producing countries, the new soy and corn oil industries were in danger of being marginalized out the market advantage they had gained during the war.  Hence the campaign to demonize coconut oil and all things related to palm trees.  (coconut, palm oil, palm kernel oil).
 
That's the history of the competing industries as best I can glean.  But the research has never shown that saturated fats (from meat, butter, or lard) actually promote heart disease!  This is such a shock to most of us, but if you read the research of the world renowned scientists who have spent their careers studying fats and oils (and who are not connected to any industry nor sell any product), they pretty much all agree that the onslaught of heart disease has many causes but none of them are related to saturated fats.  (I know, hard to swallow as the mis-information still prevails.  Just follow the buck and see where it ends).   Dr Atkins was the most recent person to prove this yet again.  I do not think the Atkins diet is either healthy or ecologically sustainable, but, still, the evidence shows that it does not promote heart disease and instead lowers all risk factors like total chol, LDL, Triglicerides, raises HDL etc.  He presented thousands and thousands of client studies to demonstrate this point.  He was finally vindicated in many scientific journals. (ok,  but there are other, healthier ways, to stave off heart disease than needing to consume such a high level of  animal products)
 
So, where does that put us in terms of making good decisions about:
1.  how much fat should be in our diet?
2.  what kind(s) of fat should it be?
 
1.   For the first question, the answer can range anywhere from 25% - 35% in our country's archives of nutritional information.  However, in northern countries where the population consumes mostly seal blubber and fish or Islanders who consume mostly palm and coconut oil, the percentage of calories from fat can be as high as 65%.  Still no heart disease, until they are introduced to Western pre-fab food which is laden with the hydrogenated fats and trans fats from the Omega 6 family (plants).
 
2.   Now, how much fat from which source?  At the turn of the century, the ratio of omega 3s (fish and free range grass fed animals) to the omega 6s (plants, seeds, nuts) was about 1:1.   This is a good ratio.  Even 2:1 in favor of seeds & nuts is still a heart healthy ratio.  But today, the ratio is closer to 20 parts plant and seed oils (in fried foods and pre-fab factory-made foods, feed-lot corn fed animals, salad dressings & mayo) to 1 part of Omega 3s. (that we might get if we eat the right kind of hi-fat fish once in a while)
 
The best way to remedy this situation, in my opinion, from the reading I've done is this:
*  Eat wild-caught salmon at least once a week & take the purest source fish oil capsule of max potency every day.  (omega 3)
*  Use extra virgin, organic coconut oil for stove-top cooking and baking.  (I won't go over the benefits of this oil now as it was the subject of recent emails) This oil provides  short chain fatty acids that burn as carbohydrate & fuel and promote thyroid function.
*  Use extra virgin organic olive oil for salads and vegetables every day - sprinkle generously as it has many health benefits.  (omega 9) Use olive oil to make your own mayo - it's really easy in blender or small food processor.
*  Use butter when necessary for that special taste (green beans and asparagus for example!)  Only use organic butter from cows fed no hormones. (contains a high level of an anti-cancer acid)
*  Don't even buy plant oils like corn, soy, canola, sunflower etc, as you will get plenty of the wonderful and quite important omega 6 oils from the vast array of nuts and seeds that one should eat on a regular basis.
 
The trick is in balance.  There are very good things to say about each of the above fats and oils.  But when our intake gets out of whack and we eat 20x more plant oils than the other types, it can lead to and promote inflammation of all kinds, including the arteries, where heart disease is born.  Pro-inflammatory conditions in the body also lead to cancer, arthritis, diabetes, dementia, you name it!  It starts with inflammation and then oxidation and then the aging process is accelerated and disease is born.
 
Good fats = good.  Just keep the balance...
Bad fats = bad .  Avoid them altogether for a healtheir life....