My Big 'Fat' Questions

[keninottawa]

Hey everyone,

I have a couple of questions concerning dietary fats. I am recovering from secondary hypogonadism (the kind you can actually recover from) and I am thus trying to get at least 30 percent of my total dietary calories from fat in order to optimize hormonal function. Lately I have been making a motivated push to increase my dietary fats, and this has mostly come from the most convenient forms -- oils, avocado, et cetera.

My first concern is the following: I am afraid that, by increasing the amount of monounsaturates in my diet, my ratio of saturated fats is becoming too small. I'd like to be at a 1:1:1 ratio. What are some convenient sources of saturates that I can try to include in my diet? For the record, I used to eat four whole eggs every day, which provided me with a solidly-apportioned fat and cholesterol supply, but my stomach has of late been protesting this.

My second question regards polyunsaturated fats. I love flax oil and use about 1.5 tablespoons per day. However, most of the fat in flax oil is of the Omega-6 polyunsaturated variety. I have heard bad things about such fats and I am worried that my Omega-3/Omega-6 ratio is being skewed because of the amount of flax oil that I consume. What is the consensus on polyunsaturates around here?

Thank you in advance for your help,

- Ken

[hackskii]

Meat for your saturated fats (meat like some think is not all saturated).
Eggs are fine, see if you can get the free range eggs.

Flax seed oil is alright but fish oils (not cod liver before someone suggests this) have a better Omega 3 profile, cheaper too.

I myself take 12 fish oils a day, I do eat eggs, cheese, beef, bacon, all that stuff even butter. I do not use any vegetable oils at all, this will toss off the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3's
Typical american diet is around 1/10 to 1/25 ratio of Omega 3 to 6
Optimum is 1/1 to 1/4 so you can see how some salad dressing will change things here.
Only oil I use is extra virgin olive oil.

Out of all the supplements I take I have to rait fish oils the highest.

Zinc and magnesium before bed on an empty stomach could help your test production some.

[keninottawa]

Thanks.

What are your thoughts on coconut oil?

[greyowl]

Originally Posted by keninottawa

Thanks.

What are your thoughts on coconut oil?

Ah, excellent question. If you want to up your sat fats, virgin organic coconut oil is the way to go, but stay away from non-organic hydrogenated coconut oil.

I'll spare you a song and dance and refer you to this website for more info ... tropicaltraditions.com . You can also order directly from them but most health food stores will carry it too.

For more info check out an osteopath's website, mercola.com . This guy knows his shit.

[hackskii]

Originally Posted by keninottawa

Thanks.

What are your thoughts on coconut oil?

MCFAs are ok, I would vary all your fats.

[keninottawa]

Thanks again for your help, folks. I might just stick with the cheapest solution and use more butter, cheese and flax oil (I know I'll never get a 1:1 Omega-3/Omega-6 ratio, but 1:2 isn't bad).

Just as an aside; since I upped my dietary fat percentage from about 20% to about 30%, my HPTA function seems to have improved. Diet is indeed superior to any supplementation.