Fat has gotten a bad rap for so many years but we are starting to finally hear in the media about why fat might not be so bad after all. We are in firm belief here at Live Simple Eat Well that adopting a whole food, nutrient dense diet and getting far away from the standard American diet is how we can achieve optimal health. Fat has never been bad, and never will be, but what we as a society have done to it, like highly processing and creating fats that were never made to enter the human body, is why they can be “bad.” If we are to adopt a whole food, nutrient dense diet full of fats the way nature intended we will begin to see the amazing benefits that fat has to offer us! If you are in to the science of how the body operates this article has plenty of great information for you, skip ahead to “key points” if you want to read past all of the sciency stuff.

In order to benefit from the fats we are eating, we must be able to digest them. Fats that are undigested become an assault on the immune system for a variety of reasons. First, high quality fats are a vital part of our diet to improve health, but in today’s society the fat that is generally consumed is extremely low quality and easily rancid which can lead to a whole host of problems in the body. When our bodies are functioning properly and after our food is chewed and mixed with gastric juices becoming chyme in the stomach, the process of digestion continues as chyme is released into the upper part of the small intestine called the duodenum. Chyme should be very acidic and this acidity triggers the small intestine to secrete mucus as well as hormones secretin and CCK into the bloodstream. Secretin signals to the pancreas to release bicarbonate and pancreatic juice and CCK signals to the gallbladder to release bile.

This is important because the pH of the chyme must be brought up in order for the bile salts that have been released to continue to complete the digestion of fats, as well as protein and carbohydrates. Still in the small intestine, fats are broken down into glycerol and fatty acid molecules and the millions of villi collect the nutrients and send them out into our bloodstream where they are needed by the entire body. 

There are many points in the digestion process that are commonly disrupted and when digestion is off at any point, including our mental perception of our food, this can hinder the absorption of the nutrients we consume.Approximately 90% of americans suffer from producing too little stomach acid which poses a major problem in digestion. Stomach acid is essential to maintain the proper pH of the stomach or else foods aren’t properly broken down, in the case of fats they will rancidify. We learned that chyme has to maintain a low pH (1.5-3) in order to be released into the duodenum. If stomach acid isn’t present to maintain this low pH the chyme will stay in the stomach for an extended period of time and fats will continue to rancidify. We also know that the pH of the chyme is critical for proper bile salt and hormone release, and if chyme is to alkaline in the duodenum secretin will not be released to trigger the release of pancreatic juices. All of this will lead to the improper and incomplete digestion of not just fats but proteins and carbohydrates as well. 

Our modern society is notorious for not just eating low quality and a low amount of fats but also for having low stomach acid, and this combination is detrimental to our health.  This combination leads to gallbladder dysfunction because a poor quality  fat or low fat diet does not stimulate the release of bile causing the bile to sit in the gallbladder waiting to be used and while stagnant becomes vicious. The gallbladder will become stimulated but won’t be able to release this now vicious bile and since bile is absolutely necessary to emulsify and absorb fats, fats will not be absorbed. When our bodies aren’t able to absorb the nutrients we need, the lining of our small intestine that was once strong and able to pick and choose what was supposed to end up being expelled by the body or to be absorbed, now can’t differentiate between the “good” guys and the “bad” guys. This allows the inappropriate sizes of fats to be expelled into the bloodstream which sends our immune system into a spiral. 

Key Points: in order for our bodies to process and absorb the nutrients we need in our food (from a properly prepared, nutrient dense diet), we must have a properly functioning digestive system and an adequate amount of stomach acid. A high majority of  americans don’t produce enough stomach acid which leads to a whole host of problems, including malabsorption/nutrition, acid reflux and autoimmune problems. An inadequate amount of stomach acid should be the first place physicians and nutritionists investigate to heal because of the amount of symptoms and illnesses this can lead to. 

Some practical ways to help improve your digestion of fats: 

• First, consider removing processed foods and hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats from your diet and replace them with some of the suggestions below

• Check for and eliminate any and all food sensitivities 

• Digestion starts in your brain, so what you think about your food matters 

• Chew and enjoy your food 

• Add digestive bitters to your meal routine

• 1-2 tlbs of ACV 30 minutes before meals 

• Add supplements that help with digestive enzyme and bile action like Betaine HCl, pepsin and pancreatin (this should be after underlying condition of low stomach acid is healed and all above methods have been explored)

Examples of some healthy fats (in no particular order): 

• Avocado

• Coconut 

• Eggs

• Olive oil

• Olives

• Grass-fed beef 

• Raw dairy (if you can handle it) 

• Grass-fed butter or Ghee (depending on your sensitivity to it) 

• Nuts & seeds (always in moderation & preferably sprouted) 

• Please consult with your doctor or NTP before stopping or adding any supplemental protocols and medications. 

Sleep Hygiene

This post is a little heavy on the science, so if you’re into it check it out! I will write a summary easier to follow soon ❤️

Our circadian rhythm is generated by clocks that are innate in nature and move about even absent of environment cues, and our clocks influence many different biological processes including neuronal, endocrine, metabolic, and behavioral function. A region in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) plays a role in circadian rhythm generation, and recent research has shown that different organisms in the body have different clocks and have their own circadian rhythm, and are linked together in something called the circadian timing system. I found it so interesting that different organs have their own timing system that regulates different functions, like the hepatic clock regulating fasting glycemic control and glucose tolerance. The SCN has shown be influential in sleep wake cycles, which partially determine feeding and fasting behavior, which can synchronize to photic cues (Johnston et al., 2016). Grens (2013), tells us that evidence has shown that when people fall outside of our daily rhythm, people are more likely to suffer from diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. He also tells us that according to current research, it isn’t just a disrupted sleep pattern that can lead to all of these risks, but it is also the timing of food consumption that can lead to chronic disease. The SCN guides the circadian clocks that are found inside of many of our organs, and they are guided by different cues, some as we have seen are guided by light, but some are guided by food intake (Grens, 2013).

I found it so interesting that genetics also plays such a large role in how our individual genetics can play a large role in defining our circadian rhythm, and how we respond individually to different timed environmental cues like light and nutrient timing. For example, for carriers of a certain snp of CLOCK, showed that they had shorter sleep duration, higher plasma ghrelin concentrations, delayed breakfast time, evening preference for food, and less compliance with a Mediterranean diet pattern. This is such useful information for individuals who struggle with sticking to a certain diet, and have difficulty eating at certain times of the day that have shown to be better physiologically. When our circadian rhythm is misaligned, this can cause decreased glucose tolerance, decreased concentrations of satiety hormone leptin, and increased wake time blood pressure. All of these effects can cause increased weight gain and risks for many different metabolic and chronic disease. If people were more aware of the fact that nutrient timing had such a profound impact on their health, I think people would be more viable to change.

One study shows us that timed feeding is a beneficial approach to enhance weight loss and glycemic control in humans, and also diet induced thermogenesis was almost twice as large in the morning than in the evening when the same meal was consumed. This shows us that individuals would work well by understanding that it is important to refrain from late night eating, maintain a fast, and eat the majority of their food intake early in the day (Johnston et al., 2016). Grens, 2013, tells us that the genome is at different states throughout the day, and Johnston et al., (2016), showed us that we are able to burn more of our meal by thermogenesis earlier in the day than later. Today’s society has made it easy to access food at any time of the day, and also presents food at times when the genome says that is time to fast, so when we eat during these times it might lead to increased energy storage, which leads to weight gain and metabolic disorders. Our bodies have adapted to eat during day light hours, and maladapted to eat at night. By opposing these adaptations, we are setting ourselves up for disease, and inappropriate storage of food (Grens et al., 2013).

Two strategies to help combat this issue I think would be to incorporate intermittent fasting, and refrain from eating late at night. According to Zilberter & Zilberter, (2014), late or night time eating was linked to multiple eating bahavior pathologies that led to elevated blood levels of insulin and glucose which showed metabolic syndrome. When late night eating in one study was excluded, and there was a timed eating phase, the subjects ate 244 less kilocalories than the control group that didn’t have a controlled eating time.

Intermittent fasting involves periods of fasting and feeding. Certain days eating will be restricted severely, and some days eating will be as normal. Thom & Lean, (2017), tell us that since weight loss can lead to different unfavorable metabolic changes in the body that make it hard to keep the weight off, these unfavorable changes can be offset by intermittently fasting energy intake to meet weight loss requirements, rather than doing continuous ongoing energy restriction. Intermittent fasting can help with many different metabolic effects, such as promoting ketosis for its appetite suppressing effects and results in involuntary calorie reduction. With the exclusion of late night eating, and possibly skipping BF, weight loss will occur through involuntary calorie restriction (Zilberter & Zilberter, 2014).

Obtaining from eating late at night, will help decrease calorie intake in the individual, and will also help the body regulate proper storage during the times we have adapted to store energy. Intermittent fasting could also help the individual obtain the benefits of fasting, as well as receive involuntary calorie restriction leading to weight loss.

Research Cited

Grens, K. (2013). Out of Sync | The Scientist Magazine®. The Scientist. Retrieved 19 June 2017, from http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37269/title/Out-of-Sync/

Johnston, J., Ordovas, J., Scheer, F., & Turek, F. (2016). Circadian Rhythms, Metabolism, and Chrononutrition in Rodents and Humans. Advances In Nutrition: An International Review Journal, 7(2), 399-406. http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/an.115.010777

Thom, G., & Lean, M. (2017). Is There an Optimal Diet for Weight Management and Metabolic Health?. Gastroenterology, 152(7), 1739-1751. http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2017.01.056

Zilberter, T., & Zilberter, E. Y. (2014). Breakfast: To Skip or Not to Skip? Frontiers in Public Health, 2, 59. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00059