Fat May Be The Healthiest Food You Can Eat

Scientists, and especially your doctor, would have cringed at that sentence 10 years ago. Five years ago, you'd have been lucky if your doctor even understood the importance of fat – most would claim (and many still do today) that eating fat causes heart disease. Today, only a handful of doctors know the truth: The right kind of fat in your diet cures almost anything.

Before I explain, let me tell you about a friend of mine. About a month ago, he told me that he and his wife are expecting a baby. She wanted him to ask me about what sort of fats – "Omega 3 and 6" – she should be eating. I told him what any good doctor should say to a pregnant woman's husband: Moderation in all things is probably the best course for yours and the baby's health.

But, what is an Omega fat? Better yet, what is fat?

Fat is simply a huge chain of carbon atoms bound together. Carbon, because of its physical structure, can bind itself to four atoms. Fat as a chain of carbon atoms means that the middle carbons have an atom on either side and thus have two other available binding sites. Interestingly, and somewhat arbitrarily, if a hydrogen atom is bound to each carbon in the chain, then the chain is called saturated (i.e. four atoms on each carbon – two carbons and two hydrogens). Thus, the name "saturated fats." This kind of chain is physically wobbly and as such is usually liquid at room temperature.

Guess what? Nature needs a little more strength to its fat so it creates double bonds between carbon atoms. Thus, adjoining carbons have only one hydrogen each. Their fourth spot is used to create a second bond between carbons: the so-called double bond. When this happens, sometimes the hydrogen atom is on the same side (in three dimensions) as the hydrogen on the carbon next to it… this is called a "cis" configuration.

If the two hydrogen atoms get stuck on opposite sides of the double bond, we have a "trans" configuration… and utter badness. When fat is in this configuration, it becomes much more stable and harder to melt – thus solid at room temperature. This is also known as a trans-fat… margarine is a great example.

Why is trans bad? It seems that the trans configuration is more inflammatory than the cis configuration.

It also turns out that both the atomic bonds and the location of fat on the chain have further implications for your health and mine. For example, olive oil is good for your health… it is known as a mono-unsaturated fat, and thus has only one double bond in the carbon chain (and in the cis configuration)…

If the carbon chain has more than one double bond it is called a poly-unsaturated fat. And this is where the Omega story continues.

Since 1996, the American Heart Association has recommended fish in our diet, but a special kind of fish: Fish from cold water, mainly because they are high in Omega-3 fats.

Omega-3 fats are so-called because the third carbon from the terminal end has the first double bond. Similarly, Omega-6 fats have the first double bond beginning at the sixth carbon from the end.

The story is more complicated, but in simple terms, the length of the fat is also important. Two short-chain fats are important to human health.

Short (18 carbons) chain Omega-3 fat is called:

And short (18 carbons) chain Omega-6 is called

These two fats are considered essential because the human body cannot make them. Thus, we must get them from our diets. In addition, these Omega fats are used to make longer chain fats such as:

These are even more important to our diet. Although the body can make these longer chain Omega-3 fats, it is an inefficient process. However, these fats are concentrated in the fat of cold-water fish and, as luck would have it, these two longer chained Omega-3 fats are health giving.

Benefits of Omega-3 fats include:

The fact is that we need fat in our diet. However, the key is the ratio of Omega 6 to 3. In order to gain the health benefits, this ratio needs to be very low.

What foods are high in Omega-3 and which are high in Omega-6?

When it comes to Omegas... What do I do?

Here's to our health,

David Eifrig Jr., M.D., M.B.A.