Most Americans believe that dietary fat is satanic. But what you think about fat is wrong. Fat is good. Your brain is 60-70 percent fat and is made up of the fats you put in your body. Fat also fuels biochemical processes that protect your immune and endocrine systems (you need fat to make hormones, and they are chemical communicators in your body).

Fat was vilified by the medical community and the government, but they got it so wrong and in the process led a lot of people into the bad health zone.  Once you are in a bad health zone it takes a monumental amount of effort to pull out. So I want to help you by telling you about fats. This blog would be miles long if I went into the whole story behind fat, so I hope that you’ll order Death by Supermarket on Amazon. It’s a cheap little book that will save you zillions in health costs down the line. Why? Because bad fats, which are endorsed by the medical community, are so dangerous and such killers that the sooner you understand which fat to eat and which to avoid, the better.

Polyunsaturated vegetable fats are said to be healthy by the so-called experts. These are corn, cottonseed, peanut, safflower, sunflower, soy, and canola. They are the fats that are lined up in gleaming bottles in your supermarket. These oils have been processed with heat and chemicals, and are exposed to oxygen all of which oxidize the fragile polyunsaturated molecule and create free radicals (which lead to cancer and every other degenerative disease). Adding to the problem is the fact that they are omega 6 oils.

But this doesn’t mean that you should avoid polyunsaturated fats altogether, because naturally occurring polyunsaturated fats are health giving and will contribute to your achieving brain neurotransmitters balance and your genetic gifts.

Within the polyunsaturated fatty acid are omega-3 and omega-6. Omega-3 and omega 6 are essential fatty acids, which means they are required by the body but can only be obtained through eating the right foods.

Omega-3 promotes lean body mass, which means that including omega-3 fatty acids in your diet will help you burn fat and build muscle. Omega-3 fats are essential to cellular health. Without omega-3 you will likely end up with dry skin, premature wrinkles, thin, brittle hair and nails, depression and other neurotransmitter imbalances, chronic constipation and a malfunctioning immune system, leading to muscle and joint pain and arthritis. Of course with omega-3, you will enjoy the opposite effects.

The ideal and traditional ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids omega-3:6 is about 1:1. Today Americans consume a 1:20 to 1:50 ratio. And this is not good, as an imbalanced omega 3:6 ratio has been shown to be a major contributing factor in the development of cancer and other degenerative diseases.

So let me try to be really simple because fatty acid biochemistry is totally confusing and has made my own head spin around like Linda Blair’s in the Exorcist.

Omega 6 is found in meat—but unfortunately it’s too high of a ratio now that factory raised animals are fed an unnatural diet. Like humans, they are what they eat, so when we eat them, we’re eating too many Omega 6’s. I hope that’s clear.

Omega 3 is especially important now that researchers have identified what Dr. Russell Blaylock (a former neurosurgeon who is a leading alternative medicine expert) calls “smoldering inflammation” as the cause of most disease. Omega 3 can be found in cod liver oil, whole grains, fruit, veggies, fish, olive oil, and garlic.

Omega 3 becomes gamma-linolenic acid in your body (you’ve heard of it—GLA) which reduces inflammation. And you can actually supplement your diet with GLA producing omega 3 oils like evening primerose, borage, and black current seed oil (please keep them in the fridge).

The balanced diet of real, whole, historically eaten foods that I talk about in Death by Supermarket provides a perfect balance of omega 3:6. The typical American diet, like I said above is killer on the Omega 6 side.

Omega 3 is so important to brain health that if you are depressed or you kids are tearing the house apart in rage and/or suffering from ADD try giving them (encapsulated so they don’t rebel) flavored cod liver oil.

Examples of healthy polyunsaturated fats are cold-water fish such as cod, herring, mackerel, salmon and sardines and their oils, eggs, butter, cream, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and oil, sunflower seeds, walnuts, wheat germ and wheat germ oil and flaxseed oil (experts recommend cod liver oil over flaxseed oil, as flax tends to go rancid more quickly). Sesame oil is the only polyunsaturated oil that can be used safely in cooking.

Other fats you know about are saturated and monounsaturated, which are also healthy and I will write more about these fatty acids in future blogs.