The Baby Boomer Diet

Demonized, traditional fats and unrefined extra-virgin oils are your secret weapon against many of the common diseases of aging, such as osteoporosis, macular degeneration, hormone decline, and dementia.

When it comes to progress, not all change is good. Many of the innovations of the 20th century that brought us convenience have cost us something in return. The lightbulb and computer have had both a positive and a negative impact on human health. We can add the modern-day supermarket to the list.

In 1930, Michael Cullen opened the first supermarket in Queens, New York. This seemingly progressive action would have a profoundly negative influence on the quality of foods eaten around the world.

In 1946, with a baby being born every eight minutes, more houses, hospitals, and schools were needed. Housing developments expanded farther outward from the town centers to create “suburbs.” Supermarkets were one of the things that made this expansion possible.

Supermarkets liberated our mothers from the kitchen because they had to make fewer trips to the store and spent less time shopping. Before the advent of the supermarket, a clerk selected a customer’s product off the shelf, weighed it, and determined its price. Supermarkets allowed our parents to inspect a product themselves and check out competitors’ prices. This rivalry forced manufacturers to consider packaging their products in eye-catching ways. Jingles and slogans were born. Marketing in newspapers, magazines, and eventually television spurred fierce competition and raised prices as companies vied for our spending dollars.

But, because convenience became most important in the mind of the American consumer, other issues began to emerge. Products needed to stay on shelves for longer periods of time, and “just-picked freshness” was becoming less of a priority. Shelf stability was a problem for fats and oils because fatty acids, when exposed to heat, light, and oxygen, become damaged. The oils that contain these fatty acids turn rancid, and poisonous to eat. Freshly pressed or unrefined oils with fragile fatty acids were not ideal for traveling great distances … or for sitting on supermarket shelves for lengthy periods of time. To solve this problem, “food scientists” and manufacturers of vegetable oils extended shelf life by changing or removing all of the beneficial fatty acids.

We were a trusting nation then. Our parents had confidence in the newly emerging miracles of modern nutritional science … man could improve upon nature. “Better” fats, like Crisco, became the new staple—after all … “Cooks who know trust Crisco.” Believing in what they saw in those ads, few questioned if it was wise or healthy to eat these “plastic,” nutritionally useless oils. But alas, to make foods “shelf stable,” we altered and desecrated them, thumbing our noses at the “real foods” that had fueled our bodies for thousands of years. You might say we sold our bodies and souls for shelf life.

Now, 50 years later, the consequences of processing and depleting the nutrients in almost every food and drink that passes our lips, especially altering our fats and oils, has shaped and will continue to shape the outcome of our health for generations to come.

Was it only greed and convenience that set us down this dangerous path? Not entirely. The science of fats is complex. In the earlier days of our youth, scientists and nutritionists were poorly trained. Members of the media felt it was their responsibility to report to the masses what they believed was true. Our parents were young and healthy, so they wouldn’t have noticed the subtle changes that were occurring in their own bodies. Unlike us, they believed that everyone has a builtin obsolescence; and conditions such as joint aches, failing eyesight, sagging skin, digestive problems, and cancer were simply a foregone conclusion.

Unfortunately, once the flaws in the bad science were uncovered, the food giants continued to suppress the truth. So, yes, it was also greed, but we must accept the role our generation has played in this. We wanted these foods. We wanted to feed them to our children, and today we are still “voting” for them with our dollars. Mistruths still dangle in the public’s memories today, and, indeed, it’s still an area of much confusion and inaccurate information.

As teens, we could eat greasy French fries and pizza and be relatively immune to their effects, but the toll of eating these bad fats and oils has been accumulating year after year. And now, as we face half a century of life, our prenatal jing has been depleted after decades of bad choices.

The good news is that Baby Boomers have the privilege of being the first aging generation to benefit from a true understanding of this complex science. While bad fats are still all around us in many of our favorite foods, for the first time we also have a superior collection of very fine fats and oils to include in our rejuvenation arsenal.

The science behind fats and oils is more complex than most of us want or need to know. Here’s the solution in a nutshell:

Avoid bad fats as if the quality of your life depended on it (because it does ), and eat the good fats that your own unique body thrives on.

This chapter will spell out the basics: why to eat fats, choosing the right ones, and learning how to use the good ones to prevent diseases of aging.

From the moment we were conceived, saturated fats were an important part of our prenatal diet. In the womb, saturated fat played a vital role in our brain and bone development. Because of the prevailing wisdom of the time, few of us were breast-fed. Yet healthy human milk would have supplied us with the saturated fat needed for our high energy requirements and rapidly growing bodies.

While research shows that the amount of milk fat varies according to a mother’s diet, if you were one of the more fortunate members of our generation who was breast-fed, the length of time you received milk from your mother would have helped protect your prenatal jing and made you hardier.

Mothers who have been lactating for more than one year have significantly more fat in their milk. In other words, as we grow, we need more milk fat.

Clearly, if saturated fat is indispensable to our early infant survival, does it make sense to eliminate it from our diet now? Is the abandonment of this brain-nourishing fat and the adoption of margarine one of the reasons why dementia and Alzheimer’s have become so prevalent in our parents’ generation?

What about our aging bones—and osteopenia and osteoporosis? Milk fat helps “drive” the minerals in milk (calcium and phosphorus) into our bones. While more than 40 percent of our bone mass is achieved between the ages of 12 and 18, we must consciously be mindful of adding minerals into our “bone bank account” throughout our lives. Saturated fat, especially from ghee and raw butter, helps us assimilate those minerals.

This may surprise you, but in the early 1900s, 40 years before the first of the Baby Boomers were born, we were a nation that ate mostly saturated fats from butter, lard (rendered fat from pork), tallow (rendered fat from beef or mutton), and coconut oil. We only ate a very small amount of olive oil. Heart disease was rare. But then we decided to “fool Mother Nature.”

In 1902, German chemist Wilhelm Normann patented the process to make hydrogenated vegetable oils. By 1911, Procter & Gamble bought the rights and made Crisco commercially available for frying and baking.¹

By 1950, heart disease had become a leading cause of death in the U.S. Research indicated that vegetable oils were linked to this increase. For example, in 1957 the American Heart Association (AHA) concluded from their research that dietary fat did not correlate with heart disease. But in 1960 they issued a new statement indicating that it did … if it was saturated. For obvious economic reasons, the vegetableoil industry—corn, soybean, and peanut—quashed the AHA research and began to attack all saturated fats, blaming meats, eggs, cheese, butter, and tropical oils (palm and coconut) as the heart-disease culprits. Almost five decades later, with our more sophisticated understanding of fats, the most up-to-date research indicates that small amounts of healthy saturated fats help in preventing heart disease.

But it is important to understand that from 1960 on, we Baby Boomers began eating a “low-fat diet” that included more refined, hydrogenated vegetable-based fats such as margarine made from corn, soybean, and safflower oils. This was a tragic mistake that has contributed to epidemics of obesity, eating disorders, hormone imbalances, infertility, brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and depression; as well as cancers, diabetes, and, ironically, an increase in heart disease.

We Never Lose Our Need for Saturated Fat

As good as it is for us, the fat in breast milk is not an option for us once we grow older … or is it? The adult version of the saturated fat can be obtained from eating butter and ghee. And the other important fats in breast milk, which provide us with DHA and EPA fatty acids, can be found in fish oil.

Ideally, butter should be eaten raw. Ghee, also called clarified butter, is ideal for cooking. (In India, it is a tradition to place a spoonful of ghee on a baby’s tongue at birth. The Tibetan monks drink as many as five cups of ghee each day for energy and warmth.) If you find that you thrive on fermented milk products … in the form of kefir, yogurt, or raw cheeses … you can obtain saturated milk fat in these foods as well. Although our saturated-fat needs may not be as great as an infant’s, adult brains and bones can benefit immeasurably from some saturated milk fat.

On a low-fat diet, you can still gain weight and develop heart disease, depression, and diabetes.

To grasp why obesity has increased despite the fact that many of us have stopped eating that delicious but “bad for us” butter, we need to understand a little more about the science of fats. Please hang in there … it’s not that complicated.

There are two types of fat (or lipids) found circulating in our bloodstream: cholesterol and triglycerides. Both of these are necessary for life. Cholesterol acts as a precursor for our sexual hormones such as estrogen and testosterone and even vitamin D (really a hormone). It is an essential part of the membrane of a cell. Triglycerides are important in the production of energy for most cells in the body (but not brain cells). They are stored in the body’s fat cells until needed for energy.

Cholesterol has received far more attention in the media and will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter, on protein. The problems begin when both cholesterol and triglycerides are too high and out of balance. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and surprisingly, even depression are linked to elevated triglycerides.

You can be on a low-fat diet … like many of us in our generation … and still have elevated triglycerides in your bloodstream. Why? Because inactivity, drinking alcohol, and taking drugs (including birth-control pills, steroids, and diuretics) can raise triglyceride levels. An underactive thyroid can also put you at risk, but perhaps the biggest source is all the sugar-laden foods and carbs eaten today.

When saturated fats and extra-virgin oils—all very flavorful—were eliminated … foods became tasteless. No one would buy them, so our “food scientists” solved this problem by increasing the amount of sugar in them. When we have a diet high in sugars (bread, pasta, cereals, doughnuts, sodas, white rice, and the like), the liver actually makes more triglycerides … more than we need. In other words, when sugars are not burned immediately as energy, they create triglycerides that lead to heart disease, diabetes, and certainly obesity … even in our children.

A recent connection has been discovered between high triglycerides and the obesity epidemic, which helps explain why we eat too much even when we know it shortens our life spans. Researchers at Saint Louis University discovered that high triglycerides block leptin, a hormone secreted by fat cells, from getting into our brains.² Leptin normally tells the brain to stop eating, so if triglycerides are blocking it, we’ll overeat.

And, as you now know, if you’re overindulging instead of limiting calories, you will most certainly age faster.

These same researchers investigated the connection between leptin and memory, finding that indeed leptin enhances memory. When high levels of triglycerides block leptin, they also block memory. This is an even greater argument for a sugar-free, largely plant-based, probiotic-rich diet, like Body Ecology’s Baby Boomer Diet.³

While Americans have been buying the low-fat lie for decades now, the ironic truth is that raw butter can help us lose weight and become more muscular. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a fatty acid found in the meat and milk of grass-fed animals. It is produced in much higher quantities (500 percent more) in grass-fed animals than in those that feed on grains and silage. The important thing to know about CLA is that it is a potent cancer-fighting substance; it lowers triglyceride levels, enhances immune function, and increases the rate of bone formation. It also decreases body fat, improves glucose utilization, and can reverse the symptoms of diabetes.

Once traditional fats were vilified, food manufacturers saw a perfect opportunity to gain control of the market. The process of hydrogenation allowed oils such as refined soybean, corn, and canola oil … normally in a liquid form … to be changed into a solid form to create margarines, spreads, and shortenings. This had to be done to replace the traditional, hard-at-roomtemperature fats (butter, for instance, or palm oil) previously used in baking, confectionaries, and frying. If made with liquid oils, these food products would melt into a blob.

Trans-fatty acids are “molecular misfits,” and this nickname says it all. They are a perfect example of how man can never duplicate the wonderful foods that nature provides. Trans fats lower good cholesterol (HDL) and impair blood-vessel function. But trans fats can have a negative impact in other, less-expected ways. A recent study at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston showed that women doubled their risk of ovulatory infertility when they received 2 percent of their energy intake from trans fats rather than monounsaturated fats contained in olive oil.⁴

Trans-fatty acids show up in commercially made shortenings, margarines, and fats usually called “hydrogenated vegetable oils” and “partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.” We find them in French fries, chicken nuggets, breakfast cereals, crackers, doughnuts, candies, Girl Scout cookies, and every kid’s favorite, macaroni and cheese … a synthetic cheese. You are eating them when you ask for “butter” at your local movie theater.

As you can see, these foods have been a staple of our children for decades. And then we appear puzzled about the “mysterious epidemics” of child and teen disorders such as autism, ADHD, early menses for girls, latent sexual maturity for boys, violence, depression, obesity, and diabetes. These have become the norm and are occurring in numbers never before seen in our population.

Although we have known for some time that trans fats are poisonous, members of the edible-oil industry do not want them identified. Finally, however, new labeling laws are changing this. In 2005, New York City officials announced that all 20,000 restaurants must remove trans fats from their menu. In January 2010 California became the first state to ban them. Major chains such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s have caved under the pressure and have stopped cooking with them. But in many cases restaurants are still using trans fats in their cooking oils, arguing that trans-fat-free oils will adversely change the taste of foods and along with it, their sales.⁵ You should be aware of this when choosing to dine out.

We’ve been eating refined oils for more than five generations here in the U.S., a legacy that now affects all generations currently living and those who are yet unborn. A more sophisticated understanding of the science behind fats and oils clearly shows that bad fats communicate bad information to our body.

But take heed: read labels carefully to avoid the latest manmade fat to hit the market—“interestified” fats. These will replace trans fats in our favorite junk foods, suggesting that they are safe. Just like hydrogenated oils, interestified fats use oils (such as refined soybean oil) to create fats that are solid, are less likely to go rancid, and are suitable for frying. The oil cannot be metabolized. Yes, interestified fats are not trans-fatty acids, but they are still unnatural and chemically modified.

A 2007 study published in Nutrition and Metabolism reports that these latest fake vegetable-oil spreads increase the risk for heart-disease factors. K. C. Hayes, a researcher and professor at Brandeis University, has found that interestified fats reduce HDL cholesterol (the good one that you want to be high) and raise blood sugar. Early research indicates that interestified fats pose serious health risks, perhaps of a greater magnitude than trans fats, so they must be carefully avoided as we age.⁶

Fried foods also contribute to the diseases of aging. When oils are heated to high temperatures—as in frying, roasting, and baking—toxic molecules are formed. Two such molecules are acrylamide and HNE.

Acrylamide is a chemical formed when carbohydrates and starchy foods are baked, roasted, fried, or grilled. Examples would be: French fries, potato chips, cookies, and bread. Coffee and smoking tobacco also create substantial amounts of acrylamides. At high temperatures (338 degrees Fahrenheit/170 degrees Celsius), the sugar in these foods reacts with a protein and forms this neurotoxin. While some studies linking acrylamide to cancer to date appear inconclusive, other research shows that acrylamide can negatively affect both the male and female reproductive organs. Nevertheless, it is another unnatural chemical and a neurotoxin.

Restaurants repeatedly heat and reuse polyunsaturated vegetable oils when they fry foods. HNE, a highly toxic compound, accumulates with each heating cycle. This new information is troubling when we think about our grandchildren’s future, especially if they take potato chips in their lunch boxes or eat at fast-food chains.

Watch out for the oils that are simply marked “coldpressed” or “expeller-pressed.” Even if they are found in healthfood stores, they do not have the same benefits as unrefined oils. A lot of what are being marketed as “healthy” oils, such as refined canola oil, lack color and flavor and are deficient in nutrients and fatty acids. Our livers are simply not designed to handle them. With the goal of extending shelf life, all of the beneficial fatty acids have been removed from these “plastic” oils, making them nutritionally useless.

Whole Foods Market has used refined canola oil and a refined olive-oil/vegetable-oil blend in most of the items sold in its “prepared cuisine” section. In the food business, where profit is key, organic, unrefined oils are considered too expensive. The cost of prepared foods at Whole Foods is usually quite high, yet many of the ingredients do not justify this. Fortunately, Whole Foods seems to be aware of this inconsistency in their corporate ideals. We have been told that, since 2010, they have begun to focus more on quality in their prepared foods.

If you are a Whole Foods shopper, please let them know of your concern. Contact them at: www.wholefoodsmarket.com/contact, and request that only unrefined fats and oils be used in their prepared foods. They do sell these high-quality fats and oils in their stores for use in your own home.

We’ve been eating refined oils for more than five generations here in the U.S., a legacy that now affects all generations currently living and those who are yet to be born. A more sophisticated understanding of the science behind fats and oils clearly shows that bad fats communicate bad information to the body. While good fats can silence genes that might be expressed as heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes, bad ones express or turn these genes on.

So, now that we’ve learned a little of the history of America’s “low-fat controversy,” let’s move on to the benefits of healthy fats and oils, and what foods we need to eat to obtain them.

In a nutshell, we eat fats and oils to obtain their essential fatty acids and their other important fat-soluble nutrients, including the vitamins A, D, E, and K. Fatty acids are the building blocks of fats. Fats provide energy and satiety, regulate cholesterol, create a stronger immune system, and relieve pain and arthritis. They are needed for health and certainly play a major role in how we age or don’t.

Healthy, unrefined oils are actually being used in alternative medical clinics and spas around the world to fight depression, emotional disorders, ADHD, autism, and even schizophrenia. When eaten in their extra-virgin, unrefined state, fats and oils are also quite delicious, so they provide us with pleasure and enjoyment as well.

Fats make us look great! They moisturize and replenish our skin, and they keep our hormone levels from declining, a main reason we begin to lose some of our youthful “sexiness.” The right fats can cool down inflammation in the body, a significant factor in aging.

Fats are essential to the eye’s rods and cones and are critical to many metabolic functions inside the eye. Some experts believe healthy fats in foods such as nuts may have the same positive effect on our eyes as they do on our hearts. The healthy fats in nuts may prevent total fat from clogging the “arteries” of our eyes. As macular degeneration and other diseases of the eyes, such as cataracts, are related to inflammation, a diet rich in leafy-green vegetables and omega-3 fatty foods that protect the body from free-radical damage is essential.

Fats make up 60 percent of the brain and are essential to brain function, including learning abilities, memory retention, and emotional equilibrium.

Osteoporosis affects more than 25 million Americans a year, mostly women. Although there is certainly a genetic predisposition (women whose mothers had osteoporosis are more likely to have it, also), heredity does not mean osteoporosis is a foregone conclusion. There is a clear link between a healthy diet and exercise and lowered susceptibility to osteoporosis. A diet high in a variety of healthy fats affects overall mineral density and absorption in the bones, helps the body properly utilize bone-related vitamins such as vitamin D, and reduces the chance of bone loss. In fact, certain fats (raw butter, ghee, fish oil, and the fat in egg yolk) actually contain vitamin D.

Fats help regulate hormones, and with the youngest Baby Boomers reaching their mid-40s, hormone issues become a greater concern. If your diet is deficient in good-quality fats, it is also likely that your body is not producing hormones in adequate amounts. Fats are required to make hormones and hormonelike substances called prostaglandins found in every tissue, cell, and organ in the body. By contrast, unhealthy fats and trans fats actually interfere with healthy hormone production by blocking the pathways in your body that produce hormones.

If you have even the slightest interest in nutrition, you are probably well aware that fats are broken down into different groupings—saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and trans fats.

Let’s take a look at each category. Not all the fats mentioned in this next section are on the Baby Boomer Diet. Fats and oils in bold/italic type are the ones you will want to eat throughout the week, but remember: purchase these only if they are labeled as unrefined, virgin, or raw.

Have Your Fatty-Acid Levels Tested

We recommend regular testing once or twice a year to see if you are deficient in certain fatty acids. Genova Diagnostics has created a test for blood-cellmembrane fats, called the Essential and Metabolic Fatty Acids Analysis (EMFA), which gives the ratios of the various fats, including saturated, monosaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans. You might request this from your physician. Nursing mothers can have their breast milk tested for fat content as well, with a CMT, or creamatocrit, test, which estimates the fat concentration and energy value of human milk.

• Meats and meat products such as sausage; poultry such as chicken, goose, and duck

• Plant sources such as avocado, palm oil, coconut oil, coconut milk, and coconut meat

Raw butter is delicious melted on your vegetables and grain-like seeds; ghee, red-palm oil, and coconut oil are great for cooking. All four can also be taken by the spoonful as a fatty-acid supplement. Once you correct any nutritional deficiencies, you will need a lesser amount of these in your diet on a daily basis. The cholesterol in egg yolk is an important fat for both growing and aging brains.

• Seeds and their oils—flax, hemp, pumpkin, canola (note that unrefined canola has an unpleasant aftertaste), chia, tea, sacha inchi, and sesame

Time for an Oil Change!

Looking for a super-nutritious cooking oil? Try this Body Ecology blend:

1 cup ghee

1 cup coconut oil

3 Tbsp. red-palm oil

While still in their original glass jars, set oils down into very warm water to melt them. Mix together in a clean glass jar. This multipurpose cooking oil is great for sautéing. You can also take a spoonful each day as a supplement.

Other great oils you may not have considered:

• Ghee—less mucus-forming than butter; contains butyric and caprylic acid; has antimicrobial properties; absorbs directly, for quick energy

• Coconut oil—excellent for thyroid; easily digested; has antifungal, antiviral properties

• Pumpkin-seed oil—nourishes the ovaries, bladder, and digestive tract; helps fight parasites and is a source of zinc, iron, and niacin

• Red-palm oil—contains vitamins A and E and lauric acid; has antifungal, antiviral properties

• Borage-seed oil—helps regulate a woman’s hormones

• Evening-primrose oil—helps regulate hormones (Barlean’s Essential Woman is a blend of eveningprimrose and flax oil: www.barleans.com)

• Flaxseed oil—a vegetarian source of omega-3s

• Cod-liver oil—great to take in colder months for omega-3s and vitamins A and D

• Avocado oil (unrefined)

• Walnut oil (available from www.florahealth.com and www.lanogalerawalnutoil.com)

• Salmon oil—rich in omega-3s; great for weight control (available from www.vitalchoice.com)

• Marine-lipid oils—includes anchovy, sardine, and krill oil (to learn much more about krill oil, visit: www.mercola.com)

• Green-lipped-mussel oil from New Zealand

• Hemp-seed oil—contains a good ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 (available from www.manitobaharvest.com)

• Raw butter—contains lipase, which helps digest fat; and butyric acid, for healthier intestinal microflora

There are also some flavorful oil blends:

• Omega Nutrition produces a blend called Essential Balance Junior—a mixture of flax oil, extra-virgin olive oil, and pumpkin-seed oil, plus flax particulate and natural butterscotch flavor. Their Garlic Chili Flax Seed Oil is also delicious (www.omeganutrition.com).

• Foods Alive produces flax oil blended with organic garlic and paprika (www.foodsalive.com).

• Green Pasture produces cinnamon-flavored cod-liver oil (www.greenpasture.org).

• Barlean’s makes a wildly popular line of “swirl” oils (www.barleans.com). They are excellent by the spoonful for children of all ages and are also loved by adults. Use them in your green morning-smoothie recipes.

What about Salad Dressing?

A very simple blend of apple-cider vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper is an excellent everyday dressing.

For a change of pace, check out Cindy’s Kitchen (www.cindyskitchen.com), which makes an organic dressing of creamy miso, sunflower oil, and extra-virgin olive oil. This is the only Body Ecology–approved dressing on the market so far. A dressing with refined sunflower oil would not have obtained our approval, but this one contains high-oleic sunflower oil, created by crossbreeding the sunflower plant so that the oil in the seed has a higher percentage of monounsaturated (oleic) fatty acids—similar to olive oil. High-oleic sunflower oil is also less susceptible to destruction by oxygen than regular sunflower oil, another beneficial attribute.

As for mayonnaise, the only commercially available mayo we can conditionally recommend is from Follow Your Heart, made with grape-seed oil, which is refined. To date we have not found one that is not. Yet, it is a much better choice than all the other refined oils. If you make mayo at home, you’ll find it is more delicious and certainly healthier.

• Oily fish—salmon, fish eggs, cod-liver oil, and a variety of small fish, such as anchovies and sardines

Vegetable oils such as corn, soybean, and peanut oil unfortunately have permeated the Western diet and must be strictly avoided if you want to stay young. They have been refined and stripped of any valuable fatty acids. They have also been bleached and deodorized. To your liver and gallbladder, they read like plastic. To rejuvenate, you must give these organs your special attention, and a good first step would be to stop poisoning them!

All of the above oils can be obtained in their extra-virgin, unrefined state. They can be drizzled on your vegetables and grain-like seeds. They can also be taken by the spoonful as a fatty-acid supplement.

• Fruits such as olives and olive oil, avocados and avocado oil, and tea-seed oil (not to be confused with tea-tree oil)

You have probably seen figures like “30 percent of the diet can come from fats,” but numbers such as these are misleading and inaccurate. What if you ate 30 percent of your fat from butter but never ate fish oil, coconut oil, or seed oils. Where would you obtain lauric, caprylic, and omega-3 fatty acids?

If you are wondering exactly how much saturated fat from butter or ghee is recommended or if these saturated fats are right for you at all, remember that your body is unique. As there are a number of aspects to consider (see Chapter 8: The Principle of Uniqueness), I cannot suggest, as most diet books do, to eat a certain percentage of saturated fats or to avoid them completely. You must decide this for yourself (see the box earlier in the chapter for information on testing).

In a nutshell, when you follow the Body Ecology Way of Life, you can enjoy eating a delicious variety of all the recommended organic, unrefined fats and oils throughout the week … and slowly and surely watch your youthful vitality return.

Only purchase oils that are organic and unrefined for the best health benefits—and choose a variety so that you get the full range of essential fatty acids.

If you had an intention to become the owner of a first-class baseball team, you wouldn’t hire only players who were highly skilled at pitching the ball. You’d need some great catchers and some excellent batters and outfielders, too. This is true for the fats you’ll want to employ to create a new and younger you. A variety of high-quality, unrefined fats and oils can play different and important roles in your body. Include this variety of healthy fats throughout the week since it will be difficult to include them all every day.

Therapeutically, one to three tablespoons of unrefined essential-fatty-acid oils should be taken at least once per day … especially in the beginning, since you will be correcting long-term nutritional deficiencies.

While there are hundreds of fatty acids found in nature, two unsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6, are called essential fatty acids (EFAs), because it is essential that we obtain these from fats in our food. If the body has these two, it can manufacture the other important fatty acids it needs.

Hemp-Seed Oil vs. Flaxseed Oil: A Better Balance

We’ve all heard of the health benefits of flaxseed oil, an ideal source of omega-3. Most of us are severely deficient in this fatty acid. When you first begin following the Baby Boomer Diet, it is recommended that you use flaxseed oil to get your omega-3 levels up to where they should be. But eventually you might consider switching to hemp-seed oil. Although flax oil is higher in omega-3, hemp-seed oil provides the ideal ratio of fatty acids—the perfect balance of omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9. Go to www.manitobaharvest.com for a good source of hemp-seed oil.

Most of us get ample amounts of omega-6. It is in the omega-3s that we are seriously deficient. Omega-3 fatty acids are especially important for rejuvenation of our prenatal jing energy and for prevention of many problems of aging. They are needed for building cells, especially the cells of the brain and nervous system, eyes, and circulatory system, including the heart. Omega-3 oils also quell inflammation.

Flax and chia seeds are vegetarian sources of omega-3s. Omega-3s can also be found in “marine lipid” oils. This simply means fish oils from salmon, anchovy, sardines, and krill.

One of our very favorite oils at Body Ecology is derived from the pristine waters of the Marlborough Sounds region of New Zealand, where the unique properties of the ozone layer and intense UV rays cause the highly prized Greenshell mussel (“green-lipped mussel”) and other life-forms to develop an unparalleled combination of lipid groups and unique omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids—which the native Maori have thrived on for more than 700 years.

Studies show that Greenshell-mussel oil has significant anti-inflammatory properties and can benefit patients with asthma, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and other inflammatory conditions. Pernax, a special formulation of Greenshell-mussel oil and evening-primrose oil, has arrived just in time for Baby Boomers. Find out more about this amazing product at: www.pernax.com/bodyecology.

(Most people don’t realize that fish don’t make the omega-3s themselves but rather accumulate these oils from the microbes and microalgae they feed on in the marine environment.)

There has been some concern of late with regard to the increased demand on wild-fish stocks and fish farmers as consumers’ primary source of omega-3s. Dwindling stocks, along with the risks associated with polluted fish, have encouraged the industry to explore the extraction of omega-3 from alternative sources. One of these potential sources is a noxious weed from Australia called Paterson’s Curse, which contains high levels of the stearidonic acid that fish such as Atlantic salmon can convert to omega-3 oils. Companies such as Martek Biosciences are already offering algae-derived omega-3 DHA as a dietary supplement, while other companies continue to search for sustainable and pollutant-free sources of EPA and DHA.⁷

If you have difficulty digesting fats and oils, most likely your liver and/or gallbladder are congested. It is important to begin the process of cleansing your liver. (See Chapter 24 for more on detoxification and colon cleansing.) One of our Body Ecology products, LivAmend, has been designed to increase bile flow so that toxins leave your liver more effectively. We have testimonials and lab reports from people who tell us that LivAmend has lowered their elevated LDL cholesterol levels in a short period of time. (See the Body Ecology website for more details on LivAmend.)

Most important, creating an inner ecosystem of beneficial, fat-digesting microflora is a must to help digest and assimilate the fats you consume. Fat intolerance will improve as you eat and drink fermented foods and beverages each day.

Symptoms of fat intolerance are: pains in the neck and shoulders, spasms in the large and small intestines, feeling tired just after eating, bloating, indigestion, belching, flatulence and/or nausea, upper-right abdominal discomfort, and hard stools. Fat intolerance can be confirmed by a simple urine test or by eliminating fats from your diet for a week and noting any improvement in your digestion and energy.

Fermented foods and enzymes should be taken at every meal to help with digestion of fats. The fat-digesting enzymes are: lipase, pancreatin, and ox bile.

Keep in mind that when you eat animal protein, excessive amounts of fats, even those recommended, delay the secretion of gastric juices. This means those all-American tuna, egg, and chicken salads with heaps of mayo could be contributing to your symptoms of discomfort.

A small amount of organic, unrefined coconut oil, ghee, or red-palm oil used for sautéing shouldn’t cause you any discomfort, while salad dressings or heaps of butter on your foods may. (You can find a Body Ecology no-oil salad-dressing recipe on: www.bodyecology.com.)

The Body Ecology universal Principle of Uniqueness tells us that we should not compare our own needs for fats and oils with those of others. Each of us is unique. The quantity of fat and oil to consume at one time will ultimately depend on the current health of the liver and gallbladder.

And most important, you must ask yourself, “How well do I digest these fats and oil?” Yes, butter can be a valuable fat, but only if it is right for your unique body. You are an experiment of one. You have to find out what your body needs at this moment in time, and that need will change constantly. Seem confusing? Not really, just tune in to your body and listen. It will communicate to you through signs and symptoms if you eat foods that are not right for you.

You can try to determine your own individual need for fats and oils by carefully watching how your body reacts to each one, but ideally, taking the Essential and Metabolic Fatty Acid Analysis test mentioned earlier in the chapter is best.

The next best thing is to try one fat or oil at a time. When you have not eaten for at least three hours, take a spoonful of the fat or oil, and watch to see how it makes you feel … but again, testing is far more accurate in determining your immediate and individual needs.

— What is your level of activity? If you are active, you will definitely require more fats in your diet, and you will be able to consume more butter or ghee. Remember, the enzymes lipase and pancreatin can help with fat digestion.

— Do you live in a cold climate or a hot one? If you live in a cold climate or in a place with cold seasons, your body will need the extra fat to help you stay warm. Baby Boomers who retire to Florida or flee to exotic islands will find they can use much less. In fact, they might do best with saturated fat from plants, such as coconut oil and palm oil.

— Are you a large, big-boned person; or are you smallboned? Saturated fats are important for healthy bone development. Big bones need more.

— How’s your level of stress? You may want to increase the amount of butter and ghee in your diet when you are under a lot of stress. (Probably not an issue if you are exploring a tropical island!)

— Are you deficient in the fatty acids found in milk fat? Have you been avoiding butter for years and been eating margarine instead? At first you may notice that you are actually craving yummy raw butter. Your body truly needs it, so enjoy! You’ll soon find that this craving diminishes, and you will be satisfied with less.

— And then, finally, you must deal honestly with these questions: What is the current condition of your organs, especially your liver and gallbladder? How well do you digest fats today? Many of us have livers that are very congested and toxic. As we age, the liver also begins to shrink and is supplied with less blood. Ultimately, rejuvenating this organ so that you can benefit from these healthy fats and oils will be necessary.

Fats and oils are slightly expansive and acidic, and we innately want to combine them with sea salt, because it is strongly contractive and alkaline.

To see this for yourself, make a salad dressing with extravirgin olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. Taste the mixture.

Now add sea salt and voilà: what a difference … it’s become a delicious topping or dressing. (Our favorite salad-dressing salt at Body Ecology is Hawaiian sea salt from www.selinanaturally.com.)

When you eat fats, you will also want to balance them out with other foods. Raw daikon, leafy-green salads, apple-cider vinegar, and lemon juice are great choices because they create balance by helping with the digestion of fats. Ginger, fennel, and tumeric are examples of spices that aid in their digestion as well.

Fats and oils combine well with many foods: grain-like seeds, for example, or meals with animal proteins, including dairy proteins found in milk kefir. Land, ocean, starchy, and fermented vegetables are more delicious with fats and oils.

Many of us are limited by our imaginations when it comes to healthy oils. We may be avoiding the bad oils, such as vegetable and canola oil, but we have made olive oil the only one in our pantry.

While extra-virgin olive oil is an excellent choice for salads, it’s not a good idea to cook with it. Why? Under high heat, it burns easily, and when it does, it turns into a toxin. There are certain oils that are better for cooking, because they withstand a higher heat before degenerating. Some we would never want to heat because they lose their medicinal qualities. To retain the antioxidants and vitamin E in olive oil, eat it raw.

When you follow the Body Ecology Way of Life, ghee, coconut oil, and red-palm oil are the three oils used to sauté. Raw butter, virgin olive oil, and unrefined seed and nut oils are best drizzled right onto your food or used in salad-dressing recipes. If you want, you can add these to a sauce after it has cooled down a bit or just before eating.

What if you eat out, don’t cook, or aren’t preparing your food at home every day? There is nothing wrong with taking your needed amount on a spoon. Fish oils also come in capsules.

Documenting the effect that bad fats and oils … coupled with deficiencies of the good ones … have had on each generation is beyond the scope of this chapter or book, but needless to say, it has been devastating. It’s time to turn the fat story around and do it right. It’s up to us Baby Boomers to correct a serious wrong.

Changing the fats and oils you eat is a good, yet simple, first step. The next chapter will discuss an equally controversial topic today—protein.