E2G EAT TO GROW
NUTRITION, SUPPLEMENTS, MUST-HAVES AND MORE
The Skinny On Fatty Acids
By George L. Redmon, PhD, ND
“Fat” used to be bad word in fitness circles. Not anymore.
H
ealth officials have continuously sound-
ed the alarm concerning the dangers of
excess consumption of saturated fats.
These fats where believed to increase
the development of heart disease, obesity,
and other metabolic disorders. However, a re-
cent collaborative study by researchers at the
University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
and Harvard School of Public Health has
shown that saturated fats aren’t as dangerous
as once believed.
What these investigators discovered was
that over-consumption of polyunsaturated
fats while substantially reducing consumption
of saturated fats did not reduce the incidence
of heart disease. What has been discovered
is that trans fats are the most dangerous fats.
These artificially produced fats differ from
naturally occurring fats found in plant oils and
animal fat. Produced when vegetable oil is
solidified at high temperatures via the use of
hydrogen, trans fats are listed as partially hy-
drogenated oils. The hydrogenation process
degrades and distorts the chemical configu-
ration of fat, which the cells are incapable of
metabolizing properly.
Separating the negative aspects concern-
ing trans fats, these new findings concerning
the benefits of saturated and unsaturated fats
should serve as an anabolic, thermogenic,
and metabolic wake-up call for anyone who
is in the gym.
22 JUNE 2017 | ironmanmagazine.com
THESE NEW FINDINGS
CONCERNING THE
BENEFITS OF SATURATED
AND UNSATURATED
FATS SHOULD SERVE
AS AN ANABOLIC,
THERMOGENIC, AND
METABOLIC WAKE-UP
CALL FOR ANYONE WHO
IS IN THE GYM.
The Anabolic Aspects Of Fat
Despite fat being a potential nemesis in your
attempts to build and maintain a lean muscu-
lar body, from an improved growth, workout,
and metabolic standpoint, you need both
saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. For
example, 50 percent of your cell membranes
are comprised of saturated fatty acids. Sports
nutrition expert and powerlifting legend Dr.
Fred Hatfield states that as components in
the structure of cell membranes, they are vital
to proper growth. He also notes that saturat-
ed fatty acids transmit signals that stimulate
metabolism, proper nerve and brain function,
as well as the release of insulin, one of your
body’s most anabolic hormones. Remarkably,
researchers of the Nutrition, Metabolism and
Genomics Group at Wageningen University
in the Netherlands remind us that polyunsat-
urated fatty acids (PUFAs) play an integral
role in modulating genes that increase the
metabolic rate. Also, when released into the
bloodstream, polyunsaturated fatty acids are
metabolized in two different cellular parti-
tions, the peroxisomes and the mitochondria.
Well-known medical journalist Lorna R.
Vanderhaeghe, the author of Healthy Fats For
Life, states that peroxisomes are found in all
tissues and abundantly in the liver and kid-
neys. They break apart long-chain fatty acids
and are very thermogenic (heat producing).
Paradoxically, PUFAs jump-start and increase
the thermic activity of peroxisomes and fats
are transported into mitochondria cells to be
burned and utilized as fuel. Additionally, well-
known integrative health-care researchers
Michael R. Eades, MD, and Mary Dan Eades,
MD, the authors of Protein Power, note that
saturated fat also prompts the liver to release