Select groups seem still to be invested in the fallacy that ingesting fats makes a person fat.

Seems to me about as preposterous as deciding that I’m going to take up chewing horse-tails, based on the supposition that ingesting animal hair will cause my own hairline to grow back.

That was the logic that the medical profession used to push – that animal fats and by implication all fats are what make human bodies fat – trying to scare us out of enjoying one of the most vital and indeed flavourful food groups there is; then all that suddenly changed.

For a long time natural health experts had known that fat was not to be avoided and in fact if anything, it was to be celebrated but of course, few people in the medical profession ever pay much attention to natural health – they’d much rather fix an issue with harsh manmade drugs causing all manner of side effect thereby aggravating and often prolonging the issue, than to simply ask nature for a solution – rendering exposure of this truth somewhat of a non-event.

Then finally the medical profession caught up – kind of. Short of admitting they were wrong in their outright vilification of fats, they conceded that some fats were OK. Saturated fats – animal fats and the like – according to these guys were still to be condemned on account of their purported connection with cholesterol but natural fats – found in nuts, avocados etc – could be eaten largely without guilt.

In light of this the contemptible party ceased being fat, which in fact is easily metabolised by the body, and instead became sugar which, as natural health practitioners have always known, if not properly metabolised becomes fat under a person’s skin.

Alas the medical profession, in all its wisdom and hefty salaries, were still only halfway to the ultimate truth.

This convenient ignorance was showcased the other night in the form of medical-profession-orientated nutritional advice: “Popular as coconut oil has become among consumers,” one of the aforementioned lab-coats asserted, “what these people fail to understand, is that although coconut is technically a nut, coconut oil contains a high level of saturated fat, and should therefore be avoided … When cooking, don’t use coconut oil, try substituting with Canola, or Vegetable oil…”

Remarkable stuff; these so called professional health experts are unwittingly handing down advice that, as most natural health advocates will be quite aware, is potentially fatal.

Just as those ‘professional health experts’ are only now concluding that processed and smoked meats are potentially cancer causing – knowledge that every naturopath will surely have gleaned as children – I do wonder how long it will take New Zealand’s medical profession to learn that heated oils are also cancerous.

Butter or, yes, coconut oil – which despite the name is not technically an oil at all – would be a much healthier alternative.

As for cholesterol: if you have it you have it if you don’t you don’t, is generally the rule. Cholesterol is an inherited condition essentially, originating from a combination of excess and sloth. Moderate quantities of saturated fats are not to blame, moderate quantities of eggs are definitely not to blame; immoderate quantities of indolence – along with a dysfunctional pancreas – likely has a lot to do with it.

Don’t believe everything your GP tells you and certainly, do not allow New Zealand’s band of blinkered medical ‘geniuses’ to misinform you any more than they already have.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Dr Dufus

Photography by Coco Nartoll Saul-Good