I often get asked about whether eating fat is good for your skin and my reply is always a resounding YES! Our brain, body and skin need fats in order to function well, as do our cells, and they are super important for making healthy hormones – omega-3 fats found in oily fish, such as salmon, krill oil and sardines as well as flax seed (linseeds), chia seeds and walnuts help protect against inflammation.
Where the problem with fats lies is that the ratio is out of balance. The Western diet favors too many omega-6 containing food (oils from nuts and seeds, safflower, sunflower, soybean, peanut) and not enough omega-3’s. Signs of deficiency of omega-3 or too much omega-6 can be dry itchy flaky skin, rashes, eczema ,psoriasis, and brittle hair and nails.

Although saturated fats get a lot of bad press (meat, whole eggs, coconut oil and organic butter),they have many skin and health benefits. Saturated fats make cholesterol, which is needed to keep the skin healthy. Fat from grass-fed meat is rich in conjugated linoleic acid, which is anti-inflammatory, immune boosting and, ironically, fat busting.

I tend to cook with small amounts of ghee, coconut oil or butter as they are much more stable at high temperatures, unlike their vegetable oil counterparts. Butter is dairy, but it is much lower in lactose and negligible in casein and .if you ferment it, lactose is eliminated. It is also an excellent source of vitamins A,D,E and lecithin (which is essential for cholesterol metabolism) lauric acid (which is anti-inflammatory), a good source of iodine and, if you opt for grass-fed butter, it’s rich in vitamin K2.

When it comes to omega-6 vegetable and nut oils, I like to eat nuts in their whole form (except for macadamia nut oil, which is relatively stable at high temperature) and use olive oil, which is rich in skin-protective acids, on salads. The only other omega-6 oil that I recommend consuming is evening primrose oil, as it is rich in GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) which is anti-inflammatory.
Fats can be hard to digest for some people, which is why it is vital to look after your liver (where bile that breaks down fats is made) and gall bladder (where it is stored) and also your digestive system, which helps make enzymes that break it down. Poor fat digestion and absorption can contribute to dry flaky, creepy skin.

HOMEWORK
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