Saturated Fats and Osteoporosis

The past couple of weeks there has been a great deal of conversation with my patients about Calcium supplements and Osteoporosis. The big question was: "How can I have good blood levels and still have Osteopenia or have Osteoporosis?" and "I take a calcium supplement and I still have Osteopenia, why?" The answer is: You are not getting enough good saturated fats in your diet.

The problem is: With the big push to lower cholesterol the past 20 years or so we have seen a big rise in Osteoporosis, Obesity, Heart disease, Cancer, and Diabetes to name a few. The problem with a low all-fats diet is that most of the population replaced fat with carbohydrate and activity with TV, computer, and couch. The important thing to remember is excess carbohydrates, especially the ones that come in a box, a bag and are given to you through your car window are converted very quickly into fat for storage.

The solution is: More activity of any kind and good wholesome foods. These include the obvious fruits and vegetables, some good meat and good fats with Coconut oil and Olive oil leading the way and, the dreaded childhood oil, Cod liver oil. The first two should be used with every meal and healthy snack and the third as a daily supplement. The misguided hype against Coconut oil is that it is a saturated fat and all saturated fats are bad. These same well educated people do not know or just don't tell us that Coconut oil is a medium chain fatty acid not a long chain fatty acid which means it breaks down and gets into your body as energy fast, like a carbohydrate, but because it is a fat it doesn't raise your insulin levels like a carbohydrate. Don't forget that all of your cells, including your brain, use the big word phospholipids(fat in normal conversation) to make their cell walls. That's right, to have strong cell walls we need fat, especially saturated fat. So what does a no fat diet do? It gives you weak, unhealthy cell walls which give you weak, unhealthy cells which give you a weak, unhealthy you.

This takes us back to the Osteoporosis concern. Your bone cells need saturated fats too. To keep this simple, you need 4 things to have healthy bones.
1. Good Calcium- calcium lactate and calcium citrate are the best, the others aren't worth talking about.
2. Good stomach acid/HCL- this breaks down the calcium so that your body can use it, anything that prevents or lowers stomach acid also lowers your calcium levels. Most people with stomach indigestion already produce to little stomach acid and the food just sits and this backs up as reflux. It is to little stomach acid not to much.
3. Good vitamin D levels- this moves the calcium out of your intestines into your blood stream giving you good serum/blood levels.
And the final step:
4. Good saturated fats (like the ones found in Coconut oil)- these fats move the calcium out of you blood into the bone and other cells for use.

That is how good saturated fats can help you prevent Osteoporosis and a whole host of other cell related diseases. It also helps with hunger and food cravings too.