Monday, April 25, 2011

Fat in Foods

Oh the fats in food, they are so much fun.  Too little fat in your diet and you won't be able to absorb certain nutrients that are fat-soluble. Too much fat in your diet and you wind up with steatorrhoea.  In the case of someone with Crohn's disease, your body won't want to absorb fat most of the time and you will have steatorrhoea a lot of the time.  At first, I thought it was a great thing that my body very rarely ever absorbed fat.  I would eat things then that make me cringe now.  My body wouldn't get fat and that was all I was worried about.  As I lived longer though and tested myself for foods that hurt, I came across some articles that talked about how some people get bound up with pain by eating too much fat in their diet.  These were normal people written about in the article and the revelation gave me pause.

It was at this point that I decided to cut out as much fat as I possibly could from my diet.  Fats were bad and I was hell-bent on proving it.  Going from one extreme to another, it was amazing at how quickly the "fat pains" went away.  Yes, they were "fat pains."  As mentioned in The Pain, different triggers illicit different pains.  It was during this time of experimentation with fat that I learned that there were specific, dull, bloating, lower abdominal pains that I could link directly to eating too much fat -- whether good or bad.  I was so happy that I was learning the triggers for the different pains in my life and removing them.  The more difficult part, though, was finding out how to bring fats and oils back into my diet before I experienced some sort of vitamin deficiency.  No matter how much someone may want to get rid of all fat in their diet, it is impossible.  Your brain needs fat.  Your body needs fat to absorb things like Vitamin E.  

Many personal trials later, I found oils and fats that were not only good for me but tasted good as well.  The number of fats and oils I will never touch again are too numerous to name.  I have found that I have the least ill-effect with virgin oils; my favorite being first, cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil.  I haven't found an upper limit to how much I can consume before pain starts.  Its flavor is so good, that a little usually goes a long way.  Other natural oils also are good, but none seem to do as well by me as the olive oil.  

I do cheat every now and then with some real, unsalted, artisan butter.  The amount I eat is so small, but the flavor is so rich that it is all worth it and pain free.

No comments:

Post a Comment