Today’s vlog, the final one in this series . . . and I PROMISE it will be a lot shorter! . . . If you have not seen my first 3 videos you can see them here:

Pt 1 - Hammer Drops A Fat Bomb – My Take on Part 1 of Their Article
Pt 2 - Hammer Part 2 Review – You Need to Know This About Fat and Heart Disease
Pt 3 - Masterclass: The Hard Facts of Mono & Poly Unsaturated Fats YOU need to know!

I want to discuss additional information on fats not covered in Hammer Nutrition’s Demystifying Fats Parts 1 and 2.  

These aspects of fat are obscure and mysterious because they are complex, and are not easy to dumb down so they are simply not talked about. However, they are no less important to optimizing fat metabolism to achieve higher health and peak performance. . . 

The Phytoestrogen Problem

First, It is really important to know that many of the MUFA & PUFA oils are “Seed Oils”. Seed oils contain phyto-estrogens. These are estrogen-like chemical compounds which have shown to exert an estrogen effect and/or bind to estrogen receptors. Ironically the less processed seed oils, the ones which often have a “Health Halo” or “Superfood” status, like pressed flaxseed oil tend to have the highest phytoestrogen levels. 

Phytoestrogens disrupt your natural hormonal balance and, by binding to estrogen receptors, phytoestrogens disrupt natural estrogen pathways. 

Again, don’t sweat a little sesame seed oil when you have Asian Food or even a flaxseed muffin if an awkward social situation presents itself. Like carbs and sugar, the occasional hit you take won’t set you back when you have built up your metabolic capacity.

Short Chain Fatty Acids

Second, there are the short chain fatty acids (SCFA) primarily acetate, propionate, and butyrate produced by your microbiota in the digestive tract, which convert carbohydrate, primarily from non-starchy vegetables into fat. This is the reason why OFM does not count non-starchy vegetable carbohydrates as a carbohydrate macro, because these carbs are converted to stable saturated fats.

A healthy and robust gut microbiota  also plays a crucial role in modulating the absorption, bioavailability and biotransformation of MUFA’s and PUFA’s. This includes the modulation of the imbalances in PUFA intake between Omega 6 and essential Omega 3 fatty acids. This underscores the crucial role Stomach & Gut Health play in your overall health and why it is Tier number 3 on the OFM Pyramid. 

Your Magical Liver

Saving the best for last is your body’s Alchemist, the liver, which can magically transform excess glucose, fructose and alcohol into liver fats of all types! This is one key reason why the High Carbohydrate, Low Fat Dietary recommendations, aka, the USDA Food Pyramid, caused an obesity epidemic in the US!

The more people reduced their fat intake the fatter they became due to this “Sleight of Hand” Magic Trick of the liver! However, by optimizing fat metabolism we can use this ‘magic’ to our performance advantage with strategic use of carbs, fructose and even alcohol. You see, this “magic” goes both ways when you optimize fat metabolism because the Magician then converts that liver fat into free fatty acids, ketones and even Glucose as energy substrates to meet the metabolic needs of physical activity.

Your body has the potential to be supremely efficient and incredibly robust, however, in a world full of processed foods, oversimplified marketing and, most of all, the simple fact we have easy access to way more calories and “nutrition” than our bodies need, our body’s are extremely inefficient….that basic inefficiency is no different between the excess of fats and oils in our diet for people doing keto as excess carbs. 

What Does All Of this Mean For You

It really comes down to YOU, your metabolism and your metabolic capacity. This is where we can help. We have the real-world experience, results and products to shift you back to the metabolism nature intended, the one that burns fat for your aerobic energy source.

Step one is to undertake a Metabolic Reset, this will get your physiology in the best position to start optimizing your fat metabolism. 

Then we build your Metabolic Capacity through the Adaptation Phase of OFM to give you metabolic flexibility harness carbohydrates for performance so you not only perform at your potential but get the adaptive signaling to get stronger, fitter, faster and more robust in every way. Finally, through the Integration Phase of OFM you learn how to enjoyably sustain OFM for Life!

If you want to learn more contact us for a free individualized consultation or, if you want to experience a taste of what shifting to fat as fuel is like without changing a thing, grab a 12 pack of Vespa today!