Firebrand Meats

Why Low PUFA Meats

Why Low PUFA Meats

The many dangers of PUFA (polyunsaturated fat) have been widely written about in the paleo/keto/carnivore community. On my blog Fire In A Bottle, I explained how the modern rise in PUFA consumption extends all the way to our livestock in the article Disastrous Trends In American Bacon. That article points out that due to the way pigs and poultry are fed in this country, fat from pork and chicken (and turkeys and egg yolks) can have more PUFA than canola oil with a significantly worse ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fats. But animals can’t make PUFA and so they won’t have it if we don’t feed it to them!

Disastrous Trends was a follow up to my series The ROS Theory of Obesity and the following Croissant Diet, both of which talk about the role that PUFA consumption has in dysregulating insulin.

The correlation between poultry replacing beef in the American diet and prevalence of male obesity is nearly perfect.

Studies in mice show that the danger zone for PUFA induced obesity is 8% or less of total calories. A keto dieter getting 60% of calories from fat, much of it from pork (bacon) and chicken with PUFA levels in the 15-25% range, could easily be consuming over 10% of their calories as Omega-6 PUFA. If your weight loss has stalled on a keto diet, you may want to consider your fat ratios. But if you want to continue to eat bacon and skin-on chicken, you’ll need some sources of pork and chicken that are low in PUFA!

A high PUFA diet does a lot more damage than dysregulating insulin, however! You don’t have to take my word for it, there’s plenty of information out there:

Alex Fergus has PUFA’s: The Worst Thing For Your Health That You Eat Everyday.

There’s the classic The Oiling of America by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon.

There’s Tucker Goodrich’s What’s Worse—Carbs or Seed Oils? Understanding a High-PUFA Diet.

Jeff Nobbs recently penned Death by Vegetable Oil.

And this is Nina Teicholz’s excellent presentation:

The evidence that excess PUFA is a major (perhaps THE major) contributor to modern diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer continues to accumulate, just like the oils themselves bio-accumulate in pork and chicken if you feed it to the animals.