Fat. Ozone Layer. Fluorocarbons. Sunscreens. Oh, My!

Decades ago, on a show hosted by Richard Simmons, I learned that fat-free foods contained 'forms' of sugar to replace the fat that was missing. I was surprised, not shocked, at the revelation. Those altered products were never in my kitchen, anyway. Recently, however, I began thinking about the obesity epidemic - in another way - our fear of fat and wondered how we had managed to arrive at this strange place where 'it' was suddenly the villain in our diet. ...

 

The baloney surrounding our fear of this malignancy called fat began to paint a more sinister picture for TheMomsey. Fat does not make us fat! It is our 'sugar' addiction,  now playing havoc with our weight and health, in addition to other events, that Momsey believes have brought us to this scary place. ... (It is rare that one cause leads to an absolute effect, anyway.) Sadly, fat's negative press has given prominence to its cousins we love, sugar and starches, to such a degree that we now find ourselves fighting a losing dietary battle, eating innocent looking foods bombarded with sneaky gluten and 'composite' sugars/starches we were never meant to consume - with every 'processed' mouthful!

Our bodies have been talking to us for decades, soon after the ozone layer began to separate. ... Hmm.  Fat is integral to health while adding flavour to foods. We have natural solid fats: lard, butter, coconut oil, avocado oil and other liquid fats from sources such as seeds/nuts, vegetable, avocado, sunflower. (Then there is margarine, too, a stand alone, oft used by a previous loving generation of moms.) Fat is found in eggs, meat and dairy, all of which have been vilified by those 'in the know' at some point or another, in the past. 

 

Fat is our ally, necessary for the absorption of A,D,K,& E, (found in fruits and vegetables) critical vitamins for health. (Trans-fat is bad. We've all known that and have felt its ruinous effects on our bodies for years.) In the 50's, T.V. dinners were the new kid on the block, a welcoming addition in a world dominated by mom's home cooking. Yum.Yum. Then the 70's seemed to bring on a flurry of new food additives to tease our novice palates, allowing these invisible 'ingredients' to assume their 'rightful' place in our gut! So we thought. (Our gut microbiome must be kept healthy if we are to survive.) ... 

 

We were compliant customers, back then. About the same time, the ozone layer began to lose its strength, because of fluorocarbons emanating from the industrial products of our age: old refrigerators, aerosol cans, to name a few, we were told. Invisible to us, but not to the earth, these fluorocarbons were destroying the atmosphere, setting us up for some serious stuff later, I slowly began to realize. (It all made so much sense to TheMomsey.) The shrinking ozone layer, (now in recovery) this protective shield around the earth, this special filter, was separating, allowing the intense, harmful rays of the almighty sun into our lives and onto our skin, in seriously provocative ways. 

 

We had to fight back and so we did. We turned to chemical or mineral sunscreens, to protect our vulnerable skin, while being careful to use the right 'number' for protection against the UVA and UVB rays of this majestic star called the sun. We were becoming students of science, in our attempt, to understand the sunscreen numbers, their meanings and the sun itself in order to protect ourselves from skin cancer. Commercials reminded us continually of our duty to 'cover-up'. So we lathered up before going outside. I remember the times. (Cancer rates were skyrocketing, becoming an alarming statistic.) I listened and took note. Be very careful, we were cautioned. Our boys were toddlers, then, so protecting them from the noon-day sun was uppermost in my mind. (I preferred to use light clothing, hats for their protection. The other stuff, I was never certain of.) 

Sunscreens helped to shield us from the sun, the star of life on this planet. ... There were chemical, physical and mineral sunscreens from which to choose. As we covered our skin were we, unwittingly, creating a new health threat, a new-age Pandora's box? Could some sunscreens accelerate cancer growth on our skin while making it impossible for the sun's rays to reach the oil in our largest organ, the skin, for the synthesis of D, the protector of our health? This special vitamin, a hormone in disguise, began to take a serious hit.

As a child, the focus was always on homemade foods, real foods in their 'original' package, raw or cooked with minimal processing. Playing outside was automatic. Homemade food and outside play were links in the health chain. The ozone layer was doing fine now. The dining out experience was not the overwhelming attraction it is today. We knew who was cooking our food and what was in it, too. Eating was delicious and always about health. Fat was used without trepidation. Without fat, vitamins A, D, K, E cannot be absorbed by the body. But wait. Vitamin D is considered by many to be a hormone, not a vitamin, I learned recently. Imagine that! It has now been upgraded to hormone status, ruler over our total health. Not only had we ignored our gut microbiome for decades, but inadvertently, vitamin D, as well, the builder of our life-saving immunity. Slowly, we began to gain. 

Throughout the past two decades, we focused on the environment, rightfully so, but totally unaware of the harm coming our way, in another direction, with the depletion of life-sustaining vitamin D. Too much sun was bad. Staying indoors seemed good. Our bodies were becoming these canvases of layers of man-made ointments called sunscreens, rarely removed. We began to substitute fat-free, low-fat, and light products for fat, the all-purpose 'villain' in our foods, in our quest to lose weight and gain health. (Mother Nature's impact on our health was slowly losing its grip.) ... Following this misdirected fat-fearing ideology, our arsenal of health stabilizers, - Vitamins A, D, K, and E - was now at risk, their collective, wondrous health benefits slowly being depleted. Oh, My! What were we doing?

The thyroid gland needs Vitamins A and D to function and make its hormones. Since we were covering up with sunscreens and staying indoors to avoid the sun and avoiding fat, in general, the thyroid gland, the supreme ruler of all things metabolic, the master gland of our body, began to suffer deleteriously. Our immunity was now being placed in jeopardy, unknowingly. Oh, My. Vitamin D, the hormone and its assistants, A, K, & E could not perform their basic duties. Our ability to fend off allergens/proteins, found in wheat flour, nuts, milk and eggs, began to diminish. A chronic malaise seemed to take hold. Then came vaccines to replace our body's innate duty and ability to protect us. 

We protected our skin from the ever increasing hole in the ozone layer, created by the fluorocarbons of old appliances built a certain way. ... Our vitamin D stores were low because we stayed indoors where the newest craze - video games - grabbed our attention and held it there, hour after hour. Food choices were poor. We were ignoring the produce aisle. Some of us rarely went outdoors unless we owned a dog which forced us off the couch daily and repeatedly. The incredible internet was here, giving us the world at our doorstep - inside. 

 

While we were busy fixing the 'problems' we helped to create, complicating our diet in the process, we decided to blame fat for it all. Fat keeps us lean, healthy and plugged into real foods. The ozone layer, fluorocarbons, fat, the sun and sunscreens. It all makes sense to TheMomsey. Weird, eh.