brief intro:
I read this list when I have time, and I've posted before under my unmarried name
of Lauri Light. It's now Lauri Paris. I've been paleo low-carb for several years
now, and have used it to help a myriad of health problems I had. I'm a health
practitioner and am beginning to counsel people on diet, so I resubscribed to
this list to stay current with all these fascinating issues.

This is a new thread.
I'm really interested right now in the healthy fat issue, both in terms of types
of fats and also in preparation methods. My understanding is that PUFAs
(polyunsaturated fatty acids) are the most unstable type of fat, and easily
oxidize when exposed to heat, light and air. It seems that oxidized fats can
cause serious damage in the body. So we all know to keep the flax oil & ground
flax seeds refrigerated in opaque containers. Why does Cordain promote over &
over in his recipes the use of flax oil in cooking? This makes no sense to me.
Sally Fallon recommends soaking nuts and roasting them at very low temps, less
than 150, to preserve the fat quality. Then she includes using these precious
nuts in all sorts of recipes that involve heating to temperatures much higher
than this! In my opinion it seems that flax, other seeds, and most nuts should
not be heated to high temperatures, and if they are, it could potentially be as
bad as using hydrogenated vegetable oils. I know Cordain doesn't recommend nuts &
seeds other than flax because of the N3/N6 ratio, and this is another issue. My
question now is what is the best use of all of the nuts & seeds?

I just soaked and low temp roasted a bunch of pecans, walnuts & almonds (yum!)
but like many of you I can't handle gobs of them because of the carb content. But
I would like to grind them and use small amounts of them in recipes, but I'm
concerned about the safe use of those vulnerable PUFAs.

Comments?

Lauri Paris
Santa Cruz