Is Saturated Fat Bad for Endometriosis? Myth Debunked
Why do people tell you not to eat saturated fat if you have endo? FACT: There is no concrete evidence behind this recommendation.
Why do we see saturated fat on food lists recommended to avoid if we have endometriosis? The truth is, our bodies need healthy levels of saturated fats in our diet. It helps balance hormones, create supple cell membranes, and is an awesome cooking fat that doesn’t oxidize at high heats (making it anti-inflammatory in that regard). Foods found in nature that are rich in saturated fats are also rich in other nutrients we endo-gals need, like iron, zinc, vitamin A, glycine, glutamine, CLA, and other essential fatty acids.
This is why I personally like all my clients dealing with hormone imbalances, fatigue, skin issues, joint pain, and more to make sure they eat healthy saturated fats in their diet, including 100% grass-fed meats, butter, coconut oil, and [orangutan-friendly, sustainably-harvested] palm oil. These foods are awesome for re-regulating an immune system out of whack, lowering inflammation, and keeping hormones happy.
So when I kept hearing women reach out saying they were dutifully avoiding this fat I couldn’t figure out just exactly WHY - why was recommended to avoid for people with endo? If there is a reason, I wanted to know, because otherwise it would immoral to be recommending the removal of these healthy foods without reason.
So, what are all the reasons??? I searched. There was one. ONE study. An observational study done 10 years ago potentially implicating palmitic acid with endo in some sort of way. It’s not conclusive, and it didn’t even deeply investigate the association. Ugh.
So here’s a story about how one silly little study laid the groundwork for the fear of saturated fat in the endo community. All starting with palmitic acid. Ready, set, let’s debunk this myth!
What is Palmitic Acid?
Saturated fat is an umbrella term for all 37 saturated fatty acids that exist, and Palmitic acid is one type of those 37. It’s also the only saturated fat that has been found in research to be potentially implicated with endometriosis - through a single observational study. First of all it reads “saturated fat and monounsaturated fat, the major components of animal fat, were not associated with endometriosis risk” - cool, okay saturated fat on the whole is not a problem. But then it continues, but “palmitic acid intake, a saturated fat primarily contributed by animal products, was significantly related to increased endometriosis risk when all other dietary components were held constant” (20).
In plain speak, this study is saying saturated fats on the whole = okay. But it looks like women with endo were eating a lot more palmitic acid, meaning maybe it’s associated with endo in some way. Queue a recommendation to avoid saturated fat without any more research. Do you agree we need ts do some digging to find out much more about this issue? Agreed :)
What we know about palmitic acid specifically is that it’s primarily found in palm oil, coconut oil, and animal fats, it’s the most abundant saturated fat in the body (your body stores fat in this form), and is necessary for many essential roles and the proper functioning of your cells. We need palmitic acid to some degree. Still, some research finds it may be damaging when over-consumed in isolation (21), luckily something that never occurs in nature. Nature instead packages nutrients within a whole foods diet that negate unwanted affects palmitic acid alone may induce (22,23) - meaning it shouldn’t be damaging when eaten in within a balanced dietary framework.
then why could palmitic acid potentially be damaging?
We find palmitic acid isolated as it would never be in nature from two places. Factory farmed animals being one (having up to 3 times more than grass-fed animals) (24), and the other being from processed, refined foods.
Palmitic acid in processed foods is a cheap and readily available ingredient from palm oil, used for that creamy, addictive mouthfeel in the junk foods you may crave. It’s packaged into thousands upon thousands of convenient to eat foods, added to pizzas, ice cream, cakes, and cookies. Yup, it’s even in organic processed fare, especially since a lot of vegan/vegetarian foods need more of that “creamy” feel to them. Eating an abundance of these foods can cause an overabundance of palmitic acid in your diet that would never be found in nature.
Palmitic acid is added to commercial foods made with cheap ingredients to make them taste rich and creamy, like they were made with quality sweet cream and butter instead of vegetable oil. Even organic.
Yet, even if you are eating increased palmitic acid , a 2017 study examining the affects of palmitic acid found that changes it levels of consumption don’t significantly change levels in the body (25). This is important, as it means the palmitic acid you consume doesn’t appear to “stick” in the body, persay. Instead, what research finds is that eating a sugar or carbohydrate laden diet, devoid of omega 3’s, with a sedentary lifestyle, does make palmitic acid stick - big time (25)..
In this scenario, eating simple carbohydrates in excess a will force your liver to work frantically to convert the sugar into palmitic acid for storage, where storage sites become overwhelmed with it. An additional omega-3 deficiency will then enhance the inflammatory nature of excess palmitic acid storage, tipping the delicate balance of these fatty acids into the inflammatory spectrum (we’re about to talk about omega-3 deficiency below)
So, then, it becomes complicated. Is endo associated with palmitic acid at all? We don’t know, this was just a single observational study (one where they just have participants fill out a form, that’s all). But if it is, is it because these women were eating too much factory farmed meat and processed-refined foods?
Or, could endometriosis be associated with too much palmitic acid storage due to too much sugar and processed-refined foods?
Or, is endometriosis associated with omega-3 deficiency caused by too much processed-refined foods and not enough cold water fatty fish or seafood?
This is exactly why we need more studies before making recommendations, but it should be quite apparent at this point that the processed foods industry may be to blame for tipping the scales to diets that are heavy on palmitic acid foods and, moreover, storage in the body…
Saturated fat + endo myth = totally debunked:
While saturated fat is listed on many endo-diet no-no lists, rest assured there is no concrete evidence that saturated fat is no where in research actually associated with endometriosis. Yes there was a single observational study about diet, but that basically means … nothing. Not when making healthy dietary recommendations.
However, research does show that high levels of palmitic acid consumption can be problematic for, well, everyone. While it would be near impossible to have high levels of this single fatty acid in ancestral times, nowadays it’s smooshed into every processed food imaginable, as well as condenses in factory farmed animals. When eaten in excess, combined with a sedentary lifestyle, too many sugars, and too few omega-3’s, it can cause problems. So - don’t do that :)
If you want to avoid palmitic acid storage, keep your blood sugar balanced with protein, fat, and fiber. Grass-fed red meat does not have excess palmitic acid (it has a perfect fatty acid balance), and diets that include animal protein are more likely to keep blood sugar balanced, which will prevent all that glucose being stored as palmitic acid and causing excess inflammation.