Healthy Fats Make Healthy Children

Written by Shannon of Nourishing Days.

Becoming a mother may just be the most intense and terrifying thing that I have ever done. There was that whole giving birth thing, which was supposed to be the hard part, right? But then you enter the world of breastfeeding, books, ideologies, and the tornado of information that comes from parenting “experts” of all sorts.

In the midst of it all is this incredibly personal thing called feeding our children. When all you have heard for 30 years is “Fat is bad!” you tend to want to feed your children according to that philosophy.

But that doesn’t make any sense. Breast milk, the perfect food for baby, is at least half fat, much of which is saturated fat and even (gasp) cholesterol. I don’t believe that a child’s need for saturated fat and cholesterol ends when weaned.

And I am not alone…

The Case For Saturated Fat

According to Dr. Mary Enig, author of Know Your Fats, toddlers should still get about 50% of their calories from fat, much of which should be saturated. Others who echo Enig’s call for traditional fats include Nina Planck, Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, Dr. Weston A. Price and Dr. Malcolm Kendrick.

They all say that saturated fats and cholesterol are needed all the way through adulthood and are not the villains of heart disease that many claim them to be.

  • Saturated fats are stable fats. That means they are good for cooking because they can be heated without being damaged.
  • Monounsaturated fats are less stable and are better at very low temperatures or uncooked.
  • Polyunsaturated fats are the most unstable – possibly rancid by the time you get it off the shelf.

Science aside, I’m in favor of common sense eating, so my philosophy is to eat what I could produce in my own backyard. I don’t know about you, but I am more likely to have a cow, pig, or olive orchard than a genetically engineered field of canola.

And how exactly does one extract oil from corn?

Of course it goes without saying that factory-farming is a crime of modern engineering in its own right. Your best bet is to seek out a local farmer or raise the animal yourself.

Stocking a Healthy Fat Kitchen

Because of the different properties of fats, I use some for cooking and some for uncooked dishes. Here’s what I keep in my kitchen:

Cooking Fats

Salad or Raw Oils

  • Olive Oil
  • Sesame Oil
  • Avocado
  • Cod Liver Oil – (This is not an ingredient, but a fat that we give our boys as an additional source of vitamins A & D and omega-3s.)

10 Ways to Nourish Children at Every Meal

Once we get past the stigma unfairly given to traditional fats we can easily incorporate this tasty and necessary food at every meal.

  • Give them whole dairy products.
  • Butter their vegetables.
  • Add a knob of butter to their oatmeal.
  • Cook eggs in butter or lard.
  • Leave the skin on the chicken.
  • Butter their bread.
  • Serve raw vegetables with homemade dip.
  • Cook fish with butter.
  • Fry potatoes in lard.
  • Dress salads in homemade dressing.

Fat is a real, wholesome ingredient necessary for healthy children (and adults) and it is time we welcome it back to the table.

How do you nourish your children with healthy fats?

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86 Comments

      1. I too did away with any type of margarine several years ago and only have real butter for baking, bread, etc. The taste is much better and I’d rather have a natural fat than something whose ingredient list I can’t read.

  1. Thank you! I have thought this for awhile and it’s nice to have confirmation. Fats are not evil! Especially for kids.
    I hate that it’s next-to-impossible to find full-fat yogurt – at my store, there is only one brand that isn’t low or no fat, and it’s pricey.

  2. I am having trouble convincing my husband that fat is NOT bad. I grew up drinking whole milk and I have always been thin and healthy. He gets upset because I put a teaspoon of butter in the green beans. Any ideas on how to convince him?

    1. Britanie – I think that is a big hurdle for a lot of women and I know it took both me and my husband sometime to get over the low-fat programming. The best way I found to nudge him in that direction was showing him facts and science-based articles. Mentioning this or that article that I read about fats and then getting him interested in investigating him is probably better than nagging (though I’m sure I did that at some point too :)).

    2. Another plus for butter is that a small amount of fat added to veggies can actually help with nutrient absorption–I remember reading that in relation to carrots when I was making homemade baby food for our son. I believe it was in one of Annabel Karmel’s books–that adding a knob of butter to the carrot pureé would help in absorbing the good stuff in the carrots.

    3. Do you happen to have netflix? On the watch instantly you can watch the documentary “fathead” it’s entertaining, easy to watch, full of experts animated at times and totally convinced my husband.

  3. Funnily enough I’ve just bought a bottle of cold pressed flaxseed oil today. My children drink whole milk (to the horror of friends) and eat butter on their bread as well as enjoying our own home-laid eggs. They’re healthy, energetic, have shiny hair and they’re all on the skinny side, if anything. I believe in feeding my family real food, not weird artificial stuff!

  4. I agree that fats are good. We are a family with strong vegan tendencies and stronger vegetarian tendencies, so slabs of butter and glasses of milk are pretty much out (though, occasionally we do indulge in a little butter-spreading). My son, @ 15 months old, ingests a lot of breast milk, olives, nuts in various forms (I use homemade almond milk a lot when baking and love nut butters), sometimes avocado. I use a lot of olive oil and coconut butter as well in food prep. I give him a vit D supplement and at some point I’ll have to consider the B12 for him as well. I just wanted to through out that while plant-based sources of sat fat are harder to come by it is doable.

    1. Kate, nice to see a comment from a fellow veggie. 🙂 I am also in the camp that some fats are good (and necessary!) but we also avoid meats and most dairy.

      There are many passionate scientists, doctors and writers on all sides to back up pretty much any nutritional belief you hold these days, and this one seems to do a good job of keeping us very healthy and staying true to our personal beliefs.

      In our family, breast milk, coconut oil, olive oil, avocados and nuts are especially popular. I always forget olives!

  5. I admit I am having an internal debate on this issue. I also will have to convince my husband that butter is not a bad thing. He loads margarine onto things, so it isn’t about the amount, it’s more about the margarine vs. butter debate. He feels that margarine is better because he’s been trained to think so (I admit to being one of the trainers). But I’m now reading more and more on whole foods and natural foods, and thinking more about avoiding artificial and over-processed foods and I’d like to make the shift to butter in our house.
    It will have to be a slow transition 🙂
    Thanks for the great information!

  6. I’m so glad you’re writing this. I remember arguing with my children’s doctor that whole milk was fine for them. I believe it was right after she acknowledged that they were in the 99th percentile for weight and height!

    Another advantage of getting healthy fats throughout your day – less cravings and overdoing it with icecream in the evening. I cook with fats (we raise pigs and chickens) and drink whole milk often in my tea and put it on my oatmeal. I can’t remember the last time I had a dessert or ice cream – or wanted one. And I grew up having chocolate milkshakes most nights. Eating healthy fats throughout your day, integrated into your diet, can change your whole attitude towards food. And it makes it easier for your body to digest it!

    A wonderful place to get more info on this is from Sally Fallon’s cookbook Nourishing Traditions. (Mary Enig, Weston Price and others are referred to a lot in this power-packed book)

    1. Sarah – Excellent points. I, too, have found that my sugar cravings are gone when I am eating plenty of good fats. Have also found that I am losing weight more readily than on a low-fat diet that I followed for may years.

      Nourishing Traditions is a great book, the first one I read about 5 years ago that changed my thinking. I didn’t mention it because I wanted to point out others who support saturated fats besides Fallon, though I do highly recommend the book. Thanks!

  7. This is whta I have been spouting to the people around me for years. If you eat a natural, whole food diet, stay clear of the processed crap then fats are good for you. In my family of four we are all in good physical condition, all slim and muscular, none of us do any extreme physical training but we are fairly active. We use oils and fats in almost every meal and steer well clear of anything labeled low fat (they tend to be more heavily processed or contain a lot of sugar to make up for the lack of flavour fat would bring). We notice it if our fat intake goes down and become more lethargic, get easily cold and are more prone to colds and flu´s.
    I´m 5,9. 140 pounds, low body fat, good muscle tone and healthy if you exclude physical injuries that have damaged parts of my body. My bad cholesterol is low, my blood pressure is low. Yet I consume about 3000-3500 kcal a day with about 800-1000 kcal coming from various different fats. According to popular ideology on what we should eat daily I should be fat and unhealthy, just goes to prove that popular ideology is not always right.
    However if I was getting the same caloric intake and composition from “modern day” industrialized and heavily processed foods I truly think I would not be as healthy as I am.

    1. Kitty – What a testimony to the fact that maybe calories in/calories out is a much too simplified way at looking at how food effects our body.

      I am not thin, and have struggled with weight ever since I can remember. I grew up eating the standard American diet of way too much carbs and sugar and only after having my own children have found healing for my thyroid and various other illnesses through real foods with an emphasis on high quality fats, vegetables, and proteins. Even a bowl of oatmeal throws me over the edge because of the blood sugar problems I have acquired eating a high-carb, low-fat diet.

      Thank God for discovering real foods and the science that backs them up.

      1. Hello Shannon, I would love to hear about how you have healed your thyroid. I too from past no carb or no fat diets have harmed my thyroid.

  8. Hey Shannon. You’re showing up everywhere this week.

    We take a more plant based approach to our fat consumption – nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut milk etc.. I don’t actually limit myself either, I eat whatever feels right for the day.

    We don’t limit the quantities of these foods for our children and they eat whole food plant fats everyday.

    We also do a fish oil supplement for DHA (omega 3’s or something – my husband does all that research)

      1. Renee – We eat all of those things as well and they are great sources. I often pack a plain avocado in my husband’s lunch when we have them. He will eat any leftovers from the night before and then cut open the avocado and eat it with a spoon. 🙂

  9. Love this post! We use all those good fats in our family too. We recently started milking a Jersey cow so we have lots of cream and butter, and raise our own pigs so we have high quality lard. We use mostly olive oil for the salad dressings, but I am anxious to add a little more variety there.

  10. Great post Shannon! I have been researching fats and oils in my diet lately and this post is helpful. So far after clearing out my cupboard, I’ve kept butter, coconut oil, and olive oil. I have a few questions (if you can help answer them):
    1. Is sesame oil a more neutral tasting oil and would it work for baking? I have a few family baking recipes that call for oil and previously I’ve used vegetable oil, but since discontinuing its use, I’ve yet to find a replacement.
    2. Where does one buy tallow or lard? Again, I have some old family recipes that call for them, but I have no idea where to find them.

    1. Kara – In answer to your questions:
      1). Sesame oil is fairly neutral (as long as it is not the toasted variety). I use it more for Asian dishes, but you could use it for baking. I think it is rather expensive, though I haven’t bought it for quite some time. I almost always use melted coconut oil, butter, or lard in place of oils for baking. Butter makes all baked goods taste better :).

      2). Tallow and lard I usually buy from a local farmer. It is just the fat of the animal. Leaf lard is the highest quality and great for making pies. You usually have to render it unless it says “rendered” right on the package. I don’t recommend grocery store tallow (also known as suet) or lard because they generally come from conventionally raised animals. And since toxins, antibiotics, and a host of other unwanted items concentrate in the fat you want to make sure it comes from properly raised animals.

      Hope that helps!

      1. Thank you for getting back to me! Yes, I use butter in most of my baked goods, and I honestly hadn’t thought to try using butter or coconut oil in place of vegetable oil. Those sounds like much more affordable options compared to sesame oil. Oh, and you are right, butter does make all baked goods taste better. 🙂

        I shall have to meet some farmers this summer at the market to see if I can find some tallow or lard!

        1. I am from the netherlands and dutch traditional baked goods only use butter, never any oil! If a recipe really requires some liquid fat you can cheat and just melt the butter 🙂

    2. Kara – Depending on where you live, you can usually find lard on the ethnic food aisle of your grocery store, or strangely enough, next to the Crisco. (I live in Texas, so we have multiple varieties to choose from.) Sometimes it is labeled “Manteca”. Best of luck!

      1. I appreciate both answers and I’m going to try out both. 🙂 Who knows, maybe there’s a company out there packaging ethical lard for the grocery store? I’m definitely going to look. Plus, if I can’t find a farmer, then I have your information as back up. 🙂 Thank you!

  11. I posted this on Facebook:
    This article states it very simply. I’m SO glad I found the Real Food movement. Last winter we were sick ALL winter long. This past winter we had one tiny tummy bug and I had one tiny cold. The girls haven’t had one cold. We switched to real fat last October.

  12. I’ve always thrived mentally when I have a diet with good healthy fats and oils. My daughter gets whole milk and avocadoes and butter or olive oil on her vegetables. Nutritionist Ellen Satter also argues against this kneejerk reaction to nutritional fat and obesity.

  13. Oh, I am SO glad to read this. Sometimes I think I’m the only one who thinks this way. I totally feed my kids healthy fats, and they are literally the healthiest kids I know. We haven’t had a single sickness for the whole winter.

    The whole good fat/ bad fat misconception can be so annoying. My grandmother told me her heart doctor told her she should use margarine. And I recently started a First Place 4 Health study at my church (a christian weightloss program) that said to stay away from healthy fats at all cost. Of course, it didn’t call them healthy fats. But they listed things like real butter and coconut oil. Sigh.

    Okay, healthy fat rant over.

  14. People have given me grief before for cooking with lard (on my Tex-Mex blog – it’s not Tex-Mex without lard, babies), without knowing the facts. They just hear the word lard and think artery-clogging food. It couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m glad that you’re bringing this to light. So many people fill their kids with “low-fat” chemicals instead of FOOD. Whenever I think low-fat, I think of a line from a British comedy sketch show called Little Britain. They have a weight-watchers like skit, where the leader of the group goes, “Cake.. high in fat, low in fat? High in fat! Sausages.. high in fat, low in fat? High in fat! Dust.. high in fat, low in fat? LOW IN FAT! Dust is perfectly safe to eat on the Fat Fighters diet! Yay!” LOL.

    1. I love Little Britain! The Fat Fighters sketches are such a great parody of how we tend to approach diets and health.

  15. It’s really hard to read anything written by this woman after she attacked another personally so hatefully on her own blog, a person who did not attack her and who only was making their own diet choices. Simple needs to be more cautious who they allow to guest write here, because I do not think attacking vegans with malice for no reason is Christlike or appropriate. We are not called to spread hate towards others or attack others for being different than us. For those who do not condone hateful behavior towards others, it’s hard to take away anything good from what is written by her after her behavior.

    1. Ashley, I believe you are referring to my article addressing Kathy Freston’s comments and I believe you made a similar comment on my post. I appreciate your comments but want to be clear that in my article I deliberately say that I am not talking about or to vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, or any other way of eating. I was simply pointing out that Kathy Freston was making some strange and untrue statements about those who choose not to eat the way that she does. I have a great deal of respect and love for anyone who chooses to be mindful about what they feed their families – from vegans to omnivores. Please do not take my comments directed solely at Miss Freston out of context.

    2. Ashley, as editor of this blog, I stand behind my contributors 100%. I know Shannon to be gentle and kind – as well as very thorough in her research. It seems you may have misinterpreted her comments.

      Thanks for you concern, and rest assured, we at Simple Living Media choose our contributors and guest posters with care.

  16. Great article. I can’t wait to share this with some other moms I know. Some of whom are wholly against any fat-period and I keep telling them everything in moderation. Aside from that, I’ve read fat is a necessary component for a developing brain.

  17. Also a whole fat family over here, and none of us has struggled with weight. I’m so thankful that my mom learned about healthy fats and reintroduced us to them when I was a teenager.
    Butter makes just about everything taste better 🙂

  18. This article’s timing in my life is pretty funny, considering that we just watched the documentary “Fat Head” last night. The documentary focused a lot on the importance of fat and on the ‘no fat, low fat’ culture. It gives you a lot to think about- a must see if you are trying to change your perspective and understanding on eating fat.

    Once you realize that your body’s desiring for fat is okay, healthy and normal, it is quite liberating! No more guilt and lots of butter — what’s not to love?

    1. Megan – I thought that movie was really educational and entertaining and recommend it as well. And yes, once we realize that (real) fats are not the enemy it really is a relief mentally and physically.

  19. Amen! I recently watched a lecture by Sally Fallon, and one story she related really stuck with me. In a conversation with a chiropractor, he noted that his patients are becoming harder and harder to adjust – not because he can’t adjust them, but because their bodies seem to have a harder time holding the adjustments. They both felt it was because of the lack of saturated fat and cholesterol in the Standard American Diet, causing the structural system of our bodies to be softer and to hold together with less integrity. THAT gave me serious food for thought.

  20. I love this. We eat full fat here but we are very much against the norm. We are advised to switch our kids to low fat dairy and margarine at 2 years old. They (nutritionists and doctors) say it is higher in protein and calcium than full fat but it is so much more expensive, so we haven’t and I know that full fat is better for them anyway. When I was studying nutrition at University 2 years ago I was the only person in my class of 100 who drank full fat dairy, they all drank 1%.

  21. Amazing and educational article. I have struggled with my weight since childhood. I was considerably overweight when I had my first son at 25, now at nearly 32 I am clinically obese. I have tried all the major weight loss programs out there, but got so discouraged after GAINING weight on their programs. They push all these “low fat” and “fat free” products to keep your weight down, but it’s nothing but artificial this and processed that! I’ve recently been experimenting with natural fats in my diet to help with my skin…I eat raw avocados and ingest about 2 tsp/day of coconut oil and I have to say that I feel amazing. Yes it’s highly fatty, but it’s clean and I have more energy and less cravings for naughty foods…I’ve SLOOOOOOOWLY started to shed some of this disgusting weight, too. I also have terrible shoulder problems from a childhood injury and I feel like that’s even subsided a bit since I’ve increased natural fat into my diet.

    My biggest fear in the world was that my son would struggle with the same weight issues as me. I restrict his processed food and make sure he gets plenty of good fats and he doesn’t have any chub at all!

  22. It’s very interesting to hear all these people getting medical advice to take their kids off healthy fats at a young age, because my experience has been totally the opposite….My daughter was born very early and very small and took a long time to land on any growth charts. I have consistently received the same advice from all of her doctors: make sure she gets plenty of fat in her diet–real fat, that is–along with all the other standard nutrients. She drinks whole milk, and eats plenty of cheese, butter, lard, and olive oil (among other things of course!). She eats very little processed food, so her fat intake is almost entirely from those natural sources. She’s healthy, full of energy, growing like a weed–and firmly on the growth charts these days.

  23. Great article! I think it’s awesome that you’re going against the ‘norm’ and speaking the truth. We use a bit of butter (dairy issues) and tons of coconut oil. I have my first bottle of avocado oil in the fridge awaiting a recipe I have in the wings and a giant tin of olive oil in the cold room.

    I grew up on skim milk and low fat yogurt, but my food habits & ideals have come a LONG way since then! And certainly for the better. Keep it up 🙂

    I also re-posted this article on facebook for all to see.

  24. Thank you for that confirmation (and love your blog, by the way). I have always believed that kids need a little fat, maybe not so much of the fried stuff but a bit of butter on bread tastes heavenly and I’m sure does more good than bad.

  25. I just switched to buying whipped butter to use as a spread instead of margarine…do you know if it’s safe to just leave regular butter out at room temperature? My 2 yr old daughter loves bread and I’m sure some fresh butter on it would make her happy. She is a huge fan of avocados so I’ll have to look for avocado oil.

    1. Emily – In every month except spring we keep butter at room temperature for a few days, which is about as long as it lasts. Cultured butter, homemade or store bought, keeps longer because of the good bacteria introduced. There is also a tool called a butter keeper or crock that keeps butter well with the use of just cool water. I don’t own one yet, but hope to soon. I think you can find them on amazon. And avocado smashed on toast with salt and lemon is so good too – like guacamole on toast!

      1. Different Emily here. I didn’t see this comment until just now but already posted further down about our use of a butter keeper–it’s awesome, year-round. We like our handmade one but there are plenty out there if you do a Google search.

      2. I have a “butter boat” which is what you were describing- a ceramic dish that sits in another dish filled with water. We always leave our butter out on the counter, year round- and we have never had any trouble with it going rancid. But, like Shannon said, a stick of butter rarely lasts more than a couple days anyway!

  26. Great article, I always cook with butter, but I have also discovered grapeseed oil for frying, it does have a very high smoking point and makes it great for frying.

  27. An important topic and I believe this generation is beginning to get and will eventually get that good fats are GOOD. My poor parents who struggle with weight and nary any real fat pass their lips with doctors urging them on to keep lowering their fat intake. What fat intake?– except the margarine they put on all their carbs because they are always so hungry from not eating food that would nourish and sustain them). I’ve given them every article that I come across but maybe I’ll try “Fat Head”. You’d think they’d see the proof in the pork lard as my family and I consume lots of fat and all 6 of us are thin and healthy.

  28. I used to use butter substitutes–not margarine, but one of the ones that is made with yogurt and some butter–because I could keep them in the fridge and they’d still be spreadable. When the house was cold butter on the counter was too hard, when warm it would melt/go rancid. Now I never buy the processed/produced stuff anymore. I discovered butter keepers–we bought ours from a local ceramist at the farmer’s market. It’s in two parts–the base gets about 1/2 inch of cold tap water, the top part is a cylinder that holds one stick of butter. I unwrap the butter stick and put it on its end in the cylinder with the wrapper draped over to allow it to soften, then mush it down into the container when soft. Then that top part is inverted into the part that holds water. The water “seals” the butter against air to keep it from going rancid, and we never have problems with the butter being too hard or too soft. It stays fresh on the counter for the 1-2 weeks it takes for our family to get through a stick of butter.

  29. Wow – keep the skin ON the chicken? That is revolutionary! My family will love this! : ) Thanks for a great post and great information.

  30. My French stepfather did the cooking when I was growing up. We ate a diet high in lots of good fats, including full fat dairy, duck and goose fat, lard, olive oil and eggs but also high in vegetables and fruit.

    What our diet was low on was processed foods packed with corn syrup and sodium – in fact we never had them, and excessive amounts of sugar.

    PS Lard is great but try frying potatoes in duck fat. It’s astronomically good.

  31. Hello,
    as a blogger for SunButter, we appreciate your informative post. Very reasonable approach! We continue to enjoy your great blog!

  32. I’ve always kind of thought this to be the case based on pure empirical evidence. It wasn’t until people started using these manufactured fats and other manufactured foods that the population became obese. Of course I know a lot more goes into it than that such as portion size and all, but the fact that the majority of our population eats non-real food is making a huge (pun intended) impact on our size.

  33. I have always tried (even before I stumbled across the real food movement, my mom shunned all things ‘fake’) to feed my children good fats; whole milk, whole milk yogurt, real butter, etc. One day while in the yogurt aisle my young son saw a popular brand of yogurt, with a blue lid, that was a flavor he liked and said he wanted it. I was on the hunt for elusive whole milk yogurt and told him we don’t buy low-fat foods because they were bad for his body. An employee, from around the corner, piped up that we should all be eating low-fat foods, especially young children and low-fat foods were not bad for us. I was stunned he felt the need to lecture me, I wasn’t speaking loudly to my boy. I also realized his line of thinking is why I can never what I’m looking for, low-fat items are always front and center.

      1. how sad that he felt he could educate YOUR child. I find this sad, if you were telling your kid no to a candy bar I doubt he would have piped in – as it is generally socially unacceptable to tell people what to do with their kid when you dont know them.

        so strange. and Good for you to sticking with it and properly educating your child!

  34. What an excellent and encouraging post! I feed my 15 month old as much fat as possible. Her favorites are diced avocados and puddings made from coconut milk. I also fatten up her favorite snack, rice cakes, by smearing home-made sunflower seed butter on top and then sprinking on some shredded coconut. Delish and filled with good stuff to help her grow.

  35. Pingback: Healthy Fats Make Healthy Children » Good Foods, Simple Recipes
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  37. real butter, whole milk, coconut oil….yes please. I made a statement at work that whole milk was actually better for you than skim. I was met with a lot of I don’t think so and really, are you sure. Yes, I am positive but I don’t think I convinced them. Even after I told them that margarine is as close to being plastic that something can be without really being plastic. Gross.

    1. Yes, the day I read about margarine being like plastic was the last day I ever used margarine. I have been a die-hard butter fan ever since!

  38. Shannon – I know this wonderful post was written quite some time ago, but I just came across it. Can you comment on how you help your kids down Fermented Cod Liver Oil ? I opened the jar and my kids (2 and 4 years old) ran. FAST. They were ok with the High Vitamin CLO supplement, but FLCO made them completely unwilling. Thoughts? Tips?

  39. Saturated fat
    You get saturated fat from:

    animal products like meat fat
    palm and coconut oil in processed foods such as biscuits, chips and slices
    full-fat dairy products such as butter and cream.
    Saturated fat has no known health benefits. It increases the amount of bad cholesterol in the body.