Safe, healthy fats are;
virgin olive oil (or extra virgin) -in any grocery store
avoid mad crazy specials in the world of olive oil - there is a lot of fake olive oil out there, that has been 'cut' with junk refined oils- buyer beware!
hemp seed oil
(in health stores)
Hemp oil contains GLA, an important omega 6 fat, and LNA, an omega 3 fat. Hemp oil is the most perfect fat supplement. It is quite polyunsaturated, so the bulk of my fat would better come from more stable fats, like olive, palm, or coconut. Please read on about coconut and palm oils; they are proven to be very healthy for humans, even if they do not contribute to the American and Canadian refined seed oil industries!
virgin coconut oil (in health stores)
Coconut oil is rich in certain saturated fats called medium chain triglycerides (MCT's) which stimulate fat metabolism, and lower cholesterol. Please note that saturated fats are vastly different from each other, depending partly on chain length. Long chain saturates (as found in much animal fat), tend to modestly raise serum cholesterol, while the medium chain and short chain fats actually lower it. See the research, reading on in this article.
Palm oil (in health stores, as well as African and Caribbean stores) is another good heart healthy fat.
OTHERS
Almost any carefully pressed oil (especially by Orphée or Omega brands, found in health stores).
and of course, all raw nuts and seeds (roasting ruins healthy fats, as does frying) and,
raw nut and seed butters (raw hemp butter is available in health
stores, as is raw pumpkin seed butter)
Some Loblaws and Dominion carry raw almond butter, and raw tahini (sesame) in some stores.
Avoid Canola Oil- it is garbage- the only good use for it is in a bio-diesel engine!
Butter is ok- really organic butter is the only type I can condone as healthy, and good for heart health, in reasonable amounts. Yes, I said it- GOOD for heart health, in reasonable amounts. Read the heart health page on my site for more heart information. Also check my organic page for why buttershould be organic.
A NOTE ON COOKING;Coconut oil can be safely fried with. It truly is the best fat you could ever use for frying, from a nutritional point of view.
With any other fats, try to sautée or poach- it is far healthierwith less stable oils. Ghee and palm are also decent for frying, as they are mostly saturated, and thus also stable.
Brief sautéeing can be done safely with olive, palm, or sesame oil (avoid toasted sesame oil).
Boiling (as in making soup), is fine with all above- listed oils.
Hemp oil is the most perfect single source of EFA’s, with a good intake being about 2 T a day, but do not ever cook with it! You may put in on hot food, before eating, such as mashed potatoes, or warm rice.
GOOD Tropical Fats. That's Right- GOOD and TROPICAL;
Palm oil 
is absolutely safe for anyone! In the following reference from a meta analysis, it is noted that palm oil is the second most consumed vegetable fat worldwide. Imagine the opportunities if it were demonized! Underdeveloped countries think that over-processed vegetable oils are healthier, and they are abondoning their traditional, healthy oils in droves!
This meta analysis fails to find any atherosclerotic or thromboembolic promotion associated with palm oil. They note the high content of antioxidants naturally present in palm oil. My finding is that almost any natural oil is a rich source of antioxidants, which is partly why north America is in trouble, fat-wise. Our commercially available oils, with the exception of virgin olive oil, have lost most or all of their antioxidants to the refining processes they are put through.
Edem, D. O. (2002) Palm oil: biochemical, physiological, nutritional, hematological, and toxicological aspects: a review. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, 57, (3/4): 319-341
Coconut oil is good for you!
Epidemiological research shows us that people suffer more cardiovascular morbidity and higher serum cholesterol levels as they either move away from areas where coconut oil is consumed regularly, or they adopt western dietary habits, including the use of the common polyunsaturated vegetable oils.
In the Tokelau island study, we learn that it’s inhabitants consume over 40% of their total calories from coconut oil. This well designed study followed people who emigrated to nearby New Zealand, and found that after they adopted a New Zealand typical diet, predictably rich in polyunsaturated vegetable oil, they had significantly more LDL, triglycerides, and lower HDL in their blood.-Mann, J. I. (1996) A South Pacific Perspective on Diet and Cardiovascular Disease. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand, 21: 1-8
Rodent studies are in line with human research, where coconut oil is found to affect serum lipid levels in a good way. In this study, helpless rats were inducted to receive a diet high in coconut oil, after which their measured blood lipids values were greatly improved. Serum total cholesterol, LDL, VLDL, and triglycerides were reduced, while HDL was elevated.
-Nevin KG, Rajamohan T. Beneficial effects of virgin coconut oil on lipid parameters and in vitro LDL oxidation. Clinical Biochemistry. 2004;37(9):830-5
The push, in the American 'edible' oil industry, to demonise tropical fats, in order to sell more home grown product is elucidated in the following article (sorry- it is in french).
Berger, K. G., (1995) La guerre des huiles: opinions et nutrition. Plantations, Recherche, Développement, 2, (5): 22-27 Retrieved english translation March 1, 2005 from Medline Website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?
While protectionism in the American industries and governments is nothing new, especially unfair, unilateral protectionism, purposeful misinformation is illegal, immoral, and constitutes libel. The World Trade Organisation has more imprtant thoings to attend to, perhaps, like (further) reducing barriers to the plunder of developing world economies by the first world.
Price, W. (1975). Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Price-Pottinger Foundation: San Diego, CA. –first printing, 1935-
In this classic book, I first learned of the significance of traditional diets. Dr Weston Price traveled the world, studying people who were living traditionally; who had not yet lost the richness of their culture (and diet) to westernization. He visited people in villages in northern Europe, Africa, south Asia, and found similarities in their diets, and their superb health. Many families had members who had moved towards the western diet, with it’s processed foods. Invariably, he found that their teeth were inferior to their traditional- eating relatives, and as a rule, they had more disease and susceptibility to disease, both chronic and acute.
All around the world, Dr Price found that people ate fat generously, and had good health. Butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and palm oil were the main traditional fats, and were consumed in an unprocessed state.
The difference between the health effects of the traditional diets and the western influenced diets were obvious, but the reasons are less so.
Of the negative effects of our western diet, how much is due to the change in the types of fats consumed?
The change from whole foods to refined carbohydrates is another variable, as is the difference in agricultural quality, between small scale, local farming versus agribusiness. Many other variables are also influential, to unknown degrees, such as stress levels, types of community; old versus new, and hygiene being a few, when comparing a traditional lifestyle with the western lifestyle, if such a thing exists.
Seeing the marked difference in Dr Price’s photographic records of traditional eating peoples, compared with relatives who adopt western diet is enough to scare many into eating a more traditional diet, with more whole foods, and unadulterated natural fats. Even though fats and nutrition in general is but one variable of many which influence our health, adopting some traditional dietary practices is not a bad place to start.
Looking at the research that has been done since Dr Price’s remarkable study of humans and nutrition, we see that there is much evidence that points to his traditional dietary ideas being correct.
OK, Now for the Bad Fats
1. Vegetable oils suck
Sorry for the wording, but they do! The truth is that canola and other vegetable oils are to blame, for promoting diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. The healthiest fats for anyone, including those with heart problems are clearly outlined here; virgin oilve oil, coconut oil, palm oil, and small amounts of hemp oil. Fish oil is excellent, as a supplement to the diet, by no means being taken in excess of 5-10g per day. People with heart problems especially should read this article, and show any health practitioner the research cited here, if they are ever told to eat margarine, or corn oil, or canola oil; the worst garbage of all!Canola is hybridized from rapeseed oil. It is a new fat in the human diet. It is not at all proven in long term research to be safe for us. We have thousands of year’s history consuming olive oil, and many hundreds, if not thousands, consuming palm and coconut oils. The Wall Street Journal reported that workers frying with rapeseed oil were found to have excessive rates of lung cancer, which appears to point to danger from inhalation of this junk oil. Wall Street Journal, June 7, 1995, p. B6.
The standard deodorization process that ALL ‘vegetable oils’ undergo can result in the formation of trans fatty acids! Although our government claims the trans content of canola is around 0.2 percent, it is usually much more.
Lab research has found trans levels as high as 4.6 percent in off the shelf canola oil!
S. O'Keefe et al, “Levels of Trans Geometrical Isomers of Essential Fatty Acids in Some Unhydrogenated US Vegetable Oils.” Journal of Food Lipids 1994;1:165-176.
Canola is one export that we have given the world that no Canadian should be proud of. Do not believe the hype, and stay as far from canola (scam-ola) as you can.
2. Trans Fats are really bad!
- a well known, formerly suppressed toxic fact. Now, 50 years later, the news is out on trans fats.
SCANDAL; In my research for an assignment on fat in my university days, I came across a letter to the editor of a journal, written by a former member of the Board of the American Heart Association, where he told the story of how, in 1968, the accumulated evidence implicating trans fat in cardiovascular pathology was strong enough to move the Association to issue a warning against them. The (American) Edible Oil Corporation told them to tone down the message. They did, making it more vague, or ‘soft’. The Corporation then said that the new, watered down version needed even more ‘revising’. At that point, the Board dropped the trans fat message altogether, feeling that making the message any more vague, would render it useless. I searched high and low for that journal, and finally gave up the search. What I did find, was collaborating information, from another source.
Enig, M.G., Fallon, S., The Oiling of America. Retrieved March 1, 2005 from The Weston A. Price Foundation Website: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/oiling4.html
© 1999 Mary G. Enig, PhD and Sally Fallon. First published in Nexus Magazine, Dec '98-Jan '99 and Feb '99-Mar '99.
Again, we have Dr. Enig, co-writing this time, about how we came to where we are, in terms of fats we use. She cites the statement authored in 1968 by the American Heart Association (AHA) that was never publicly circulated. The statement simply identifies trans fats as not helping to lower cholesterol, and where trans fats are found (hydrogenated oils, which are in most commercially available shortening and margarine). Accusing trans fats of not helping to lower cholesterol is such a gross understatement- they raise LDL sharply, and lower HDL, as well. They are very strongly correlated in animal and human research with cardiac pathology. I would have to conclude that the nixed trans fat statement was the watered down version which I had read about in the above mentioned letter to the editor.
Now, 38 years after the aborted trans fat warning statements, we have people and governments around the world talking of limiting our exposure, for the health of our hearts. If trans fats are formed by hydrogenation, how about using the tropical fats, which are shelf stable, and safe? There is a push for this to happen. We do have some misinformation about tropical fats, which has mostly spread by American edible oil interests, who want to keep out foreign competition, from tropical countries, who could really use the income from the sale of their healthy oils, like coconut, and palm.
Berger, K. G., (1995) La guerre des huiles: opinions et nutrition. Plantations, Recherche, Développement, 2, (5): 22-27 Retrieved english translation March 1, 2005 from Medline Website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
Animal Saturates are not so bad . . A client of mine, before meeting me, was told by his doctor to eat less fat, especially less eggs and cheese, because of his high blood cholesterol.
My client pretended to agree, but proceeded to eat quite a bit more eggs and cheese than normal until he went back for further testing.
His doctor commented that he was pleased with the new bloodwork; serum cholesterol levels were now normal. The Dr. felt that this proved that his recommendations had worked. My client simply expressed approval, keeping the real dietary changes he had made secret.
Margarine SUCKS- all types!!
A consumer group in Sweden examined the levels of PAH, or polyaromatic hydrocarbons, in Becel margarine, which is marketed as an especially healthy margarine, since it is not hydrogenated. They found levels which were well over legal limits for these toxic residues. The legal limit for toxic PAH's in any 
oil is 5ppm. Becel weighed in at 53.9ppm! That is over ten times over, but who is checking? PAH's are strange fats, far worse for us than trans fats! That is why their levels are strictly legislated (but not enforced- sadly- not a unique scenario in our food supply at all- refer to Dr. S. Chopra's excellent book on Health Canada called "Rotten to the Core"- he was fired from Health Canada fro trying to protect Canadian's health, and foiling some -very- big companies!)
Let us wake up and smell the coffins!
We, as consumers need to be vigilant, because governments around the world are not. Becel margarine is an example of a vegetable fat, which is, like most commercial vegetable oil products, overprocessed, even though it has not been hydrogenated. -ref- Swedish Consumer Coalition (2003), [open letter to the Swedish National Food Administration] Retrieved March 1, 2005, from http://www.konsumentsamverkan.se/english/becel.htm
The regular processing that our vegetable oils are subjected to creates toxic byproducts, like PAH, as well as the predictable oxidised polyunsaturates. In common language, we would call oxidised and polymerised fats rancid, but the bleaching and deodorising process can mask off, rancid flavours. Oxidised fats are well known to be preferentially incorporated into atherosclerotic placque. By the way, Becel was found to contain trans fat, contrary to their lying claims, according to research published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1993) 2, pp 155-163.
Excess polyunsaturated oils, even if they were not already oxidised, are still going to be more subject to oxidation in the body than other fats, namely saturates and monounsaturates.
The American media, currently in a state of oligopoly (like our media in Canada), has been bashing saturated fat for quite some time, and specifically coconut and palm oils. If they could speak, these two oils could definitely sue for libel. The research does not support the negative press. The research actually points to these two oils being heart protective. The scarce negative research was purposely done with oxidised oils, especially oxidised palm oil. We know well that any oxidised oil will adversely affect serum lipids and heart health.
Jessup, W. Kritharides, L. Stocker, R. (2004) Lipid oxidation in Atherogenesis: an Overview. Biochemical Society Transactions, 32, (1): 134-138
These researchers describe how oxidised fats are what drives atherosclerosis, both in in vitro, experimental settings, and in in vivo research.
Edem, D. O. (2002) Palm oil: biochemical, physiological, nutritional, hematological, and toxicological aspects: a review. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, 57, (3/4): 319-341