08/16/2026
🥑 HEALTHY FATS MATTER — and fat is not automatically the enemy. 🫒🐟🥜
For years, dietary fat was blamed for weight gain, heart disease, and high cholesterol. Then the pendulum swung the other way and suddenly all high-fat foods were being treated like they were equally healthy.
The truth is much more nuanced.
Your body needs fat. The goal isn’t to fear it—or to add unlimited amounts of it to everything. It’s to understand which fats you’re eating, what the rest of your diet looks like, and how YOUR body responds.
Healthy fats play important roles in:
✨ Hormone production
🧠 Brain and nervous-system function
💛 Cell membrane structure and function
🥗 Absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E & K
⚡ Providing energy
😋 Satiety and satisfaction after meals
🐟 Supplying essential fatty acids our bodies cannot make on their own
Some of my favourite whole-food fat sources are:
🥑 Avocado
🫒 Extra-virgin olive oil and olives
🐟 Salmon, sardines and other fatty fish
🥜 Almonds, walnuts, pecans and other nuts
🌱 Chia, flax, h**p and other seeds
🥚 Eggs
🥜 Natural nut and seed butters
But here’s where the conversation gets interesting…
🩸 “Does eating fat raise cholesterol?”
It’s not as simple as:
Eat fat → cholesterol goes up → fat is bad.
Different fats can have very different effects, and blood lipids are influenced by much more than one food.
Things that can affect your cholesterol and triglycerides include:
🧬 Genetics
🥩 The amount and type of saturated fat in your diet
🥑 The balance of saturated versus unsaturated fats
🥦 Fibre intake
🍬 Insulin resistance and metabolic health
⚖️ Body composition and weight changes
🏃♀️ Physical activity
🚬 Smoking
🍷 Alcohol intake
🩺 Thyroid function and other medical conditions
💊 Certain medications
👵 Age and hormonal changes
One important distinction is saturated versus unsaturated fat.
Research examining long-term randomized trials has found that reducing saturated fat—particularly when it is replaced by unsaturated fat—can reduce cardiovascular events. So the answer isn’t necessarily to eat an ultra-low-fat diet. What replaces the saturated fat matters.
That means there’s a big nutritional difference between getting most of your fat from:
🥑 avocado
🫒 extra-virgin olive oil
🐟 salmon
🥜 walnuts
🌱 seeds
…versus building your entire diet around:
🧈 butter
🥓 bacon
🥛 heavy cream
🥥 large amounts of coconut oil
🌭 processed meats
I’m not saying you can never eat the foods in the second group. I certainly don’t believe nutrition has to work that way.
I’m saying balance matters.
🥑 And this is especially important with KETO.
A ketogenic or low-carb diet does not automatically mean eating bacon, butter and cheese all day.
A well-planned lower-carb diet can be based around:
🥩 Quality protein
🥦 Non-starchy vegetables
🥑 Avocado
🫒 Olive oil
🐟 Fatty fish
🥜 Nuts and seeds
🍓 Lower-sugar whole foods
🌱 Fibre-rich foods that fit your carb tolerance
And there is legitimate research showing benefits from carbohydrate restriction in certain people.
Meta-analyses of randomized trials have found that lower-carbohydrate diets can result in improvements in triglycerides, HDL, weight and several metabolic risk factors, although LDL responses vary considerably between studies and individuals.
In the randomized Keto-Med trial, both a well-formulated ketogenic diet and a Mediterranean-style diet improved blood sugar compared with participants' baseline diets. The ketogenic phase produced a larger reduction in triglycerides, but LDL cholesterol increased and some nutrient intake was lower, which is a good example of why we should look at the whole picture rather than declaring one diet universally “best.”
And this part is VERY important:
⚠️ Keto does not guarantee perfect cholesterol.
Some people see:
✅ Lower triglycerides
✅ Higher HDL
✅ Better blood sugar
✅ Lower insulin
✅ Weight loss
…but may simultaneously experience an increase in LDL cholesterol.
Research specifically looking at very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets has found that LDL and total cholesterol can rise in some people, particularly in certain populations.
So I would never tell someone:
❌ “Your HDL is high, so your LDL doesn’t matter.”
or
❌ “You’re keto, so ignore the cholesterol number.”
We need more nuance than that.
Long-term evidence supports LDL-containing particles as a causal contributor to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, so a significant or persistent increase deserves attention rather than being brushed off.
🧪 And what about ApoB?
You may have heard me mention ApoB.
LDL-C tells us how much cholesterol is being carried inside LDL particles.
ApoB gives additional information about the number of atherogenic lipoprotein particles circulating in the blood and can be particularly useful when traditional cholesterol markers don't tell the whole story. Research has found ApoB can provide additional cardiovascular-risk information, especially when ApoB and LDL-C are discordant.
This doesn’t mean everyone needs to obsess over advanced testing.
It means that if someone makes a major dietary change and suddenly has a dramatically different lipid panel, I don’t think the answer should be:
“Don’t worry about it because keto is healthy.”
Look deeper.
Talk to your healthcare provider.
Look at your overall metabolic health and risk factors.
And then adjust if necessary.
🌱 Another HUGE piece people forget: FIBRE.
You can absolutely eat low-carb while still prioritizing fibre.
Think:
🥑 Avocado
🌱 Chia seeds
🌱 Ground flax
🥦 Broccoli
🥬 Leafy greens
🥒 Non-starchy vegetables
🥜 Nuts and seeds
🫐 Berries, depending on your carb goals
A 2023 meta-analysis including 181 randomized controlled trials and more than 14,000 participants found that soluble-fibre supplementation significantly reduced LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol and ApoB.
So if your version of keto contains almost no plants or fibre, that is something I would look at.
🥜 Nuts deserve some love too.
A meta-analysis of 61 controlled trials found that tree-nut consumption reduced LDL cholesterol, ApoB and triglycerides.
And we also have long-term cardiovascular research supporting dietary patterns rich in extra-virgin olive oil and nuts.
In the PREDIMED randomized trial involving adults at high cardiovascular risk, Mediterranean-style diets supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts resulted in fewer major cardiovascular events than the control diet.
Notice the pattern?
It isn’t:
Eat as little fat as possible.
And it also isn’t:
Eat unlimited fat because carbs are the only thing that matters.
It’s about food quality, metabolic health and context.
💡 So what can you actually DO with this information?
Here are some simple ways I personally like to approach healthy fats:
1️⃣ Make olive oil one of your everyday fats.
Use extra-virgin olive oil on vegetables, salads, meat, dips and dressings.
2️⃣ Eat fatty fish regularly.
Salmon, sardines, trout and similar fish are great ways to get protein and fat together.
3️⃣ Add—not pour—fat.
If you're eating keto for fat loss, remember that dietary fat still provides energy. You don't necessarily need butter, oil, cheese and cream added to every meal simply because they contain very few carbs.
4️⃣ Build your meal around protein first.
Then add vegetables, fibre and enough healthy fat to make the meal satisfying.
5️⃣ Rotate your fat sources.
Don't make every meal butter + cheese + bacon. Mix in avocado, olive oil, fish, nuts and seeds.
6️⃣ Keep whole foods at the centre of your diet.
“Keto” on a package doesn't automatically mean nutritious.
7️⃣ Don’t forget fibre.
Chia, flax, avocado, nuts, seeds and non-starchy vegetables can fit beautifully into a lower-carb lifestyle.
8️⃣ If your LDL or ApoB rises substantially, look at your fat sources.
One very practical experiment can be reducing some butter, cream, coconut oil and fatty processed meats while increasing olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds and fish, then discussing repeat testing with your healthcare provider.
9️⃣ Pay attention to YOUR numbers.
Two people can eat very similar diets and have very different lipid responses.
🔟 Think long-term.
The goal isn't simply to make the scale go down for six weeks. We want an eating pattern that supports your health and is realistic enough to maintain.
📚 A few pieces of research behind this post:
• D**g et al., 2020 — Meta-analysis examining low-carbohydrate diets and cardiovascular risk factors.
• Chawla et al., 2020 — Meta-analysis comparing low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets; low-carb diets generally performed better for triglycerides and HDL, while LDL could increase.
• Gardner et al., 2022 — Keto-Med Trial — Randomized crossover comparison of a well-formulated ketogenic and Mediterranean-plus diet.
• Hooper et al., 2020 — Cochrane review of randomized trials examining saturated-fat reduction and cardiovascular outcomes.
• Ghavami et al., 2023 — Meta-analysis of 181 randomized trials examining soluble fibre and blood lipids.
• Del Gobbo et al., 2015 — Meta-analysis examining tree nuts, LDL, triglycerides and ApoB.
• Estruch et al., 2018 — PREDIMED — Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts and cardiovascular outcomes.
At the end of the day, nutrition is rarely black and white.
🥑 Fat isn't the enemy.
🧈 But that doesn't mean every fat is interchangeable.
🥦 Carbs aren't automatically the enemy either.
🩸 And good metabolic markers don't mean we should ignore a major rise in LDL or ApoB.
The goal is to build a way of eating around real food, adequate protein, healthy fats, fibre, nutrient density and YOUR individual response.
That's the kind of “keto-ish” approach I'm here for. 💗
👇 Want some practical ways to actually use these foods?
Comment “RECIPES” below and I'll put together some of my favourite high-protein, healthy-fat meal and snack ideas that are easy to incorporate into your week. 🥑🥜🫒🐟
Educational information only and not individualized medical advice. If you have high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, take medication, or see a major change in your bloodwork after changing your diet, discuss your individual results with your healthcare provider.
