Why babies must have animal fat

Fat isn't optional for the developing brain

There’s nothing so cute as a chubby baby. Each fat little finger and toe is adorable. But that fat isn’t there just to make you go weak and gooey. While the rest of us strive to restrict body fat to within certain limits, a baby’s biology is geared towards high fat storage.

It’s all about growing a healthy baby brain, and ultimately a healthy adult brain. Plants need soil, brains need fat.

The right kind of soil and the right kind of fat.

Fat on arrival

Humans are unique in that they are the only land mammals born fat. The human brain — which is 60% fat — is so highly evolved that it must arrive in this world equipped with a large fuel reserve, else risk severe damage. A baby lands with around 500g of fat packed away under the skin. Its brain burns an astonishing 70%-80% of all available fuel, so needs this back-up.

Even our nearest relative, the chimpanzee, is born with a virtual absence of body fat. But the chimp is, alas, small-brained. That’s the compromise: whereas humans are born big-brained but physically feeble, other animals with their little brains are able to stand up and stagger about shortly after birth.

Rapid accumulation of fat begins during the third trimester of pregnancy, as brain growth goes into overdrive, expanding much faster than the rest of the body. This phenomenon continues after birth and throughout the first five years of life.

Born ketogenic

“It is entirely normal for healthy infants to be constantly in mild ketosis; it is not due to them being sick, underfed or diabetic.”

There’s nothing new about a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet. We’ve being doing the ketogenic diet since we’ve been humans. You did it in the womb and after you were born.

When you are on the ketogenic diet you are in a state of ketosis. That means that your body is burning fatty acids for fuel. Some of that fat is converted in the liver into ketones, which provide fuel for the brain.

Babies burn ketones for brain fuel before and after birth, and even when weaning begins body fat continues to supply ketones.

The link between dietary fat and its role in brain function is nowhere more evident than in epilepsy. Epilepsy is a brain disorder, and the ketogenic diet is a well established treatment for the condition.

Studies have found that half of affected children experience at least 50% reduction in seizures after 6 months on the ketogenic diet, and one third achieve over 90% reduction. Indeed, research has found that it is a form of therapy that can, in some cases, “completely remove the need for medication”.

As well as needing fat for fuel, a baby’s brain requires specific of types fat for normal cognitive development and intellectual skills. Without that specific fat, there is the serious risk of developing brain dysfunction.

There are two fats that are essential for optimal brain function in the developing foetus and the newborn baby: the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and the omega-6 fatty acid ARA (arachidonic acid).

Both these fats form part of each cell membrane, and control what passes in and out of each nerve cell. They help develop the central nervous system. They are involved in communication between nerve cells, the firing of neurons, the regulation of neurotransmitters and the development of cognitive skills.

Surf and turf

DHA and ARA are polyunsaturated fats that are found pre-formed in animal-source foods only. The main dietary source of DHA is fish and seafood, and the main dietary source of ARA is meat.

DHA is found abundantly in seafood and oily fish, including salmon, mackerel, trout, herring and anchovy. Meat contains only small amounts of DHA, though offal — especially brain — is a great source, albeit not a terribly popular one.

ARA is found largely in meat, but some can be obtained from sea and fresh water foods. The best sources of ARA are beef, poultry, seafood and eggs.

Nuts and seeds and other plant foods are often suggested as a suitable vegetarian source of omega-3 fats. That is not the case. Although it is true that the body can make some limited DHA (and EPA, its precursor) from plant sources, its ability to do so is poor, and effectively meaningless. The liver converts less than 0.5% of the omega-3 fat in plant sources to DHA. That’s on a good day: in many studies, that conversion rate has been shown to be less than 0.1%, making it “negligible”.

“Thus, the developing human brain unequivocally needs to be provided with pre-formed DHA or it will not be able to optimally accumulate DHA.”

The same goes for ARA, which is also abundant in the brain. ARA is structurally similar to DHA, and is a significant component of the cell membrane, though they are metabolically and functionally distinct. One cannot replace the other.

Like DHA, pre-formed ARA is unique to animal-source foods, and conversion of omega-6 fats in plant foods to ARA is very low and unreliable.

“The synthesis of DHA and ARA is limited in infants and both DHA and ARA must be obtained from dietary sources.”

Only two mammalian species have disproportionately large brains and advanced cognition — humans and bottlenose dolphins. Both depend on DHA for that cognition.

Children who lack DHA are more likely to have increased rates of neurological disorders, in particular attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism.

“It is our contention that the movement in the 19th to 21st centuries away from traditional use of sea foods and increased emphasis on land based food supply is a likely cause in the rise in brain disorders including mental ill-health, stress, and other psychiatric disorders.”

Today, ADHD is the most frequently diagnosed neuro-behavioural disorder of childhood, and it is becoming increasingly prevalent. In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that there had been a 42% increase in the number of children diagnosed with the condition since 2006. In America today, 11% of children aged 4 to 17 live with ADHD.

DHA has been subjected to much more research than ARA, and what is known about DHA is that people who do not eat oily fish or seafood are at greatest risk of deficiency. Intake of DHA and EPA (the precursor to DHA) is low in vegetarians and virtually absent in vegans.

“..intakes of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are low in vegetarians and virtually absent in vegans.”

Deficiency of DHA is certainly not unique to vegetarians and vegans: anyone who does not eat fish is at risk. One study of the omega-3 status of vegans found that although low, it was no worse than that of omnivores who ate no fish.

So why are we told to avoid fat when it is so essential?

Good question.

Since the 1960s we’ve been drip-fed the official mantra that fat is bad, and we should cut down on dietary fat. A huge and highly profitable processed food industry has been built around the low-fat dogma, which persists to this day.

In her book “The Big Fat Surprise”, science journalist Nina Teicholz tells us that:

“By 1995, a survey of about a thousand mothers found that 88 percent of them believed that a low-fat diet was “important” or “very important” for their infants, and 83 percent responded that they sometimes or always avoided giving fatty foods to their children.”

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The damage that is done to young brains deprived of fat is immeasurable. It takes around 20 years to grow a fully developed human brain, from chubby baby to mature adult. It took 2.5 million years to hone that level of biochemical engineering. It takes no time at all to dismantle it. Don’t hold the animal fat.

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