Stop Fear-Mongering Your Food: It’s Time to Talk About Fat

For a long time, fat had a bit of a bad reputation. Walk through a supermarket and you’d find plenty of products proudly labelled “low-fat”, “fat-free” or “reduced-fat”, with the underlying message being that less fat automatically meant a healthier choice. Fat was often singled out as something to avoid, particularly when it came to concerns around weight and overall health. But nutrition is rarely that black and white. Today, we have a better understanding of the role fat plays in the body. Rather than trying to eliminate it from your meals, it’s worth looking at the bigger picture: what kind of fat you're eating, how much you're having, and how it fits into your overall diet.

Your Body Actually Needs Dietary Fat

Fat isn’t simply an extra ingredient that makes food taste better. It’s one of the three macronutrients your body needs, alongside carbohydrates and protein, and it contributes to several everyday functions. Dietary fat helps provide energy, supports the structure and maintenance of cells, plays a role in normal hormone production and helps protect your organs. It is also important for normal brain and nerve function. And there’s another reason not to write fat off completely: it can make meals more satisfying. A meal that contains an appropriate amount of fat can feel more substantial, helping you enjoy your food and stay satisfied. Perhaps most importantly, some nutrients actually rely on fat to be absorbed properly.

A Little Fat Can Help Your Body Use Certain Vitamins

If you’ve ever heard of vitamins A, D, E and K being described as “fat-soluble”, there’s a good reason for it. These vitamins require dietary fat for proper absorption. In other words, it’s not only about what nutrients are present in your food—but it’s also about how effectively your body can make use of them. Take a simple vegetable salad. You could load it up with colourful vegetables and plenty of nutrients, but adding something like avocado, nuts, seeds or an appropriate dressing provides a source of fat that can support the absorption of certain nutrients in the meal. So instead of automatically labelling fat as the “bad guy”, think about quality, quantity and context. The right type of fat, in an appropriate amount, can be part of a nutritious meal.

The Type of Fat Matters

When we talk about “fat”, it’s important to remember that not all dietary fats are alike.

Some foods are sources of unsaturated fats, which include:

Olive oil
Avocado
Nuts
Seeds
Oily fish

Other foods contain saturated fats, including:

Butter
Coconut oil
Full-fat dairy
Fatty meats

General health guidance encourages making unsaturated fats the main sources of dietary fat while being mindful of how much saturated fat you consume. That doesn’t mean you have to ban butter, coconut oil or other sources of saturated fat from your kitchen. Food doesn’t have to be divided into “good” and “bad” categories. It’s about how individual ingredients fit into your overall eating pattern.

Where Does Virgin Coconut Oil Come In?

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) has found its way into many kitchens, and it’s easy to see why. It has a distinctive coconut aroma and flavour, works across sweet and savoury recipes and offers relatively good heat stability.

Depending on how you cook, you can use VCO for:

Stir-frying and sautéing
Baking
Preparing selected Asian dishes
Making homemade treats and snacks
Bringing a gentle coconut note to recipes

Virgin coconut oil is less refined than some conventional coconut oils and retains its characteristic coconut aroma and flavour. However, “natural” doesn’t mean “use as much as you like”. Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, so VCO is best viewed as one option among many, rather than the only cooking oil or fat your diet needs. There’s plenty of room for variety. You might use VCO in one recipe, olive oil in another, and get additional fats from foods such as avocado, nuts, seeds and fish. Think of your kitchen as having more than one tool in the toolbox.

Will Eating Fat Automatically Lead to Weight Gain?

This is probably one of the biggest misunderstandings about fat. Eating fat doesn’t automatically mean you will gain weight. Your weight is influenced by the overall balance between the energy you consume and the energy your body uses, together with a variety of personal and lifestyle factors. That said, fat is more energy-dense than protein and carbohydrates, so the amount you eat still matters. But this doesn’t mean removing fat altogether is the answer. In fact, an appropriate amount of fat can make food more enjoyable and satisfying. Rather than obsessing over whether a meal contains fat, it can be more useful to consider the overall nutritional value, portion size and balance of your meals.

Can Certain Fats “Balance” Your Hormones?

The internet is full of wellness claims, and one you’ll often come across is that a particular oil or food can “balance your hormones”. It sounds appealing, but the reality isn’t quite so straightforward. Dietary fat does have a role in normal hormone-related processes in the body. However, there isn’t a single oil or ingredient that can magically fix a hormonal imbalance. Hormonal health is influenced by a combination of factors, including what you eat, how well you sleep, your stress levels, physical activity, age and underlying medical conditions. So rather than looking for one “miracle” ingredient, think of nutritious fats as one small but important part of an overall healthy lifestyle.

Making Room for More Nutritious Fats

You don’t need to completely overhaul your eating habits to introduce more variety into your diet. A few easy ideas include:

Sprinkle nuts or seeds over your breakfast
Add avocado to sandwiches, salads or main meals
Include oily fish regularly, if it suits your diet
Experiment with different cooking oils for different recipes
Choose whole and minimally processed foods more often
Use virgin coconut oil when its flavour and cooking properties complement the dish

Even snacks can be given a simple nutritional upgrade. Pairing fresh fruit with a handful of nuts or stirring seeds into yoghurt, for example, can make a quick bite more satisfying. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

“Low-Fat” Isn’t a Shortcut to Healthy Eating

Seeing the words “low-fat” on a packet can make a product seem like the obvious healthier choice—but the label doesn’t tell you the whole story. When fat is reduced or removed from a food, other ingredients may be adjusted to compensate for changes in flavour, texture or mouthfeel. That’s why it pays to look beyond the big claim on the front of the packaging.

Take a closer look at:

The ingredient list
The amount of added sugar
How highly processed the product is
The nutrients it actually provides
The overall serving size

Ultimately, one word on a food label can’t tell you whether something fits into a healthy diet.

It’s Not About Cutting Out Fat—It’s About Finding Your Balance

Food trends have a funny way of swinging from one extreme to another. For years, fat was something to avoid. Then came a wave of enthusiasm around adding butter, oils and other fats to almost everything. But healthy eating doesn’t have to live at either end of the spectrum. Your body needs dietary fat, but the focus should be on choosing a variety of sources, being mindful of portions and looking at your diet as a whole. Build your meals around a variety of whole foods, vegetables, fruits, protein and fibre, and include different sources of dietary fat along the way.

And if virgin coconut oil is already a familiar ingredient in your family kitchen, there’s no need to put it on a pedestal—or banish it from the pantry. Use it where it works well. Enjoy its flavour. Pair it with other sources of fat and nutritious foods. Because ultimately, VCO doesn’t need to be a miracle ingredient to have a place in your kitchen. And fat doesn’t need to be feared. Good nutrition is less about finding one perfect ingredient and more about creating a balanced eating pattern that works for you.