Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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Hi, I know almond butter has been talked about a lot on here, but looking at my label I'm noticing that per serving there are 17g of fat... 1g of sat fat, 3g of polyunsaturated, 11g monounsaturated.

We always talk about the lousy o3:o6 ratio of almond butter. However the EFAs are polyunsaturated, which means that they make up only about 18% of the total fat content of the serving. So my question is, even if the ratio of 3:6 is bad, it seems to be only a small part of the fat content. That may not add up to much in a 2-3 tbsp serving. Monounsaturated (think olive oil) is generally considered good, so overall is it that bad for us?

Thoughts?

(Of course this is ignoring the gut irritant factor that seems common in almond butters)

flag	asked May 2 2011 at 22:57 Jeff 16.6k●1●9●35

Travis Culp · Answer 1 · 2011-05-02 23:36:57Z UTC

Oleic acid, being a LCT, is far more likely to be stored as body fat than a MCT. So, if you're trying to get leaner and eating something that is a highly dense source of an 18-carbon fat, you're working against your goals. If your goal is not to lose fat, then you're right, the linoleic acid doesn't constitute an ominous percentage of the fat as a whole (compared to corn, canola, cottonseed, grape seed etc), though it is quite high compared to beef, butter or coconut fat.

almond butter fat content

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