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Nourishing Fats: Why We Need Animal Fats for Health and Happiness

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Bestselling author Sally Fallon Morell predicted the rise of bone broth, an old-fashioned remedy turned modern health craze, in her hit Nourishing Broth . Now, Sally explains the origins of, and science behind, the next movement in the wellness world--healthy fats.

In the style of her beloved cult classics Nourishing Traditions and Nourishing Broth, Nourishing Fats supports and expands upon the growing scientific consensus that a diet rich in good fats is the key to optimum health, and the basis of a sustainable, long-term diet. Sally has been giving the clarion call for these facts for many years and now the American public is finally is catching up.

In Nourishing Fats Sally shows readers why animal fats are vital for fighting infertility, depression, and chronic disease, and offers easy solutions for adding these essential fats back into readers' diets. Get excited about adding egg yolks and butter back into your breakfast, because fat is here to stay!

272 pages, Paperback

Published January 31, 2017

123 people are currently reading
1065 people want to read

About the author

Sally Fallon Morell

38 books190 followers
Sally Fallon Morell is the co-founder and president of The Weston A. Price Foundation. According to the WAPF, she received a B.A. in English from Stanford University and an M.A. in English from UCLA.

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5 stars
101 (57%)
4 stars
53 (29%)
3 stars
18 (10%)
2 stars
2 (1%)
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3 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Michael Jones.
310 reviews54 followers
December 29, 2017
Sally explains why certain processes in the human body really only function optimally with animal fats. Fats taken from pasture fed animals help in so many ways in critical areas of the body such as the brain, digestive organs and reproductive health.

Everybody's talking about detox, but healthy fats are a surefire way for your body to easily cleanse itself from toxins.

As with all of her books, there are plenty of footnotes and historical anecdotes and science welling up from years of research on these issues.

So eat plenty of butter, eggs, and wherever possible eat the fats and organ meats from healthy animals! And stay away from the unnatural fats processed into the standard American diet these days.

Little babies desperately need these good fats!
Profile Image for Mary Ruth.
213 reviews
August 18, 2019
This is an important book for our times. I read this slow because it has so much information but also because the beginning of the book is very technical and not always well organized. Not horribly so, just a bit.
Chapters 4 through 10 are gold because of their usefulness and practicality.
We need good saturated fats and cholesterol for good brain function, good organ function, reproductive health, and for growing children.
The book is replete with studies to back it up and also with corrections on misinterpreted studies.
Profile Image for Abby Jones.
Author 1 book35 followers
April 2, 2024
I have been working towards incorporating good fats back into our diet for several years now, but it's always been lower on the totem pole due to symptoms of my chronic health issues taking the spotlight. Without realizing it, I accidentally put my family on a low-fat, high-carb diet. I was seeing improvement in some areas of my health, but I was still having issues, while my husband was getting worse and worse.

I don't remember exactly when I decided to get this book. My dad switched up his eating habits and we started talking about fats. It was also being discussed in my broader homemaker community. Either way, I decided to move fats higher up in priority and this book was part of that. I knew in my gut that something wasn’t right with our eating, and I had an intuitive sense that I wanted to incorporate tallow and such into our diet.

I started reading this book and it was like looking in a mirror at many of the health issues I and my husband have been struggling with. We long ago gave up margarine because it always kinda freaked me out, but while I had ejected the bad fats, we weren’t eating enough of the good stuff. This book helped me see that we need more animal fats in our diet and why. I started upping our butter, tallow, and bacon grease. Guess what? My husband’s irritating little health issues started to fade, and my chronic health issues started to ease off drastically. We’ve both lost weight, and my husband kicked his sugar addiction without any side effects. I haven’t felt this physically solid since my chronic health issues started almost 10 years ago. I truly wish I had focused on fats in my early twenties. I probably wouldn’t have developed chronic health issues at all or I would have recovered faster.

So, if you need some help on why you and your family may be struggling with your health, if you would like to eat more butter, if you would like to understand why it seems that the diet trends wobble back and forth every few years, if you would like to distrust every piece of low-fat propaganda, the government, and the medical systems, and if you would like to improve the life of those you love read this book. It will show you the lies we’ve been fed, explain the rise of mental health issues, chronic health issues, and infertility, and help you get back on the right path.
Profile Image for Петър Стойков.
Author 2 books330 followers
July 30, 2023
Добро и подробно (даже май прекалено подробно) описание на това защо мазнините и по-специално животинските мазнини са полезни и жизненоважни за човешкото здраве.

Авторката е хванала добрата формула, напипала е правилната ниша и таргет аудитория и вади книги по калъп на конвейр. Така или иначе, ако се интересуваш от темата, тия неща вече ги знаеш горе долу, но не пречи да преговориш.

За който не му се занимава, от всички мазнини тя изкарва кравето масло като най-балансирано и добро, но всякакви други животински също са супер.
Profile Image for Alisa Kester.
Author 8 books68 followers
July 24, 2017
Natural animal fats are not the enemy. Despite what certain medical organizations would like you to believe, it is the lack of whole milk, cream, butter, lard, organ meats and other sources of traditional foods that is causing heart problems, obesity, and almost all of our health issues. This book explains the science, using the medical profession's own studies to definitively prove that the low-fat diet is nothing more than a lie. Eat more butter! It's critical for your health.

This book is going to be on my Best Books of 2017...probably in first place.
Profile Image for Georgina Lara.
322 reviews38 followers
September 11, 2020
Did I need an excuse to eat butter, whole-fat dairy, cheeses and eggs? No. Am I glad I can now think of it as eating bioavailable vitamins and healthy fats and not only as a splurge? Oh, hell yes!
Profile Image for Kiki.
1,174 reviews1 follower
May 21, 2019
Heavier reading than some of her other books, but as someone who is skeptical about the demonization of cholesterol, I found this book to have additional information about cholesterol worth considering. Specifically, pgs. 34-37 and p. 77 1st full paragraph in the 2nd column. Worth a skim even if you don't want to read the whole thing.
Profile Image for Annie Kate.
366 reviews19 followers
January 7, 2019
I only skimmed this book but it is not as good as the author's Nourishing Traditions and Nourishing Broths, perhaps because it presented nothing new to me.

However, it would be very helpful to those who do not realize that healthy fats are crucial to health.
3 reviews
August 16, 2018
Good Fats and Butter are Delicious & Good for you!

All the industrial oil companies’ lies about cholesterol and saturated fats debunked. Every doctor in the country should read this book immediately. I bought extra copies for my friends. A must read.
Profile Image for Noelle Walsh.
1,172 reviews62 followers
March 14, 2017
This book was good. The detail into why we eat animal fats was great. There were also some recipes that looked pretty tasty as well


*won as a GoodReads Giveaway*
2 reviews
July 31, 2020
This book is a lifesaver in terms of correcting the vilification of dietary fat, particularly saturated fat. It explains the vital importance of consuming quality sources of saturated fat for the proper development and growth of infants, children and adolescents. Ms. Morrell's information is timely and assuredly sound.
11 reviews
August 29, 2023
What a great book!

I really like this book and I would’ve given it 5 stars were it not for the recipes and using highly processed foods like flour and such. I just don’t agree that those should be part of a healthy diet but if you want to learn all about fats and why everyone should consume them as long as they come from healthy animal sources, this is your book.
Profile Image for Patty Betts.
188 reviews4 followers
May 21, 2022
Absolutely fantastic!!! A must read for every parent to truly understand the importance of fats in a growing child and in the health of all! A great - detailed explanation on the roles fats play in our bodies 👏 👍 👌
6 reviews1 follower
May 12, 2023
Eye opening! I’d been on the fence about animal fats, even after reading Nourishing Traditions. There’s no question in my mind now that I had been hoodwinked. We need more traditional fats in our lives to be healthy, not less!
301 reviews
Read
April 22, 2024
Mostly reviews of research on fats and dietary guidelines, this tome invites discernment.
A few interesting recipes in the back, and a rest easy on refusing those damned statins for anyone on the fence, or wanting more data/research to bring to their Cardiologist.
Profile Image for Alexis Sexsmith .
8 reviews2 followers
January 13, 2026
I really loved this book! It was incredibly well referenced. You can see from her accounting of the history of food in the US exactly what happened and why!

It is a must read for anyone who what’s to eat nourishing food and support a healthy body for themselves and their loved ones!
Profile Image for Leora Wenger.
119 reviews28 followers
November 17, 2023
One of the most important books I have ever read, Nourishing Fats explained to me the importance of animal fats. I am just glad my daughter loves chicken soup.
Profile Image for Linda.
350 reviews9 followers
October 26, 2025
This book gave me a lot of information I didn’t know. The idea that eating saturated fats leads to plaque buildup in arteries is not well-substantiated.
Profile Image for Tikri /Letitia.
217 reviews8 followers
May 19, 2022
Whether you agree or not, Sally Fallon Morell's books are worth reading (and buying). I have them and mentally argue with her often, but with respect.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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