I’m surprised at the amount of people that are still fat-phobic. I thought that fad died out with acid washed jeans and scrunchies years ago. When will people realize that just because we eat fat does not mean that we will become fat. Fat is an essential part of a nutritious diet. In fact, fat is required by our bodies in order to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins; A, D, E, and K. Fat is also one of the three essential macronutrients. Without fat not only will the body not be able to absorb some vitamins and minerals, but many other functions of the body will not be able to work properly. Low fat diets are even linked with higher rates of depression and suicide. Eating a meal that contains fat helps the body feel satiety during a meal. Without that fat our body doesn’t get the signal that we have had enough to eat until we are already too stuffed; which means over consumption of calories.
Before you jump for joy thinking that I gave you permission to go out and order 50 double cheeseburgers from McDonalds, let me get one thing straight…not all fat is created equal. Bad fats such as foods that contain hydrogenated oils, trans fats, fat-free, or low fat can lead to weight gain, but worse than that they can lead to cardiovascular issues, diabetes, and other not so favorable conditions.
We have been so programmed to associate the fat we eat with the fat on our body, hence the continuous rise of the fat-free/low-fat craze. But as I said already these products actually can lead to a host of issues including weight gain.
How you ask?
If you were to take fat out of a food, the flavor would not be the same. So how then does your fat free yogurt still taste delicious? When fat is artificially removed from a food, additives much be added in to replace the missing flavor; which usually are in the form of processed salt and refined carbohydrates. So people that are on the fat-free/low-fat bandwagon are consuming a diet much higher in carbohydrates, sugars, and chemicals. If you don’t think that all that can lead to weight gain then you must be new to my blog.
Take the popular skim milk for example:
How about that, a nice cold glass of oxidized cholesterol and carcinogens!Skim milk is made by separating and removing the fat content from whole milk. This leaves the milk a blueish-gray color, and also may decrease its protein content. To boost protein and whiteness, then, it’s common for milk producers to add milk powder to nonfat (and possibly 1% and 2%) milk, via a process that subjects the milk to high temperatures and pressure. This process also causes skim milk’s cholesterol to oxidize. Oxidized cholesterol is carcinogenic, and has been shown (in animals studies, at least) to promote plaque formation in arteries and heart disease. Meanwhile, there’s little evidence that a low-fat diet, in and of itself, can actually prevent heart disease. -Bliss Tree
You see, it is not cholesterol that is the enemy here — your body actually needs cholesterol to function properly. It is instead the arterial wall inflammation caused by low-fat, omega-6-rich diets that is the problem, as this damaged tissue collects cholesterol and causes the blockages responsible for causing heart events like strokes. -Natural News
Not only are fat-free/low fat foods higher in carbohydrates, sugars, and chemicals they are also more likely to be eaten in excess. Foods that contain fat as I mentioned earlier allows our body to receive the signal that the we have eaten enough. Not only do fat-free foods dampen this signal, people also tend to over eat these foods in general, because these foods are “guilt-free.”
Eating a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates is the best approach for fat loss. Image that: eating fat to lose fat, who would have thought? By eating less carbohydrates the body can then access stored body fat rather than lean mass which helps with fat loss. Because think about it; if your diet is based on labels promising “fat-free” or “low-fat” then your diet is most likely full of simple carbohydrates which are spiking your blood sugar, causing the release of large amounts of insulin, which takes the glucose that you can not use right away from the blood and stores it in the liver and fat cells…creating body fat! If you limit your carbohydrates and consume more fat, the body has to burn body fat to use as energy instead. Granted if you eat too much fat your body can store it as fat, but that is one of the benefits of fat, you are less likely to over eat.
This sounds like a no brainer to me, eat food that tastes naturally delicious without the artificial chemicals and that eaten in the right amount has many health promoting benefits, including fat loss. The problem is that even though we hear about all the dangers of fat-free/low-fat foods, we see that it doesn’t help with weight loss, and we hear about the benefits of healthy fats in our diet it has been so ingrained in our heads to associate fat as evil. As I am enjoying my full-fat avocado I can’t help to think that it could possibly be making its way to my hips, buttocks, belly with each bite, instantly adhering to my problems areas, and setting me further back from my goal. I know better to believe these things, but our minds have become so polluted on what “healthy” actually is.
Pura Vida,
Alica Ryan, NTPPicture
http://www.puravidanutrition.org/2012/06/the-low-fat-fad-was-so-last-year.html
