Recent evidence concludes that eating fat does NOT make you fat, so you should not be omitting it from your diet.
The 90’s witnessed a fitness and health revolution and fat became the ‘culprit’ believed to contribute to a variety of health problems. This caused health professionals and nutritionists alike to condemn the macro-nutrient and recommend ‘low-fat’ diets.
Since then, nutritional science has improved tremendously and released new findings proving that ‘fat’ is not the culprit in peoples’ diets.
Dr. Mark Hyman, the physician, warns that people should not be worrying about but processed carbohydrates which he believes are to blame for making the population fat and sick.
He backs this claim by pointing to a review of data from the British Journal of Medicine that shatters the myth that fat causes obesity and heart disease. In the data, researchers found that while lowering saturated fat in the diet may lower total cholesterol, it actually lowers the good cholesterol (LDL), not the bad kind (HDL).
According to several doctors, even saturated fats are a healthy type of fat to consume. There is no evidence that saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease.
Not eating enough fat can contribute to various modern-day diseases
One of the appreciated characteristics of dietary fat is that it helps people feel satiated and complete after eating a normal-sized meal. When less fat is consumed, the tendency is to try and find the feeling of satiation by eating more starchy and sugary foods. But since these cannot match the feelings produced by fats, the outcome is to eat even more and more starches and sugars, racking up high numbers of calories, and resulting in weight gain.
Intriguingly, a study from the University of California found that most people who have a heart attack also have normal overall cholesterol levels. But Type 2 diabetes is prevalent in this cohort, therefore it is presumed that heart disease has more of a correlation with eating higher amounts of processed carbohydrates rather than fat.
What type of FAT is recommend?
Not all fat is created equal, quality is of the utmost importance.
- Avocados
- Nuts, including walnuts, almonds, pecans, but not peanuts
- Seeds including pumpkin, sesame, chia and hemp
- Fatty fish including sardines, mackerel, herring, and wild salmon
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Grass-fed sustainably raised animal products
- Saturated fats such as extra virgin coconut butter
“Avocados are high in fat but a good type of fat!” by Liz West is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Weston A. Price knew all of this as far back as the 1930’s. He was a dentist who searched for an answer to tooth decay in many locations around the world, studying the diets of indigenous people and their teeth. He found that butter and other saturated fats were staples in the diets of populations displaying supreme health – likely due to their high vitamin A, D, K2, and fat-soluble vitamins. When butter and other saturated fats were a central ingredient in the diet, children grew to be robust, sturdy, and free of tooth decay.
Maybe it is time for a new way of thinking…
Article cover photo:
““A bowl of nuts””
H/T to Natural Society
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1 Comment on "Why eating fat won’t make you fat"
Informative and helpful.