Lets Talk About Fat!

The belief that saturated fats clog up the arteries, cause coronary heart disease, and make us put on weight is just plain wrong. It’s about time we lift the veil and uncover the truth behind fats.

In the age of an obesity crisis, we’ve seen an exponential rise in products labelled “low fat”, “reduced fat” or “no fat”. These all sound incredibly appealing: surely, eating foods with no fat mean we ourselves won’t become fat?

Unfortunately, this is far from the case. When analysing foods that have been labelled as being low in fat, we can conclude a majority of these foods are instead packed with an alarming amount of sugar – sometimes double, triple, quadruple the amount of its regular counterpart.

So what should we be turning to instead?

For starters, we can shift our focus to the importance of eating “real food” to maintain a healthy weight.

The fats contained in animal and vegetable sources provide a high-quality source of energy in the diet. These fats also provide the building blocks for cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone-like substances, which are absolutely essential to our bodies. When healthy fats are part of a meal, they slow down absorption and we are able to feel fuller for longer. And the benefits don’t stop there: fats also act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Dietary fats are needed for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A, for mineral absorption and for a host of other processes.

For a long time, Politically Correct Nutrition has assumed saturated fats from animal sources are bad for our health. But research has repeatedly shown this is just not true! A diet that severely lacks in fat can actually lead to serious health implications. The much-maligned saturated fats we have all been told to avoid are not the cause of our modern diseases. In fact, they play many important roles in the body chemistry.

Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes and give our cells their necessary stiffness and integrity. They play a vital role in the health of our bones and enhance our immune system. The fat around the heart muscle needs to be highly saturated in order for it to draw from this reserve in times of stress, and saturated fatty acids also protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract. And if you would believe it, that’s not all!  

Clearly, there are many benefits to adding healthy fats to your diet, and the scientific evidence points to saturated fatty acids being an important part of your meals.

But then this means bad fats do exist, so what are they?

The worst type of dietary fat is the kind known as trans fat and vegetable oils. Trans fats and vegetable oils are found in margarine and in most processed foods and nearly all fast-foods. It is a fake fat and it doesn’t occur naturally. Instead, it’s a by-product of industrial processing and in the case of Trans Fats, a process called hydrogenation, which turns healthy oils into solids to prevent them from becoming rancid. Trans fats have no known health benefits and there is no safe level of consumption.

Eating foods rich in trans fats increases the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream and reduces the amount of beneficial HDL cholesterol. Trans fats create inflammation which is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Trans fats also contribute to insulin resistance, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are harmful to your health even in small amounts.

Time and time again, studies show people who cut back on fats not only don’t lose weight, but they don’t see other health benefits like a reduced risk of disease either. So if healthy fats are good for us, what is making all of us fat and sick? The answer is: negative health outcomes are associated with people who eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Cutting out sugar, grains and other processed carbohydrates like cereals, bread, pasta, and rice see both improvements in health and weight loss.

In summary, our choice of fats is extremely important to our health and wellbeing. We all benefit from more fat in the diet rather than less. However, that doesn’t mean you should be adding fats back into your diet with reckless abandon. Choose your fats carefully and avoid processed foods, especially those containing hydrogenated fats and polyunsaturated vegetable oils.

Instead, try to eat “real food”, or foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. Use traditional vegetable oils like extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil, animal fats for cooking and frying, eat eggs with the yolks, and other animal fats with the proteins they are attached to. Yes, this means you can eat the fat on your meat and enjoy chicken with the skin on! Finally, use as much good quality butter as you like, with the understanding that butter is an essential food for you and your whole family.

Looking for more personalised dietary advise, book a consultation today to discuss your health goals!

You can also watch this great documentary which will give you more info on Fats and how we got the dietary guidelines so wrong! FAT FICTION -The Movie.