The Skinny on Fat

Are you sitting down? 'Cause I am going to tell you something that is going to totally rock your world. At least it rocked mine.

Ready?

Here it comes...

...Fat doesn't make you Fat. 

What!? I know, it is kind of hard to believe.  {Read with me for a bit to find out why this is so, or skip to the bottom to see a great infographic explaining why Fat doesn't make you fat.}

This simple truth is hard to believe because all we have been taught for decades is: Fat is bad. It increases cholesterol,  hurts your heart, and turns your belly into a flabby donut. Fat is practically a poison, right?

We have heard this constant refrain from teachers, parents, advertisers, the government, friends, doctors, strangers, scientists, and a whole host of health groups. 

Unfortunately, all of this well intentioned advice is wrong. Not just slightly wrong but demonstrably wrong.  

To be fair, the issue is not black and white. The problem is all fat has been lumped [pun intended] into a "bad for you" category. That is simply not the case. There are good fats [most of them actually] and bad fats [ones made in a laboratory].

Let's talk for a moment about why it's time to pass on the low fat foods and pick up a slab of fatty bacon. Mmmm bacon. 

Let’s start out with what makes us fat. The shocking answer is: it’s not fat. Recent studies are returning to the idea that sugar and simple carbohydrates are the real culprits behind weight gain. 

Did you notice I said "are returning to"?  In fact, it was only recently that the idea fat is bad for you became popular. For well over a century if someone wanted to loose weight the medical community would recommend a high fat low carbohydrate diet. But in the 50's science began looking at the causes of heart disease and looked at saturated fats as one of the causes. Before the link could be proven the media and do-good government types ran with the story. The only problem? It's never been definitively proven.  {Here is a good read that pools together data from 21 studies which tracked 350,000 people for 14 years and concludes there's no relationship between the intake of saturated fat and incidences of heart disease or stroke}

So what's wrong with Sugar and Carbohydrates? Let me answer the question with a question. What do farmers use to fatten up cows? They certainly don't use fat. Rather, they use low-fat grains. 

I am not going to get into all the technical details, but the simple answer is sugar and simple carbohydrates increase your insulin level. This increase in insulin tells the body it needs to store more fat. Which the body then does. Now, this is way over simplifying things but the reality is if you eat a lot of processed foods, sugars, and breads you are more likely to gain weight than if your eating lifestyle is made up of mostly vegetables, fruit, nuts, and meat.

Insulin molecules

For most of my life I have heard that weight is determined by calories in calories out. And that low fat calories are better for you. But as it turns out, things are a little more complicated than that.  What science has found is a calorie is not necessarily a calorie. Sounds confusing right?

Let me tell a story, I find stories always help me make better sense of confusing information.

Amanda and Amber are sisters. In fact they are more than that. They are identical twins. They are so much alike that sometimes even Amanda and Amber get confused about which one is which. 

Amanda and Amber decided it was time for a nice little get-a-way.  It was time they finally took that trip to Hawaii. And since it was an especially cold winter in their home town, Hawaii was sounding nice. 

Hanauma Bay, O'ahu

Oh they were so excited. But the excitement quickly gave way to the dread that they would need to get into beach shape. It being winter and all they had packed on a few extra "fat keeps me warm" pounds.  

Even though the sisters are very much alike and did almost everything together they disagreed on the best way to shed those winter pounds.

Amanda had always heard the best way to shed weight was to eat less and move more. Which seemed simple enough. Why go to the trouble of creating a whole new diet when you could just ease back on what you already ate.  

Amber had never really bought into the eat less move more theory. Mostly because she had tried it several times and never found lasting success. So instead she decided to do something a bit more radical.  Amber decided to change her whole diet. She would eat more veggies, nuts, meat, and fruit while completely eliminating processed sugars and all grains.

What both sisters agreed on was their exercise plan and caloric intake. They would work out together doing the exact same routine and eat exactly 2,000 calories a day.

Amanda and Amber have 8 weeks to get into rocking beach shape. And they are diligent. They work out everyday. Amanda eats less and Amber eats only meats, veggies, nuts, and fruits. At the end of the 8 weeks both girls are pretty impressed with the progress they've made. But it is very clear that Amber is going to look a little better at the beach. Amanda is frustrated. Why does her twin sister look a little fitter than her. They both exercised the same, ate the same number of calories, and were genetically identical to each other. It made no sense to her. But there it was. Amber looked like she belonged on the cover of Fit magazine and Amanda looking like she belonged on the cover of How to Loose those Last 10 Stubborn Lbs.

We need to ask why one sister had better results than the other? Scientific thinking for a long time has been weight loss occurs when you are burning more calories than you take in. If you want to loose weight you lower your caloric intake and increase your movement. While that is true, it's not the whole story. 

They both have the same calories but which is better for you

Our bodies are designed by nature to process natural foods better than processed foods, which makes sense. I mean evolution is not stupid. Our cave man brothers and sisters couldn't run down to the Kwik-e-mart to grab a bag of chips, a Twinkie, and a diet Coke. They subsisted on diets made up of largely meat and vegetables. With some fruits and nuts thrown in. So their bodies [which are now our bodies] naturally adapted to eating those types of foods. It is interesting as scientists gain a better understand of the health of our prehistoric brothers and sisters they are finding that they were much healthier than us. Even though they were eating a lot of saturated fats.  In fact, our bodies need fats to function. If we didn't eat fats we would die. Our brains thrive on energy from fats. Fats make up ½ of our cell membrane structure. Fats also contain more energy than sugars, which is why our ancestors craved them. I mean chasing an antelope all day takes a lot of energy.  

Here is the key,  there are good fats and bad fats. So how do you tell the difference? It is pretty simple. Made by nature is good, made by some guy in a lab coat is bad. If you ever see the words hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, or trans fat on a package drop the package and run like an angry mama bear is chasing you. That stuff is deadly.

Coconut Oil. The good kind of fat.

Ok, let’s wrap this all up. Roughly 80% of our weight is determined by what we eat. Grains and Sugars trigger the body to increase Fat Production. To be a little healthier make sure a majority of your diet is made up of veggies, meats, fruits and nuts. Eliminate or at least significantly reduce any intake of processed sugars and processed/whole grains. And make sure to stay as far away from trans/hydrogenated fats as possible.

I know this all sounds crazy. Fats don't make you fat. It goes against everything we have been taught.  I would highly recommend you do your own research. A good place to start is reading Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. Also the documentary The Perfect Human Diet has some good info. 

Now I’m off to cook up some bacon and eggs. 

But before I cook that bacon here's a fantastic Info Graphic. I wish I could take credit for it. But alas, I can't. You have to thank the chaps over at Massivehealth.com.  

  

Check back in later in the week when we talk snack ideas and recipes.