There is a lot of talk about being on a low fat diet, even many diet experts arguing that a low fat diet is best. But there is another string of voices that are starting to gain momentum – those that are softly whispering that fat is glorious and wonderful.
The anti-fat war started in the 1980’s, a few years after the food pyramid was introduced into our vocabulary. It was seen that we need to eat a lot of carbs and much less protein to be healthy. The result of this advice was a massive boom in obesity. But still, we were sold the ideas that low-fat cookies should be seen as healthy. Meals that were geared toward a healthy lifestyle, were our hearts were protected should be tasteless and dry.
Nonetheless, among all the misinformation obesity levels widened, diabetes levels became critical. Then we need to ask ourselves what is going on here? Meanwhile, we are told to abstain from eating fat – simply since fat is bad, really bad. But if you go deeper in to food sector, then you can see patterns of politics that are running through the sector. True, some foods are trendy, and others fade away after a while, this is normal. Still, in the 1980s something else began – fear was placed into our minds that fat was the villain, but we were also told the lie that carbs were good. As a result, the food sector started to comply with governmental policy and produce high sugar and carb foods that were labeled as zero percent fat. As our weight sizes started to widen, and widen even more, the 2000s came around. It was only then when we grasped that there was a massive error in thought and that we need to shift the trend.
Currently, protein is the key to a healthy lifestyle, and carbs are seen as the evil beast.
We could now sit back and ask – are we better off, healthier, or did we not just swop the problem around to another problematic one? Oddly, if you have not noted, but the over-consumption of protein itself is not the heaven the health police thought it would be.
Still, there is a macronutrient that we ignore, avoid and avoid to consume, that of fat. Firstly, let me make a clear statement, one that was confirmed by research, that fat does not make you fat. True that fat has a higher count of calories, gram for gram, if compared to protein or even carbs.
The thing is that we are brain washed to believe that eating less fat is better. That since fat are high in calories and we will become fat, if not obese.
You see, fat is satiating. What fat does is to tell your brain you have had enough food. Thereby you are eating less. More so, we need fat. Our bodies need fat. In fact, fat is the building block for almost every cell in our bodies. Thus, if you want beautiful, glowing skin, you need fat in our diet. In addition, fat is a building block for almost all of your hormones.
However, I should make it clear – I am talking here about healthy fats. Seem confused, how can fat be healthy? Well, healthy fats are unprocessed fats – those you can find in nature. Simply since fats do not like to be processed, as it could damage the fat molecule. More so, a fat that has been over proceeded, its chemical structure will be altered.
Good sources of healthy fats include raw nuts (ideally unsalted), olives, avocados and oily fish. There are some minimally processed sources that can offer good sources of fat – like hemp seed oil with its peppery taste, extra virgin olive oil, virgin coconut oil, and even krill fish oil supplements.
The key is not do it in moderation, but that is the key to everything really.
Some fats to avoid will be for instance margarine.
Then again, saturated fat have been showed to help your heart to stay healthy. Good examples of saturated fats are organic butter, free-range egg yolks, or coconut oil. These all contain essential fats we need to keep us healthy.
So the for the next meal, cook with your virgin coconut oil and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil or some hemp seed oil over your salad. But enjoy it, do not fear it.