Finally, the ‘Low Fat dogma’ of the last 60 years is dying. Mind you, I’m a retired open-heart nurse that used to believe and teach the low fat nonsense:
- Hundreds of Canadian physicians demand an end to the low fat dogma via an open letter.
- Sweden has scrapped its former low fat thinking, after an independent committee pored through tens of thousands of studies that show it to be total quackery.
- Mark Hyman, MD’s book Eat Fat, Get Thin presents the case for eating dietary fats based on the latest research.
- The NYTimes writes in “What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?“: “If the members of the American medical establishment were to have a collective find-yourself-standing-naked-in-Times-Square-type nightmare, this might be it!”
- The Ketogenic diet prescribed by doctors is helping patients with insulin resistance, diabetes, or pre-diabetes suppress hunger and make weight loss easier.
Low fat adherents will tell you that eating too much fat – especially saturated fat – will make you fat and give you a heart attack.
But tell that to the traditional Inuit, who get about 75% of calories from fat, and were almost entirely free of modern degenerative disease and obesity. It’s true for the Masai tribe in Africa, who get about 60-70% of calories from fat (almost entirely from meat and milk). And then there’s the modern French, who have the lowest rate of heart disease of any modernized country in the world – despite the highest intake of saturated fat. (source)
If you want the studies, take a look at the “conclusion” of this 530,525 participant study from 2014. A prior analysis in 2010 that included more than 300,000 participants came to a similar conclusion.
Both show saturated fat intake has NO correlation with heart disease and exposes the awful nutrition advice it really is!
9 Reasons Low Fat Weakens Our Bodies
1. Fat-soluble vitamins are found in fat
Available Vitamins A, D, E and K are found only in fatty foods, because they require lots of fat for absorption. Carrots and other vegetables will not provide you with vitamin A! To put this in perspective, that means one must eat 4 1/2 pounds of carrots to potentially get the amount of useable A as in 3 oz. of beef liver (source).
From the work of nutrition pioneer Weston Price, we understand that the amount of Vitamin A in primitive diets was about 50,000 IU per day, which could only be achieved in a modern diet by consuming generous amounts of grass-fed whole milk, cream, butter and eggs from pastured animals; beef or duck liver each week; and 1 tablespoon regular cod liver oil or 1/2 tablespoon high-vitamin cod liver oil per day. (Source).
2. Fat prevents sugar highs and sugar crashes
When food producers and ‘healthy eating’ gurus jumped on the low-fat bandwagon, they soon found that reducing the fat in food eliminated moisture and flavor. So, they increased sugar content to compensate. Increased sugar and decreased fat is terrible news for blood sugar regulation. It’s no wonder we are seeing skyrocketing diabetes!
Whenever we eat a source of carbohydrate, it should be accompanied by a quality source of fat. Fat slows down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream and prevents wild swings in blood sugar. This keeps us full longer so we can reach or maintain a healthy weight.
3. Hormone balance requires cholesterol-rich saturated fat
Cholesterol-rich saturated-fat foods provide the building blocks for sex hormones, including testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. Without cholesterol, master hormone pregnenolone cannot be made, which regulates these hormones.
On top of that, statin drugs that inhibit the liver’s production of cholesterol may have a very damaging effect upon the cascade of hormones of the endocrine system and reduce CoQ10 levels.
The most common side-effects of statin drugs are:
- loss of physical strength
- sexual dysfunction
- memory loss
- liver dysfunction
- changes in mood
- cardiomyopathy
Women, without enough dietary cholesterol, often become:
- estrogen dominant (deficient in progesterone)
- characterized by PMS and menopausal symptoms
For men, a low-fat diet yields:
- low testosterone
- erectile dysfunction
- tendency toward “man boobs”
4. Weight loss and weight management requires fat
Already supermodels are onto the weight loss secret coconut oil. Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr has been using coconut oil for years to maintain her enviable figure and won’t go anywhere without it!
Eating boxed cereal or a low fat protein bar as a snack, you’ll feel starved and crave sugar in 60 minutes. Much more sustaining is a calorie-for-calorie approach: 200 calories of coconut oil is going to keep you full for at least 2-3 hours, while those 200 calories of whole-grain cereal and skim milk will leave you starving an hour later.
“Fat doesn’t make you fat; sugar makes you fat.” ~Dr. Chris Greene and me
“Fats do have an effect on satiety and appear to regulate appetite through several mechanisms including the release of appetite hormones and inhibition of gastric emptying and intestinal transit,” says PubMed study.
5. Detox requires fat
You may not see a half an avocado or pat of real butter as detox-promoting, but it certainly is! By stimulating bile release, good sources of saturated fats like butter encourage detox, balanced hormones and weight loss.
After the liver filters toxins for our entire body, it moves them into bile. If there is adequate fat to signal bile release, the gallbladder releases bile when we digest our food and the toxins in the bile leave the body with the feces.
If we aren’t consuming adequate fat to signal bile release, however, then the toxins build up in both the liver (where filtered toxins are collected) and gallbladder. The toxic load builds up as the body reabsorbs these resident toxins.
6. Gallbladder health & bile release requires fat
We see soaring numbers of gallbladder removals from people who have eaten a low fat or poor fat diet. After months or years, we can create serious gallbladder congestion due to buildup of thick, sticky bile sitting in the gallbladder. Eventually, gallbladder attacks and gallstones occur.
But what happens when we only have minuscule grams of fats in our meal? Bile release isn’t signaled, so bile sits in the gallbladder, turning it thick and gummy. In a vicious cycle, it becomes more difficult for the gallbladder to release bile when bile is thick, so it just gets thicker in the gallbladder.
Then, if we do eat a meal heavy in fat, the gallbladder can’t squeeze out the thick bile and the fat passes through our digestive tract undigested and unused for critical tasks in the body.
If you currently experience gallbladder problems or have had your gallbladder removed, you should gradually increase your fat intake and take targeted supplements, including ox bile with bile salts. I recommend working with a nutritional therapist or naturopath to address the problem.
7. Cholesterol balance requires plenty of good fats
The roles of cholesterol in our body is catastrophically misunderstood.
For additional information on cholesterol, statin drugs, and cholesterol testing, I highly recommend signing up for Chris Kresser’s newsletter. You’ll get free, instant access to his ebook The Diet-Heart Myth, written in plain English.
8. Protein utilization requires fat
Protein cannot be adequately utilized without dietary fats. That is why protein and fats occur together in eggs, milk, fish and meats. A high protein, low fat diet can cause many problems including too rapid growth and depletion of vitamin A and D reserves. Source and read more.
If we examine the eating habits of our parents and grandparents, we see that lean protein is a thoroughly modern invention. My great-grandmother would have never left the egg-yolks out of her omelets, for heaven’s-sake! After all, the fatty acids and vitamins in the yolks are required to utilize the protein in the whites.
9. Fat makes food taste good
Lastly, nourishing sources of fats makes healthy food taste amazing. Makes you think cream and egg yolks taste so good… is God’s way of telling us that these foods are a gift for us!
Most of the recipes in my old copy of Joy of Cooking cookbook from 1931 contains satisfying amounts of butter, lard, egg yolks, pork, and/or cream. Plain steamed vegetables would be a completely foreign concept to homemakers of that era.
“My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.” ~Ps. 63:5
How much fat is enough?
As a general rule of thumb, we should eat no less than 40% of our calories as fat. I thrive on a 50% healthy fat diet.
For a 2,000 calorie diet, obtaining 40% of calories from fat means eating about 90 grams of fat.
Vegetable oils such as canola oil should be completely avoided, because the high ratio of omega-6, polyunsaturated fats is unnatural and inflammatory.
Thankfully, I no longer buy into all the low fat dietary myths that have been pushed for so many years! Here are some of the healthy fat foods and ideas I use.
Let’s dump the low fat myth and get on the road to health by sharing!
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