Truths and Myths about Fat
I have been hesitant to write anything on the topic of Fat, because it is a hot button in the diet world. The myth that eating ‘low fat' is the best and safest way to lose weight has persisted for many years.
At the conferences my staff and I have been attending for the last decade, we have been hearing other research. This research questions the myth that low fat will protect us from heart disease. Low fat became the mantra of nutritional science based on faulty work dating back to the 1960's.
Before I go further, I want everyone to keep an open mind. We are all different genetically and will respond differently to different diets, whether they be low calorie, low fat, or low carbohydrate. The point I really want to make is not about weight loss, but about inflammatory markers that are precursors to many of the diseases we see today.
Surprisingly, for many years, it has been observed that individuals on low fat diets have more inflammatory proteins in their blood stream than people on low carbohydrate. These findings challenged the hypothesis that it was fat that led to heart disease and cancer. The contrary may be true.
I will quote an article from the ‘Business Insider'. "According to a new study from the National Institutes of Health, a diet that reduces carbohydrates in favour of fat (including the saturated fat in meat and butter) improves nearly every health measurement, from reducing our waistlines to keeping our arteries clear, more than the low-fat diets that have been recommended for generations.”
"The medical establishment got it wrong.” says cardiologist Dennis Goodman, director of Integrative Medicine at New York Medical Associates. "The belief system didn't pan out.”
"How a fatty pork chop can trump pasta begins with the fact that our bodies don't process calories from fat, protein, and carbohydrates in the same way. When we eat carbs, they break down into sugar in the blood; that's true of whole grains too, though to a lesser extent,” says Jeff Volek, a leading low-carb researcher at Ohio State University. "The body responds with the hormone insulin, which converts the extra blood sugar into fatty acids stored in the body fat around our middles.”
"Our blood sugar then falls, and that body fat releases the fatty acids to burn as fuel. But carb-heavy diets keep insulin so high that those fatty acids aren't released”, Volek says. "The body continues to shuttle sugar into our fat cells, packing on the pounds, but we never burn it. Dietary fat, meanwhile, is the only macronutrient that has no effect on insulin or blood sugar. This means it's likely excessive carbs, not fat, that plumps you up” he adds.
I will, like you, keep an open mind to all the research that is being done. I can understand the confusion out there with all the books written about diets; each one blaming one thing or the other.
The point of this letter is simply to say, that low fat on a label usually means high carb, and this may not be the healthiest choice. I would reasonably confidently say that if a person tends to carry more visceral (belly) fat over hip fat, then that is an insulin issue which will respond best with a lower carbohydrate intake.
Whatever an individual decides to do, he or she must find what works for them. More importantly, can you maintain this way of eating for a lifetime, because keeping the weight off is the most difficult challenge we have in our society.
Just keep trying. Never ever give up!
Dr. Doug