I personally think the word ‘fat’ should be changed, as it has such a negative association with it.
When we hear the word ‘fat’, we want to run 100 miles away!
But the fact is without fats, we could not survive. They make our cell walls flexible and permeable, 60% of our brain is fat so it is highly responsible for our mental health, fats balance and control our hormones, ensure we have healthy digestion, help protect our liver from toxins, it is the preferred food for heart health and fats help support our immune system.
When you eat fat, your body recognises to use this as its primary source of fuel. It signals to your body to access stored fat and use this for energy as well.
Fats leave you feeling fuller for longer so you eat less and most importantly it stabilises your blood sugar levels.
Stable blood sugar levels mean less insulin (fat storage hormone) production, less stress and in turn your body starts to burn into your stored fat, particularly around your belly.
Our misconception about fats, was founded in the 1950’s by a scientist called Ancel Keys.
Ancel Key’s had a hypothesis. He believed that eating fats contributed to coronary heart disease, so he decided to do a study to prove his theory called the ‘Seven Countries Study’. Keys performed his study testing his hypotheses on 22 different countries.
However, out of the 22 different countries, only seven came back showing support for his theory.
So as any good scientist does he ditched the findings of the other 15 countries and only published those of the seven countries! And as a society we awarded him with the Nobel Peace prize, put him on the cover of Time magazine and based our nutritional principals over the past 60 years on these findings, which meant manufacturing companies started taking the natural fats out of foods and pumping them full of sugar to enhance flavour, hence the many health problems we have today in modern society.
It is so important to include healthy fats as part of your daily diet. These healthy fats include saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. The fats you want to try stay away from are your trans fats and hydrogenated fats (which are all processed and man-made.)
Here are a few examples of good fats you should include every day as part of a healthy diet:
Olive oil (do not heat to high temperature as it becomes rancid)
Avocado oil, Macadamia oil, Rice bran oil, Coconut oil (can heat to high temperatures)
Salmon
Fish
Sardines
Flaxseeds or flaxseed meal
Eggs
Ghee
Organic butter
Nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, brazil)
Nut butters
Chia seeds
Avocados
Fatty meats
Which of the above foods can you start including as part of your daily diet?
This story was originally published on The Carousel.
