Yes, well… no! It depends.
A recent client of mine put herself on a low fat diet to help her lose “the last 5 kgs”. She put on weight! The conversation I had with her prompted me to write this blog.
Firstly, let me say that fat is definitely not the enemy! Fat has been made the enemy to influence you to buy weight loss products and cheap, nasty oils. “Low fat” is the slogan that fuels the weight loss industry. Unfortunately it’s a lie.
[Little note from Brenda: it’s tempting to call them good fats and bad fats but that fuels the good/bad, black/white thinking I talked about in a recent blog and that traps dieters in a vicious circle. So I’m going to call them something else…]
Here’s why:
- Natural fats, ie those made by nature, not meddled with and still whole such as avocado, nuts, seeds, organic butter, organic cream, duck fat, oily fish and coconut oil, provide essential fatty acids including omega 3’s. These nature-made fats keep your brain working, protect your cells, help your bowels, keep your skin soft, and are essential for the production of hormones particularly your stress hormones. Your metabolism WILL NOT WORK properly if you eliminate them.
- Natural fats do not make you fat! They are thermogenic (heat producing).
- Natural fats help you eat less. Fats switch on a chemical in the body that produces satiety. This means if you eat a salad without dressing, you never feel satisfied. If you eat a salad with dressing and some avocado, it will fill you up and keep you satisfied for hours.Unnatural fats ie GMO crops, grown in nutrient deficient soils, or refined, bleached, extracted using high heat, hydrogenated, or in other ways meddled with. These fats are virtually unrecognisable by the body and switch on tissue damaging inflammation. You will recognise them as: margarine, canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, soy oil, vegetable oil and many other names.
- Unnatural fats are used in all cheap, manufactured foods because they are cheap! That’s practically everything in a box or a packet, everything sold in the centre isles of the supermarket including lots of “health foods” and gluten free foods, everything in a bakery, most restaurant foods, take away, fast food, snack foods…
- Unnatural fats make you fat.
As you will have worked out, the key to getting back to your healthiest, most comfortable weight is to make your own foods from the most natural ingredients you can get a hold of.
