Give me just one second while I climb up onto my soap box….
Y’all. We’ve been lied to. For decades. We have the WRONG impression about dietary fat. Like, really, really wrong. Ready for the cliff notes version of the truth?EATING FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT.In fact, not eating ENOUGH fat might be a big part of the reason you’re gaining fat. No joke. I’m totally serious. I’ve gotta clear this up. These common misconceptions make me so crazy.
It’s really unfortunate that fat on our body is referred to by the same word as dietary fat in foods we eat. That, and a lot of misinformation, has led us to believe that dietary fat leads to an accumulation of body fat.
I’m going to ask you to think about something differently. So, a gram of fat has more calories than a gram of carbohydrate or protein, right? A gram of fat has 9 calories whereas a gram of protein or carbohydrate has only 4. That’s one of the big reasons people think fat is “fattening”. More calories = more weight gain (misleading, but a common thought nonetheless). The problem is that we’re thinking about it alllll wrong. Bear with me while I attempt to clear this up. A calorie isn’t some magical thing that piles up and makes you look fatter. Calories are how we measure the energy potential in food. One more time just because its worth repeating:calories are how we measure the energy potential of a particular food.
So what, right? Basically, dietary fat delivers more than twice as much energy to our bodies than protein or carbohydrate!! That’s a GOOD thing! That means that we can fuel our body for longer on less than we can if we just stuck to protein or carbs.
Research has shown that when you eat a low fat diet you actually increase the activity of certain enzymes that encourage your body to store more fat. On the flip side, ample dietary fat has been shown to increase the activity of enzymes that help you burn stored body fat! How’s that for a twist on what we’ve been taught? Not only that, but a lower fat diet is going to make it much harder to manage your hunger and cravings!
We need fat in our diet if we want to be healthy. Do you realize that your brain is about 60% fat? In addition to being an incredible fuel source and critical component of cognitive health, fats are components of every single cell in your body, they are required for the manufacture of hormones and they are essential for the utilization of many vitamins and antioxidants. If that’s not enough, you need fat for the proper growth and calcification of your bones, they keep your skin soft and supple, they support your immune system and help control your body’s inflammatory response. And that’s just the beginning!
For political and financial reasons we won’t go into (today), ignorance and greed led to the vilification of fat beginning in the 1970s and 80s. The food industry seized the incredible financial opportunity and flooded the market with low-fat and fat-free alternatives. These alternatives were loaded with artificial ingredients and sugar to replace the flavor and mouth feel the fat had been providing.It’s no coincidence that between 1980 and 2008 obesity in adults more than doubled and extreme obesity more than tripled.
We’ve been told to avoid dietary fat and cholesterol to reduce our risk of heart disease. People in positions of authority in medicine and politics have insisted that fat consumption increases the risk of heart disease and dietary cholesterol increases serum cholesterol. We’ve been convinced that dietary fat triggers inflammation and disease. Fat intake is not to blame for any of those things.
So if dietary fat isn’t to blame for heart disease, what is? The short answer is inflammation and oxidation, which are most significantly influenced by insulin (a result of excessive carbohydrate consumption) and cortisol (a result of chronically elevated insulin and physical or emotional stress). I promise, I’ll talk much more about this part another time…
There’s no doubt that there are in fact good fats and bad fats. The bad fats, however, are not saturated fats from animal products. The bad fats are these toxic, plastic fats (trans fats) made in factories and highly unstable fats from crop oils like canola and soybean. They are chemically altered, foreign to our bodies and wreak havoc inside us. They have been linked to just about every disease you can think of. The FDA is now requiring that trans fats be labeled on food products, but there are loopholes. One of the biggest loopholes is that if a product contains 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving it can advertise and label the product as “trans fat free”. That is an issue not only because it’s an outright lie, but also because most people don’t limit themselves to one serving of these foods! They’re designed to make us eat more!
I have SO much more to say on this topic and of course you’re going to hear about it, but this is already getting long and writing this has made me crave bacon (so I’m gonna make some).
But to get you started, a great way to get started is to move away from low fat, chemically altered, processed food choices. When you emphasize whole foods direct from nature you’ll naturally increase your intake of quality, healthy fats. Let go of your fear of butter. Eat a fatty chicken thigh instead of always opting for the super lean breast. Have some bacon, for crying out loud. Add fat. Embrace it. Love it. And while you’re at it, please, please, please lay off the processed garbage!
Let’s start with the not-so-hidden dangerous of processed foods, yeah? THEY AREN’T REAL FOOD. Need we continue? Haha. For real though, let’s think about it for a minute.
An apple comes from an apple tree
A chicken breast from a chicken
A potato grows in the ground
An oreo comes from…..? A factory? No bueno.
Studies have linked consumption of processed foods to obesity as well as various health conditions including heart disease, cancer, ADHD and arthritis. Very few people would probably argue that processed foods are good for you yet these non-food items make up the majority of most Americans’ diets. Get THIS crazy statistic: $0.90 of every food dollar in this country is spent on processed foods. No wonder we’re overweight, tired and sick!!
If you’re looking for lasting fat loss, processed foods have got to go. Here’s what we know: because many crucial nutrients like fiber and healthy fats have been stripped from processed foods, they are easier for your body to digest. That’s not a good thing when it comes to fat loss. What it means is that they spike your blood sugar faster and it plummets almost as quickly. Your body spends less time and energy metabolizing these frankenfoods. This is why you can eat a bag of potato chips and never feel full or scarf down a huge bowl of cereal and be hungry just an hour later. It feels very different to eat a steak or an omelet.
Additionally, because these foods are easier for your body to digest, that means you burn fewer calories during the digestive processed compared to a whole-foods meal. I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to enjoy a nice meal, I’d love to burn off as much of it as possible during the digestive process!
It’s important to also realize that the companies producing processed foods are out for one thing: your money. They want you to crave their food. These companies spend millions of dollars on food and behavioral scientists whose job it is to identify just how to make you crave their food and not be able to stop eating it. They’ve identified combinations of flavors and textures that trigger the reward center in your brain, making their processed food item as addictive as a drug. That’s not an exaggeration, guys. Check out the conclusion from a recent study on Oreos:
“…Oreos activated significantly more neurons than cocaine or morphine. ‘This correlated well with our behavioral results and lends support to the hypothesis that high-fat/ high sugar foods can be thought of as addictive”
The goal of many of these food scientists is to capitalize on what is called “vanishing calorie density” – the way foods with very few nutrients but lots of flavor and texture melt in your mouth and require little effort to digest trigger your brain to think you aren’t really eating any calories. You just keep eating, and eating, and eating….
From a fat loss standpoint, processed foods are your worst nightmare. From a health standpoint, they don’t look much better!
Processed foods, in general, are packed with added sugar, salt and unhealthy fats to improve mouth feel, flavor and extend shelf life. If you made a homemade cookie from minimally processed ingredients, could you put it in your pantry for a year and go back and eat it? Uh, no. Foods aren’t meant to have long shelf lives yet processed foods will often look (and taste!) the same after sitting on a store shelf for years. Here’s what I think: if a food has a long shelf life, it’s probably borrowing from YOURS.
Stripped of nutrients like fiber and omega 3s, these foods have little to no nutritive value. They are certainly nutritionally inferior to whole foods like vegetables, fruits and protein. However, they’re covered with marketing “health” claims! These food companies graffiti the packaging with confusing and often misleading claims like “a great source of fiber!” or “sugar free” or “an excellent source of whole grains”. To a consumer who doesn’t understand the risks of processed foods, they might be tricked into thinking they’re making a healthy choice.
Then there are the ingredients themselves – man-made chemicals, artificial colors and flavors that at the very best are questionable with regard to their impact on our health. Studies have been done on many of the common ingredients found in processed foods and the results are frightening. I’m not an alarmist and I think everything stated above is reason enough to avoid these things, but I do want to draw your attention to a few concerning ingredients and urge you to look at the labels before you buy your next boxed or bagged food-creation.
BHA (butylated hydroxyamisole) – used as a preservative, this also has been linked to cancer
Artificial colors – chances are you’ve heard a lot about risks associated with certain artificial colorants and there really is no question that if you’re looking for optimal health – especially for your children – these need to be avoided. For a good overview of the risks associated with artificial colorants, check out this document.
I could go on for days about all the research that has been done but it boils down to a very simple point: our bodies were created to process real food. These man-made frankenfoods are nutritionally inferior to whole foods, they encourage us to overeat and they may in fact be a significant detriment to our health. Keep it clean – eat whole foods.
I never gave insulin much thought. I wasn’t diabetic; my blood sugar levels were within the normal range so I never imagined that I might have a problem with insulin. I think most of us probably think the same way – insulin is really only something you need to worry about if you’re diabetic. Here’s the truth: if you want to burn fat and get healthy, you need to understand and control insulin. If you’re carrying extra weight and having a hard time getting it off, you MUST pay attention to insulin. It’s not optional. Fortunately, it’s not hard to do if you make the right choices at mealtime.
Insulin became a problem for me (without me knowing it) because I spent years in the carbohydrate cycle. Maybe you recognize it? I’d wake up in the morning and have a bowl of cereal and some juice. Having not eaten since dinner the night before, my body would react to the rapid influx of carbohydrates in that meal, sending my blood sugar through the roof and giving me a burst of needed energy. Insulin arrives in response to my elevated blood sugar, as it’s job is to clear the sugar from the blood and take it to it’s storage place. As fast as my blood sugar rose, it plummets as there was nothing in my meal to keep it steady (like fat or protein). That energy I experienced? It’s gone. Not only that, low blood sugar tells the body that we need more fuel. That triggers hunger as well as cravings for carbohydrates, as your body knows that’s the fasted way to get that blood sugar back up. So now, only an hour or two after eating, I’m hungry again, I’m tired, and I’m craving more carbohydrates. That low blood sugar has also trigged a stress response from my body so now there’s this uneasy sense of urgency – “I gotta have sugar NOW!”. So, I’m human. I’d go get a sugary granola bar or snack out of a box of crackers. Annnnnnd we’re right back in the damn cycle! As if being hungry, tired, moody and craving sweets weren’t bad enough, we’re storing fat all the while! If you feel hungry shortly after eating, if you struggle with energy swings throughout the day and regularly crave carbohydrates, you might be stuck in the carb cycle, too!
Our body’s capacity to store glucose/sugar is limited to about 400 grams (not each day – in total). After this low threshold is met, excess glucose not needed for immediate energy is converted to triglycerides (fat) and sent to be stored or continues to circulate in the blood. Your high insulin levels also signal your cells to hold onto the fat and not release it for energy.
You are either in fat-storing mode or in fat-burning mode. You’re always in one or the other and you cannot be in both. The determining factor? Insulin. Carbohydrates control insulin and insulin controls fat storage. Your dietary choices determine whether or not you’re allowing insulin to work for you. You’re either eating to trigger fat storage, accelerated aging and inflammation or you’re eating to allow insulin to help you burn through your fat stores.
Here’s a quick run down of how high blood sugar and excess insulin are impacting your health.
Chronic high insulin levels cause your cells become resistant to it. It’s always around, so they stop responding. You know how after listening to loud music for a while it doesn’t seem so loud? The same thing is happening to your cells. Insulin is always around sending these loud signals and your body just gets used to it and begins to ignore it. When your cells stop responding to insulin, not only does your blood sugar remain high, but your body perceives that it needs more insulin and keeps producing more and more, creating a cycle of increased fat storage, impaired fat burning and excess insulin production.
When insulin resistance prevents glucose from getting into your cells, your cells think there isn’t enough glucose in your body and so they initiate a process called gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogensis is the process of generating more glucose and dumping it into the blood stream for energy. Of course this energy isn’t needed and likely gets stored as fat.
Your blood sugar stays elevated for longer than normal since insulin can’t efficiently clear it – this leads to the formation of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs. This process accelerates aging (they’re appropriately named, huh?) by triggering inflammation, neuropathy, fine lines and wrinkles and much more.
Chronically elevated blood sugar is bad news, but so is the chronically elevated insulin that comes along with it! This can lead to systemic inflammation, heart disease and impaired blood flow.
Your pancreas will eventually get tired of over-producing insulin. When this happens, you may become “insulin dependent” – requiring injections of insulin to help control blood sugar.
Excess insulin wreaks havoc on your hormones. It can decrease your body’s production of growth hormone, which is essential for energy, repair, metabolism, immunity, libido and much more.
Insulin resistance decreases certain thyroid hormones slowing your metabolism while increasing fat storage and decreasing your energy levels.
Elevated insulin decreases sex hormone synthesis, which negatively impacts your menstrual cycle, fertility, mood, sex drive and more.
Chronically elevated insulin encourages fat storage. The more fat you have, the more of the hormone leptin you produce. Just like you can become insulin resistant, you are likely to become leptin resistant. Leptin is responsible for signaling the brain that you’ve had enough to eat. When you’re leptin resistant, your brain has a hard time receiving those signals and don’t experience that “I’m full” feeling.
Elevated insulin prevents glucagon from doing it’s job. Glucagon is a hormone that is required for fat to be allowed to leave fat cells and travel to be burned as energy. Glucagon will not operate in the presence of elevated insulin.
Scary stuff, huh? The reality is that this is what’s happening to your body when you eat a high carbohydrate diet rich in processed foods or you don’t move your body regularly. It’s compounded if you’re eating poorly AND not exercising.
The GREAT news here is that most of us have the power to control our blood sugar, moderate our insulin release, make our bodies highly sensitive to insulin and become a fat-burning machine!
When your body is highly sensitive to insulin, it signals your genes to create more receptor sites for insulin making you even MORE sensitive to insulin! When you exercise regularly, you repeatedly deplete the glucose stored there, allowing your next meal to refill those stores instead of being stored as fat. Your body becomes highly efficient at utilizing nutrients and drawing on fat stores for additional energy needs.
So, the take away? Your diet and lifestyle choices tell your body to get fat and stay fat, or get lean and stay lean. Whatever choice you make, your body is going to compound it. So where to start?
Eat to control your blood sugar. This means avoiding processed foods and grains. Build your meals around healthy fats, protein and vegetables.
Aim to get at least 3 high intensity workouts in each week. This will work to deplete your glycogen stores and teach your body how to be energy efficient
Take it one meal, one day at a time. You’ll feel the difference. We cannot deny the link between hormones and fat loss. If you want to achieve fat loss, you MUST eat to optimize your hormones.
