Busted – The Low Fat Diet Myth

If you’re looking for a healthy low fat diet, don’t waste any more of your time It turns out that a low fat food diet isn’t so great after all.  It fact, is becoming increasingly clear that a low fat diet is in fact, BAD NEWS.  In reality, your body needs fats in your food. 

Some of the necessary functions of fat include:

• Allowing your body to absorb the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, thus preventing deficiencies of these vitamins.
• Providing energy.
• Preventing fatty acid deficiency.
• Helps taste of food, and keeps food in the stomach longer, providing a greater feeling of satisfaction from the foods eaten.
• Helps your body produce endorphins and prevents essential fatty acid deficiency.

As you can see, it is really important to include fat in your diet.  Fat is part of every cell membrane in your body.  It helps transport nutrients across cell membranes.  It can provide back up energy if blood sugar supplies run out.  It helps transmit nerve impulses, while surrounding and insulating the nerve fibers.

Forget The Low Fat Food Diet And Eat The Right Fats Instead

While a low fat food diet isn’t good for you, just eating any fat you want is just as bad.  You need to chose the right kind of fats to include in your diet.

Avoid saturated fats and trans fats.  These are as bad or worse than no fats.

You should also avoid too many omega-6 fatty acids, which are found in polyunsaturated oils such as corn, safflower, soy and sunflower oils.  Too much of these types of oils tip the balance of omega-6 fatty acids in your diet, making them pro-inflammatory.

Instead of the 2:1 ratio we should have in our diet of omega-6 fatty acids: omega-3 fatty acids, Americans are generally consuming 20-50 times more omega-6 than omega-3.  And that’s what tips the balance, and the omega-6 fatty acids are then pro-inflammatory.

This is bad because doctors and scientists are discovering chronic inflammation is likely the root cause of many health problems, such as cancer, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 2 diabetes.

Instead, most of the fats you consume should be sources of omega-3 fatty acids, as found in monosaturated fats.  These types of fatty acids are ANTI-inflammatory, and good for you.  It’s important to include them in your diet, because your body cannot create them on its own.

Some good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include:

• Flax seeds
• Walnuts
• Salmon and other fatty fish
• Olive Oil

Easy Healthy Eating Tips

 1. Stop using vegetable oils like cottonseed, corn, safflower and soybean oils. 

 2. Switch to olive oil instead.  Or use some lard or coconut oil.  They’re better than using too much of the omega-6 rich vegetable oils. 

 3. Stick with the omega-3 rich oils and foods!

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

Low Fat Diet Dangers

I’m sure by now you’ve heard the news not all fat is bad.  There are some “good” fats that are essential to good health, which of course is why you should eat them!  Here are some of those needed fatty acids…

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid)

DHA and EPA are the most plentiful fatty acids found in the brain. They’re essential to memory, and it’s been found people with Alzheimer’s have low blood levels of these essential fatty acids.

An omega-3 fatty acid, DHA is found in cold water fish such as mackererl, sardines, salmon and herring. Egg yolks are another source of DHA.

Foods such as walnuts, leafy green vegetables and flaxseed contain alpha-linolenic acid, another omega-3 fatty acid. It can be converted by the body to the brain’s needed DHA and EPA.

GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) — Omega-6 Fatty Acids for Brain Food

You need GLA to form healthy brain-cell membranes, which is the part of the cell that stores information. These omega-6 fatty acids are found in vegetable oils such as safflower, sunflower and corn oil. Flaxseed or flaxseed oil is another good source.

So for some easy health food for your brain, eat fish, walnuts, flaxseed, eggs, good vegetable oils and leafy green vegetables.  (Those oils could be used in your salad dressing, for instance!)

This is one case where fat is your friend!

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

Fatty Acids Are Health Food For The Brain