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

It is true that salmon is full of omega-3 fatty acids – at least some salmon. It is also true that omega-3 fatty acids can be a very healthy addition to your diet. But it isn’t true that just because it is salmon it is good for you. In fact, if you buy your salmon at a regular supermarket, there is a good chance that it isn’t one of the healthy ones.

Why is it not healthy to eat some salmon? Because much of what is sold in supermarkets and served in restaurants is actually farmed salmon. Studies show that farmed salmon have 60% to 70% less omega-3 fatty acids. They also contain much higher levels of cancer causing dioxins and PCBs. They also contain antibiotic residue – more than meat or any other domestic animal products.

These farmed salmon are simply not very good for you. They are hatched in plastic trays, crowded in unsanitary cages underwater, unnaturally fattened using soybean pellets, and treated with antibiotics and pesticides. They have to be fed a synthetic pigment to give them their pink color. This pigment contains canthaxanthin, which was used in sunless tanning pills until they were banned for human use.

These fish aren’t just bad for your health, however. They are also bad for the environment. The antibiotics used are creating new varieties of resistant bacteria that are killing other fish in the oceans. The pesticides used are killing shellfish and other bottom-dwelling ocean life.

Finding Healthy Salmon

Okay, so you decide that you don’t want to hurt your body and the environment. How do you avoid the unhealthy fish and eat only the healthy Salmon? Try natural food markets. The label should indicate if they are wild salmon. Ask if you aren’t sure. In restaurants you’ll have to ask the waiter or chef, although the more expensive restaurants will normally serve wild-caught salmon, because in addition to being healthier, they also taste better. Some canned salmon are clearly labeled as “wild caught.”

The fish farming industry claims that they are providing a healthy fish, and that fish farming helps to protect the wild salmon population from over-fishing. Essentially they are saying that their fish are good for you and good for the environment. Both of these assertions are lies.

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

The Salmon Lie

Functional Food Definition

Functional foods are defined as “foods that have been linked to potentially healthful benefits.”

Obviously, some foods provide more health benefits than others, ranging from the super foods that are great health foods, to the dismal stuff loaded with toxic substances.

Choosing The Best Functional Foods

The New York State Dietetic Association recently chose what they consider to be the top five functional foods. They polled nutritionists in their organization to list foods they considered to have the best health benefits and value. Not surprisingly, three of their choices are on the Super Hero Health Foods List.

The Top Five Functional Foods List

Their choices are:

1. Salmon: Chosen for the potent omega-3 fatty acid levels, salmon tops the list. These substances have benefits for the heart, brain and more.
2. Oats: The high fiber content of oats landed them in second place. They are known for “aiding with digestion, [and which] also helps fight disease, and may lower risk for high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.” No doubt about it, oats are a functional food worthy of the Super Hero Health Food List!
3. Blueberries: If you haven’t heard about the benefits of blueberries, where have you been hiding? They’re full of vitamins C and E, along with other phytonutrients that make them a great functional food.
4. Low-fat milk: The high calcium and vitamin D content put low-fat milk on the list. Calcium and vitamin D are both good for lowering blood pressure and building strong bones.
5. Low-fat yogurt: Not just any low-fat yogurt, but the kinds containing “live and active cultures” that act as probiotics. These living organisms aid in digestion and immune function

There you have it, their list of the top five functional foods. Adding any of these to your diet would be a good way to get more easy healthy food in your diet!

Post from: Health Food Made Easy

Top Five Functional Foods In Health Food News