Are You Afraid of Dietary Fat?

We are not a fan of fats, and we've been set up for many years to think dietary fat is why we get fat. The McGovern report was released in the 1970's, and encouraged Americans to eat less fat and more carbohydrates, although there is no evidence that correlated low fat diets with decreased risk of chronic disease. The food industry just loved it, running with the low fat and fat free foods. Chronic health issues like obesity and diabetes worsened.

Let's go over a few reasons why fat isn't something to be scared of:

• Saturated fat does not cause heart disease and might even prevent stroke. This is especially true when sugars are taken out of the diet, and plenty of omega-3's are added!
• Eating too little fat can lead to vitamin deficiencies, skin problems and hair loss, night blindness, joint pain, fatigue, brain fog, hormone imbalances, increased inflammation, and heart disease.
• High fat diets can boost your metabolism, about 300 more calories per day than those on a low fat diets.

Try these good sources of fat: avocados, olive oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil, nuts and seeds, wild caught fatty fish, and grass-fed meats.

There are some fats that you'll want to avoid, however. A lot of this has to do with the toxins contained in the fats, such as conventional meats and butter. Vegetable oils such as safflower, corn, soybean, and sunflower, are inflammatory. Trans fats, or hydrogenated oils, raise up the bad cholesterol and lower the good, so those should be avoided, too.