Does Eating Fat Make You Fat?
By Naturopath Stuart Morick
How does the fat content of food affect your eating habits? Do you avoid the creamy sauces, have dressing on the side or buy ‘lite’ milk? Our perception of fat and its relationship to the food we eat and the weight we might gain has become inherent in society. But what’s the real skinny on fat?
Firstly, it’s important to appreciate that fats are an important aspect of a healthy diet. Certain fats – such as triglycerides, cholesterol and other essential fatty acids – must come from our diet because the body can’t produce them. Amongst other important roles in our body, these fats store energy, transport fat-soluble vitamins, form part of our cell membranes protect our organs and keep our skin supple.
Next, we need to understand the different types of fats. We are generally recommended to reduce our intake of saturated fats (found in animal products, coconut and palm oils) and trans-fatty acids (found extensively in highly processed and fried foods) and moderate our consumption of monounsaturated fats (found in olives, avocados and certain nuts and seeds) and increase our consumption of polyunsaturated fats (found in vegetable oils, and certain nuts and seeds).
This is where it can get confusing. While the benefits of a Mediterranean diet – which is high in healthy, monounsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, such as from olive oil – are widely known, we also understand coconut oil to be one of the good guys too … but how can this be if it’s a saturated fat? And what about the ketogenic diet – doesn’t that aim to reduce carbohydrates in favour of increased fats such as butter, cream and cheese?
Generally speaking, the confusion may be blamed on bad science. The work submitted by Ancell Keys, which used a method of skewed data, suggests that saturated fat was the cause of all our cardiovascular issues. Keys’ work also failed to include the effect of smoking on heart disease, which most likely contributed to his conclusion that saturated fats are bad and polyunsaturated fats are good. The problem is however that the latest research clearly shows that if you eat saturated fat and have a good proportion of it in your diet, you in fact have a much greater chance of not getting heart disease, and certainly, a greater chance of not getting a stroke. I am in fact referring to the PURE study, which is easily found online.
Saturated fat is in fact the most satiating macro nutrient. It’s beneficial for us to have it in our diets. Saturated fat becomes a very good tool in helping us to reduce our caloric intake, and volume of food intake. As in all things balance and moderation is the key. Often the bigger issue with a low-fat diet is what you are replacing the fats with. For example, refined carbohydrates, such as a slice of bread, are broken into sugars by the enzymes in your saliva, triggering the insulin hormone to store this energy in your body in fat tissue and elsewhere. In contrast, fat is broken down by bile from your liver, not by saliva or stomach acids. It also interacts differently with our hormones, avoiding the refined carbohydrate ‘sugar crash’ that generally leaves us feeling hungry again, sooner. (It’s important to note that ‘good’ carbohydrates from whole foods, such as sweet potato, raw apple and legumes act differently and don’t cause these sudden peaks in blood sugar).
There’s no question that excessive quantities of good or bad fats can lead to weight gain, particularly when combined with an overall high caloric intake from sugary carbohydrates and limited physical activity. When considering fats in our diet we can’t look at them in isolation. The fact is that while we do require certain fats for health, others can be detrimental. The most detrimental fat is trans-fat, which is readily found in all processed foods. Key to it all is having the right amount of the right kinds of fats in our diet, balancing them with other nutritionally sound foods, preparing them, using methods that preserve or enhance their health benefits and serving them with a generous portion of regular exercise on the side.
Stuart Morick from Pure Health and Wellness Clinic is a Naturopath in Bassendean, Perth WA.
Take a look at this seminar if you would like to learn more about the myths surrounding healthy fats https://youtu.be/ZJmGbWn99VY
Reference
Research Paper – The Lancet: Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study. – Click to read
Stuart will be at Living Well in WA May 18-19.
