The fat fight

So it is about to be bikini weather people!!! Or maybe one-piece with built-in spanks and opaque cover-up weather. I'm not going to lie...this time of year is goooooood for business at my little health food store. People start coming in droves looking for that magic pill that will drop 10-130 LBs before school is out. Seriously people?!? Really? If I had that pill I would be living it up on my very own private island watching my husband and kids swim in our indoor pool filled with cash because I would be the richest person in the world. I understand that weight loss is not easy and sometimes you do need something to take away the cravings or curb your appetite and to be honest I do have some pretty awesome weight-loss/management supplements that totally aid in your weight management goals but let's be reasonable here, there is work to be done on your part aside from tilting the glass of water up to swallow the pill. And by work I do not mean just working out.

Yes, you should be active and I highly encourage some sort of workout added to your day. But there is sooooo much more to weight management than exercise. And more than diet. (Gasp!) What? There is more to weight management than the magic pill, diet and exercise? Yep. Sleep and stress are HUGE factors too. Our bodies are made complex and intricate. Health is never going to be simple because our bodies are not simple. It takes work to be healthy. Part of that work is educating yourself. So I thought we would work through some weight loss misunderstandings and highlight areas of focus for the next few posts starting today with Fat Facts.

I have found what people have the most confusion over is fat. We try to be educated about fat.
Fat =bad...right? But we really are all backwards and upside down on this issue. It is complicated and a bit confusing. We hear saturated fats cause heart attacks but coconut oil which is mostly saturated fat have shown to prevent atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease in studies. Well that is confusing. And we are told low fat is best. It is healthy. It is the wise choice. Yet fat is one of the best energy sources we have for 90% of our daily activity and certain fats are pretty critical to our brain function. So let's try to break this fat fiction down.

TRANS FATS:

I know what you are thinking, "Well, I know trans fats are evil and should be avoided at all costs. I read. I'm informed. I do not need another person telling me to stay away from trans fats. I got it. Let's move on." But ohhhh, you are wrong my sweet little well-read friend. And I was wrong too. But to give us a little credit we were kind of right too. (See, I told you this was all confusing.)

Man-made trans fat or hydrogenated oils are the stinkin evil we thought it was. Trans fat are found in a lot of processed foods. You know, the kinds found in those middle aisles of the grocery store that you should never even try to walk down because you will lose the battle. Especially if you take your FOUR kids. And even if it doesn't say trans fats on the label that doesn't mean it is free and clear. The lovely FDA came up with this even more lovely (please sense the sarcasm) rule that states that as long as the foods have less than .5 grams of trans fat per serving then it doesn't have to be on the label. WHAT!?!?! Why even have that rule? What is the point? I could get all conspiracy theory on you here but I bet you could too. The American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 2 grams of trans fats a day. So if you have four servings of a product with .5 grams of trans fats (but you don't know this because it isn't labeled) then you are already at your daily limit. And let's be honest, when you open up a box of girl scout cookies you are probably going to eat the whole stinkin box, not just one serving. That's right...girl scout cookies are one of those sneaky less than .5 grams guys. (I love Thin Mints and Samoas so I'm not hating...just telling you how it is.)

So why does the American Heart Association tell us to limit this man-made fat?  It raises your LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) and lowers your HDL (the "good" cholesterol). It increases inflammation (which we know leads to all other health issues) and can even cause you to gain more weight than the high fat fats, especially around your belly where it affects your health the most. So stay away at all costs. But wait...there is another side to this coin.

Tran fats are also found naturally occurring in meats and in higher amounts in the very expensive but well-worth the cost grass-fed meats. So don't start screaming at me yet for encouraging and selling these wonderful healthy meats. This kind of trans fat is called CLA. Ever heard of it? Montel Williams and Dr. Oz love the stuff. CLA stands for conjegated linolic acid. CLA is not bad for you, it is not even just neutral, it is actually really good for you. It actually reduces the risk of heart disease and has shown to prevent and improve the management of type II diabetes. And here is why Montel and Oz love it so much...it burns fat. That's right! It is a type of fat that helps you stay skinny! Super cool!

MONOUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS

Next up are monounsaturated fatty acids or MUFAs. These fats are good, plain and simple. MUFAs improve blood pressure and cholesterol and research has also shown that they also benefit blood sugar levels. And they also reduce inflammation. Good sources of monounsaturated fats are avocado, avocado oil, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, olive oil, and olives. Unsaturated fats are generally best for cold uses such as dressings because the healthy antioxidants are reduced when cooking.

SATURATED FATS
Now for more confusion: Saturated fats from REAL food are not bad. No, that can't be right. We have always known saturated fat is pretty much why America's leading cause of death is heart disease. It's from eating all that red meat and butter, right? Wrong. Saturated fats are totally the misunderstood middle child. Epidemiological studies have linked heart disease to saturated fats but it seems like with further digging we find that the link isn't exactly what we have previously thought. Palmitic acid is the type of saturated fat most correlated with insulin resistance and inflammation which increases the risk for cardiovascular disease. This is kind of confusing so stay with me here. PA (palmitic acid) is found in foods like meat and eggs and therefore those foods have had a bad rap in the past because long-chain saturated fats such as PA increase risk for heart disease. But there are other fats in these foods such as oleic acid that prevents the PA from inducing insulin resistance. But there is a food that can actually cause our liver to convert glucose into palmitic acid when the liver and muscle glycogen stores are full...CARBS. When you eat too much carbohydrate it is converted into PA by the liver which would lead to having a lot of PA in your system because there are none of the protective fats to go with it. There is your reason for cholesterol and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. This whole time we have blamed the meat in the hamburger when all along it was the whole wheat bun.

Some healthy saturated fats are grass-fed butter, duck fat, lard (pig fat), tallow (beef fat), eggs, meat, palm and coconut. And I would go as far as to say the very healthiest is coconut. Coconut contains a large amount of medium-chain triglycerides, or MCTs. MCTs are very healthy and because they are shorter-chain fats they are metabolized quicker than the long-chain triglycerides, therefore they are more likely to be used for energy rather than stored as fat. Awesome! Bikini here we come! Coconut is also beneficial to your brain health, immune system, and it makes a great moisturizer when applied topically. I personally use coconut oil as often as possible. I cook practically every food in it and although initially I was concerned with all my food having a coconuty taste I have found that I don't even notice it.

POLYUNSATURATED FATS

And lastly we have polyunsaturated fats, PUFAs. These are generally bad when coming from seed oils such as canola, chia, corn, cottonseed, flax, grapeseed, hemp, palm kernel, peanut, rice bran, safflower, sesame, soybean, and sunflower. PUFAs are high in omega-6 which we know from previous posts, can cause systemic inflammation. PUFAs are also found in nuts ranging from 2% in macadamia nuts to 72% in walnuts. These are also sources of omega-3 which is awesome and wonderfully healthy except this omega-3 is in a form called ALA which the body has to convert into the beneficial DHA and EPA and conversion doesn't always work perfectly due to lifestyle and other diet factors. So eat sparingly but enjoy.

I hope that all made sense. The fat thing really is confusing...at least for me. The main thing is to not fear fat. Be knowledgeable about what fats you are consuming and make the best choice according to what you know about how these fats work inside your body. And enjoy some bacon and butter for crying out loud!

Just to get you kick-started on you road back to eating fats, here is a yummy treat:

Bacon wrapped Macadamia Dates

Ingredients:
Dates, seeds removed (I buy mine at Costco)
Uncooked sugar-free bacon, cut in half shortways (available at the Sunshine Shoppe)
Macadamia nuts (I also get these from Costco)

Stuff each date with a macadamia nut and wrap with bacon. Place on a roasting pan (the kind that has little slits in in the top flat pan that sits in the deeper dish.) Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Enjoy but don't go overboard. Dates are fullllllll of sugar.