Did you grow up thinking it was ok to eat the whole sleeve of a Snackwell’s Cookies box because they were low fat and we needed to replace that artery clogging butter for margarine?? Yup, me too! That being said – I learned the error of my ways, and I now eat a high fat diet.
I remember specifically, when I was in my early 20’s and trying to lose that baby weight, my mother-in-law eating a dry loaf of fat free french bread everyday for lunch to try and get off the extra 100 pounds she carries with her. I immediately jumped on board because it made sense…don’t eat fat so I lose fat.
Where did this idea come from and why is the government STILL pushing that we watch our fat intake even though it’s been proven to not be healthy for us?
In the 1950’s, an American Scientist named Ancel Keys, created a study called the “7 Countries Study” where he compared the association between diet and cardiovascular disease in different countries. His conclusion: the countries with a high fat diet had the most heart disease. And just like that, it was shouted from the rooftops that, “Dietary fat causes heart disease!”
But one thing the Dr. Keys failed to mention in his calculation was that he LEFT OUT the countries where fat consumption was low but heart disease high, like Chile. Or countries that ate big high fat diets and had low heart disease statistics, like Holland and Norway. It’s now been proven that he cherry picked those 7 countries to support his theory and make him out to be a hero.
This study gained WAY too much unnecessary massive media attention, influencing dietary guidelines and still, today, fooling the masses who are trusting our government, doctors (who most haven’t studied ANY nutrition) and these big food companies that “convince” us that by eating a Fiber One bar in the afternoon will help us ward off heart disease.
Low fat foods are still given at schools, endorsed in colleges nutritional courses and splattered all over billboards and magazines. Why? Because our government profits off of sugar and wheat. I believe they will fight until the very end pushing “fortified” cereals and “healthy” whole wheat breads because they are cheap to make, easy to sneak in addictive sugar and the profit margin is huge!
Fat has absolutely been wrongfully demonized! But don’t get me wrong here, eating pork rinds and french fries all day is NOT healthy but fats like avocados, olives, coconut oil and walnuts should be a very prominent part of your high fat diet.
Don’t fear the fat and start to believe the mantra…”Eat fat to burn fat” as it is very true. Fat is our friend and we’ve ignored this friend way too long!