Happy Tuesday BHC Readers! Coming at you on the beautiful new BHC website! Hope you all had relaxing and sunny weekends. I spent some time doing internship work, got a (much needed haircut) and made a couple of Plated dinners with my fiancé! Now on to this week’s Nutrition Tip Tuesday…
This week I want to dive-in to some nerdy research to talk about FAT. More than almost any other nutrient, I feel like fat is misunderstood in this country. Much of that, unfortunately, can be attributed to health professionals demonizing fat in the 1980s and 1990s based on research that we now know to be untrue. The no-fat, low-fat, egg white craze swept the United States for several decades, and I think we are still recovering! What we know now is that we should not be scared of fat.
Dietary fat does not make you fat.
There, I said it! It is not the amount of fat in your diet, but rather the type of fat that is important. In fact, the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were the first dietary guidelines that didn’t include total dietary fat as a nutrient of concern. The Guidelines specified that Americans should emphasize optimizing types of dietary fat and not reducing total fat in their diets.
To simplify, it’s best to pick unsaturated fats over saturated fats. Choosing foods like salmon, nuts, olive oil, seeds, and avocado is incredibly beneficial for disease prevention, achieving a healthy weight, and longevity (Mediterranean diet ring a bell?). On the other hand, saturated fats (like red meats, butter and coconut oil) should be eaten in moderation.
A recent study (you can read more here if you’re curious) comparing high-fat vs low-fat diets on weight loss over a 12-month period demonstrated that there was no significant difference in weight loss between the two diet groups. Other studies (like this one) have shown that, for people with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance, a high-fat diet may actually be the best choice, as high-carb diets can decrease HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) levels and increase triglyceride levels – both things we want to avoid.
So what does this mean for you? It means that the best dietary pattern to follow to achieve a healthy weight and reduce the likelihood of diseases like type 2 diabetes or heart disease is one that you can actually stick to! Sounds straight forward, right? But for decades, we’ve been jumping on the next new fad diet, hoping it will be the cure all for all of our weight woes.
Do you love nuts, whole eggs and avocados? Perfect! Eat them. Fat is not to be feared. It is satisfying, filling, delicious, a great source of nutrients and a crucial component of a balanced diet. I, personally, love including 2% milk, whole eggs, nuts and avocados in my diet, because they’re yummy and give my meals much more staying power than skim milk or egg whites might. So this week, try to incorporate more healthy fats into your diet, and see if you can chip away at that “fat makes you fat” mentality.
Whew, we made it through the research! I hope you found this beneficial – let me know if you’re interested in more posts like this! Next week I’ll be back with something a little lighter, promise ☺
-Emily
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