To be completely confused about fat..?

[Scarletohello]

Been watching a tv show about health and it was saying how fat clogs up your arteries, using the metaphor of fat clogging up drains. I'm a big fan of low carb diets ( which means high fat), have lost lots of weight on them before and feel well when I'm not eating wheat or sugar. But when I see programs like this I get so scared and confused about whether animal fat is ok or not ... What do people think??

When I follow the traditional low fat high carb diet I spend pretty much every waking hour hungry, or fancying something sweet.

With low carb/higher fat I make delicious meals (I've discovered that pretty much every vegetable tastes lovely when fried in butter) and generally feel satisfied meaning I'm not bothered about snacks.

I think you're right, runningchick - your exercise levels are much higher than the average person!

specialsubject - have you ever bothered to read any of the literature about low carbing? All carbs have an impact on our blood sugar, whether they are simple or complex. Yes, some are more disruptive, but the end result of a diet high in carbs is the same - weight gain.

And as for the notion that doctors might be impartial/unbiased ...

do we really need sugar?? how come?

'No diet which seriously restricts any of the major food groups can be considered healthy in my opinion, they just mess up the bodys natural metabolism'

I used to think that. But then I learnt that we've only been eating high carb diets for the last 10,000 years. For many, many thousands of years before that we didn't have much in the way of grains, just the occasional amount of wild grains here and there and some starchy tubers and fruit. Grains/carbs aren't a major food group for humans from an evolutionary perspective. We got by for a very long time on mainly meat, fish, nuts, veg and fruit. Thrived in fact. And there's (supposedly, I'm not sure how proven this is) evidence that when people did start farming grains about 10,000 years ago, our health as a population declined quite drastically.

I used to be so anti-low carb diets. They seemed like a fad. I knew people who had put on a ton of weight having done Atkins, but then Atkins is a bit extreme for my liking. I do Paleo now, so I can eat sweet potatoes, carrots, a bit of fruit and other carbs, but it is still low carb as it's hard to eat too much of them. I read the science behind it all and I'm a convert. I've lost 6 pounds easily in the last month (No more hunger! More consistent energy and enjoying my food so much more too after years of a low fat diet) and given that I can't exercise that's pretty great.

The information out there is so confusing, it makes me cross. There is heaps of scientific evidence that high carb diets are really bad for you. Saturated fat is good for you. Not bad. It's bad when we have a lot of it in our bodies. But it's good to actually eat. Far better than eating high carbs which messes up insulin levels. Sat fat has lots of vitamins, it gives you energy, it is satiating - it's hard to eat a lot of it. see here

I am astonished at myself writing these things, it's been a 180 switch for me. But since I started reading into it I can't believe how many anecdotes there are online of people controlling IBS, Type II diabetes, asthma, inflammatory conditions like arthritis and other things with this way of eating. It's amazing.

And yes, the body does not need sugar. The brain can make the glucose it needs without us eating it.

I think it is important to remember that the fat you eat is not stored in your arteries in an exact the same form as you consume them :)

have look at this image:

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Nutrition_Metabolic_Summary.jpg

it shows when you follow arrows where fat stored in our bodies comes from

some of it from carbohydrates like sugars, some from fats
but fats first are broken up
some fats are used up during metabolism
some may be stored

in the past believe was that reducing fat completely would make us all slim and healthy - but we need fats to live!

'low fat' foods must be worse for us than full fat versions..

I used to be very anti-atkins, I thought it was stupid & silly way to eat. After studying it more in depth, I am very very much a pro-low carber!

HeySoulSister - that's what some say

ignore all diet advice from anyone trying to sell you something. So that is diet writers, supplement sellers etc etc. Listen to the doctors who get paid salaries, not commission
Hmmm. You do know about how drugs companies get Doctors (even fluffy NHS ones) to choose their products .... conferences and freebies ....

itstartshere
carbs are also in roots and things like cassava and sago : please do not conflate carbs with agriculture. Foraging societies get a lot of their calories from carb heavy roots

I don't know - I'm not a scientist/medic. However...

1. The French Paradox - they eat fat, red meat, drink wine and are healthy.
2. There is no such thing as a 'fat industry' lobbyist or trade body. There are other bodies for food manufacture (cereals, sugar etc...).
3. I'd rather not eat ready meals (see SaggyOldClothPuss post).

So in conclusion...

Cook your own/from fresh where possible. Enjoy everything in moderation. Moderate (and I do mean moderate) excercise and try not to read/buy the latest 'healthy eating' articles/books.

ps: I'm not a grassy knoll conspiracy theorist.

YY to the French Paradox CerealMom. Looks like its not a paradox after all? With their cheese, fatty meat and red wine, they know what they're doing.

If they could show us how to incorporate pommes dauphinoise and delicious french bread in as well, that would be marvellous .

I agree with you that the sugar lobby carries a big responsibility for the nutrition guidelines and unfair demonisation of fat over the past 40? years. It makes me when I think about the amount of unnecessary hidden sugar in processed food.

CerealMom re2: as you could see on the link I attached above some carbohydrates can be used to be stored as fat
carbohydrates are cheaper to produce
they are easier to convert into fat stored in our bodies than fats we eat
is easier to eat big quantities or carb loaded food than fat loaded one

The French Paradox - they eat fat, red meat, drink wine and are healthy.
Uh no, you have believed the hype
go to poor bits of france and you'll see lots and lots of grossly overweight people

Yes indeed, in France, there is plenty of alcoholism (mostly invisible, people drinking at home) and related liver disease, as well as obesity-related cancer, heart disease etc.

More people in France do seem to know about portion size though, I have noticed.

Just marking my place as I have to go out, but want to read later

My father died of ischaemic heart disease at 48. He was a trucker with a high-fat diet and sedentary job (but fit and active outside of work).

My mum followed the Hay diet for years (separating carbs/fats at diff meals) and, whilst she never really lost much weight, it did teach her the value of going back to basics in terms of non-processed foods (e.g. butter instead of highly-processed spreads) but just eating them in moderation.

I like this approach and, whilst we eat plenty of ready meals and crap, I try to adopt the 'a little in moderation' to saturated fat.

We all drop dead of something in the end. I think moderation is the key word with regards to food.

itstartshere
carbs are also in roots and things like cassava and sago : please do not conflate carbs with agriculture. Foraging societies get a lot of their calories from carb heavy roots

Bit confused. I'm a low carber/paleo dieter and I eat sweet potatoes/fruit. I do eat carbs. What I was saying was that paleo man didn't eat high carb foods in the way we eat, ie in such huge quantities. They didn't have the 3 or 4 portions of grains/carbs a day modern man has. I'm aware they did eat carbs, it's why I eat some carbs too. Sorry, I thought that's what I wrote.

Ah, was it the bit where I saw 'grains/carbs weren't a major food group'. I meant grains and LOTS of carbs in quantities modern man eats. Foraging for seasonal roots is a bit different to having platefuls of pasta and pizza and sugary drinks. But I get that some foraging societies got a lot of their calories from starchy veg depending on where they were in the world.

yes, doctors do get freebies etc. But not from the people who make porridge and grow potatoes. :-)

before settled agriculture, long gaps between decent meals (fasts in the modern parlance) were normal
that is why I like 5:2
in fact, right up till the Industrial Revolution they were the norm for most people

"eat food, in moderation, mostly plants"

That is the best nutritional advice any doctor can give.

"food" in this context being real food, not processed crap.

I do not necessarily follow this advice, I LOVE processed crap. But I think it is excellent and very simple advice.

Yes Talkinpeace (which bafflingly autocorrects to 'gallbladder'), that's another thing thing that swathes of the French get right - leaving a proper gap between meals.