Fats for Health

Researchers Are Overturning the Low Fat Myth

A year never goes by without a guilt-inducing study being released about the poor cardiovascular health and high obesity rates of people in western societies. But it's hard to fault people for their poor eating habits when the experts themselves can't agree on what makes a good diet.

Take the low fat diet gospel. Cutting out fat from our diets was supposed to help us to lose weight and prevent heart disease. Ironically, people have found these diets not only don't help you lose weight but can actually make you fatter.

Fat and Health

Clinical nutrition specialist Dr. Al Sears, argues that saturated fats such as those found in meat, eggs and dairy products are actually critical for our health, as they play an important role in many of our bodily functions, such as the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. He points to evidence that societies which consume larger amounts of animal fats actually have lower rates of heart disease.

Essential fatty acids or EFAs, which are found in fish, seeds and nuts, are another type of fat that is considered critical for our well-being. Dr. Udo Erasmus researches the role that omega-3 fats play in health. These fats are important in weight loss because they control the gene responsible for fat production, and activate the body's fat-burning gene. EFAs are also necessary for nerve and brain function, and a lack of these fats has been associated with ADHD.

A Healthier Diet

One of the reasons that fat has become a scapegoat for all our health problems is that the sources that we get fat from have become degraded. For example, grass fed cattle have been replaced in our diets with grain and hormone fed feedlot meat which lacks many of the nutrients of traditional meat sources, like omega-3 fats. And vegetable fats are subjected to artificial processing, which removes the benefits of EFAs and makes these oils toxic. The solution is to get your food from unprocessed and organic sources as much as possible.