Up until a couple months ago I, like the majority of people, believed that eating too much fat can cause disease while contributing to weight gain. After doing my own digging, I found surprising research that goes against everything we are taught to believe about diet, nutrition, and dietary fat. Maybe the government recommended food pyramid isn’t as accurate as we thought.
Low fat diets have become all the rage over the last few decades, but this trend could be doing more damage than good. With the exception of trans fat (which is just nasty), fats offer vital nutrients such as vitamin A, D, E and K2 while providing essential fatty acids that help to prevent all kinds of nasty diseases such as heart disease, cancers and arthritis.
According to Leanne Vogel of Healthful Pursuit, “Cholesterol, which comes with fat, is used to make hormones. Eating a greater proportion of fat allows for hormonal balance of androgens such as testosterone and estrogen. Fat loss and the maintenance of a lean physique are much easier if hormones are balanced.”
Photo by Amanda Shulman
Eat more fat and get a lean physique? If you’re still skeptical consider the fact that over the last 30 years, Americans have lowered their fat consumption by 10% while obesity has doubled. Yea… I’ll just leave that fact right there. But it all makes sense when you consider that increasing dietary fat consumption can help you feel fuller for longer, leading to less overeating.
What about saturated fat and cholesterol? There is more to the saturated fat story than we have been led to believe, and recent studies show that type b particles, which are closely related to heart disease, are generally controlled by carbs, not saturated fat. However, this does not mean that all fat sources are created equal.
Photo by Sarah Haselhorst
Our bodies thrive from natural sources of fat such as grass-fed meats, whole eggs, coconut oil, nuts, olive oil, flax seeds and more healthy fats like these. Just keep in mind that highly processed meats, cheeses, and packaged foods filled with refined sugars are NOT good choices when it comes to fueling your body with healthy fats.
So eat the yolks, put some butter on those veggies, and go for the steak, but make sure that the sources are as organic and natural as possible. We’re all at the point in our lives where nutrition makes a big impact on our future and how we feel today. We will all make plenty of other stupid decisions throughout our college careers, let’s not make the food we put into our bodies be one of them.
Photo by Samantha Thayer
For a full list of 10 Scientific Reasons to Eat More Fat, visit Healthful Pursuit.
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