consciouseating


“bad”, particles, a predictor of cardio- vascular disease. Instead, it makes exist- ing LDL particles larger, a fairly benign situation in regard to such disease.


Thumbs-Up on Fats Good Fat Doesn’t Make Us Fat


by Judith Fertig I


n an era of too much information, the role of fats in our diet has been a victim of not enough information.


Today’s turnaround in nutritional think- ing acknowledges natural fats as being vital to heart health and weight loss.


Heart Health Benefit A recent metastudy in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a journal of the American College of Physicians, con- cluded that saturated fat does not appear to increase heart disease risk, overturn- ing almost 60 years of accepted medical thought. The researchers analyzed data from 76 studies involving more than 600,000 people and found that those that ate the most saturated, or “bad”, fat did not show a higher risk of cardiovas- cular disease compared with those that ate the least. Note that processed trans fats remain a villain, still deemed a risk to heart health per the metastudy. The misleading information began


in the 1950s, when Physiologist Ancel Keys, Ph.D., discovered a correlation between diets high in saturated fats and higher cholesterol levels. Soon, the low- fat diet was born.


In 2000, further research intro- duced the concepts of good and bad


40 Long Island Edition


fats. More recent analysis confirmed this finding with the refinement that satu- rated fats increase both types of choles- terol. However, the latest research from the journal BMJ shows that saturated fat does not increase the number of LDL, or


Weight Loss Benefit Fat doesn’t even make you fat, claims Mark Hyman, a well-known medical doctor in Lenox, Massachusetts, and au- thor of Eat Fat, Get Thin: Why the Fat We Eat Is the Key to Sustained Weight Loss and Vibrant Health. “The theory that all calories have the same impact on your weight and metabolism remains one of the most persistent nutrition myths,” says this practitioner of functional medicine who points out that we’ve been side- tracked by wrong thinking. “Eating fat can make you lean.


Healthy cell walls made from high- quality fats are better able to metabo- lize insulin, which keeps blood sugar better regulated. Without proper blood sugar control, the body socks away fat for a rainy day. The right fats also in- crease fat burning, diminish hunger and reduce fat storage,” he notes. Whole30, a 30-day diet revolving around clean eating, also emphasizes healthy fats. Devised in 2009 by Dallas Hartwig, a functional medicine practi- tioner and certified sports nutritionist, and Melissa Hartwig, a certified sports


Prime Sources of Healthy Fats


Functional medicine physician Mark Hyman suggests that we include four to five servings of fat in our diets every day. “In the last five years, the scien- tific evidence has been mounting that high-fat diets outperform low-fat diets for weight loss and for revising every single indication of heart disease risk, including abnormal cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension and inflamma- tion,” he says.


Each amount listed indicates a serving size.


Nuts (a handful of walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts or cashews)


Seeds (a handful of pumpkin, sunflower of flaxseed)


Most plant-based liquid oils (one www.NaturalAwakeningsLI.com


tablespoon of olive, safflower, sesame, avocado, macadamia, grape seed or walnut oil)


Fatty fish (4 ounces of salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines, tuna or trout)


Avocado (one-half to one avocado) Extra virgin coconut oil (one tablespoon) Organic coconut milk (one-quarter cup) Olives (one-quarter cup)


Grass-fed animal butter, clarified but- ter or ghee (one tablespoon)


Aim to eat fats that remain liquid (not solid) at room temperature; it’s a sure sign of heart-healthy, unsaturated fats.


Source: Adapted from Eat Fat, Get Thin, by Mark Hyman, M.D.


Craevschii Family/Shutterstock.com


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