Don't Fear The Fat
One of the things that interests me the most about nutrition is how people tend to categorize foods as either "good" or "bad." For many years, fat has been seen as the food enemy and is often labeled as "bad," even though it is an essential part of our diet! As a health coach, I often get questions about what the perfect diet looks like or the best ways to lose weight. So, today I thought I would talk a little bit more about fat and why we should be eating it instead of avoiding it.
Healthy fats steady our metabolism, keep hormone levels even, nourish our skin, hair, and nails, as well as provide lubrication to keep the body functioning fluidly. Healthy fats are especially important during cold months to help insulate our bodies from the cold as well as provide energy.
Many people think that they key to losing weight is to eat a low-fat diet. Although it is important to include the right kinds of fat in our diet, often times a low-fat diet can make us gain weight.
Have you ever bought something at the grocery store that was labeled low-fat? If you check out the nutrition label, you'll usually see that it is loaded with sugar! Fat adds flavor to foods so when companies remove the fat from products (e.g. low-fat granola, fat-free cookies, etc), they add in extra sugar to make it taste better. Excess sugar is one of the keys to gaining weight so what we really need to be watching is the sugar content in our diets, especially if we eat the Standard American Diet with lots of packaged food.
And, eating good fats is one of the keys to healthy weight loss because healthy fats help us feel satiated after a meal, which actually prevents over-eating.
