Fear of Fat

A little background as to why we have come to fear fat.

Ancel Keys, a physiologist, reasoned that saturated fat and cholesterol caused heart disease. At the time (1957) his peers criticized his recommendation as no studies were done. Even the American Heart Foundation (AHA) was opposed.

In 1961 the AHA had a change of "heart" (change of board members, Ancel Keys himself was added to the board.) Even though there was no evidence that saturated fat and cholesterol causes heart disease, these recommendations were adopted.
And then there was the shocking Time magazine cover in 1984 that proclaimed that the AHA was right all along. This was the nail in the coffin of common sense as the study it referenced was based on junk science.

Getting back to present day and the fear of fat.

Since we’ve been getting involved in the Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) community and spreading the word. We’ve heard from people that what we have been saying, what the evidence and the results show, makes sense. And quite a few are now interested in following similar eating habits.

However what we’ve found is that the mental paradigm shift, where fat is your primary fuel source and carbohydrate is to be limited, is just too hard to overcome.

So let’s look at some the misconceptions about eating fats.

Eating fat will make me fat

This is not true. Over eating and not being able to satisfy your hunger will lead to weight gain. Eating fat will make you feel full and you will naturally know when to stop eating.  Ask yourself how much pasta or french fries you can eat in one sitting. Now ask yourself how much cheese, fatty meat and eggs can you eat in one sitting.

Eating fat will raise my cholesterol

This could be true but in a good way. Eating a LCHF diet will increase your HDL and reduce the amount of LDL small particles. This could result in a very healthy increase in total cholesterol. As for my own experience, my total cholesterol has gone down since eating a LCHF diet. Did you know 50% of people that get heart attacks have a total cholesterol under 5mmol/L?  And also woman with high cholesterol live longer.

Eating too much saturated fat (Animal fat, butter and coconut oil) will lead to heart disease
Also not true, our body naturally makes saturated fat from excess carbs and stores it. Why would we make and store something that is so harmful? There is also no link between saturated fat and heart disease. The only bad fat, found in processed foods, is trans-fat.

It is coming to light that heart disease and other adult disease are caused by chronic inflammation in the body. These adult diseases include heart disease, cancer, arthritis and neuro-degenerative diseases (alzheimer’s). Diet plays a huge part in controlling chronic inflammation. Here is a list of inflammatory foods found on Oprah.com

Embrace fat with adequate protein and limit your carbohydrate intake. Of course, sugar in all of its forms should be avoided.

By eating fat you will be satisfied and will not remain in a state of hunger. Your body will readily use fat for energy and does not need carbohydrate for energy. Eating LCHF means you avoiding inflammatory foods and hence reduce your chances of getting an adult on set disease.