Is it just me or do I see fewer people ordering skinny lattes, buying non-fat yogurt or getting dressing on the side.
The obesity trend can be directly correlated with the low fat eating movement. Despite that fact that the majority of people have successfully cut fat intake to the recommended 30% of daily caloric intake, over 70% of the population is overweight or obese.
So low fat eating wasn't the solution to health and weight management and now people are throwing their hands up in the air saying, WTF? Why should I be so careful about fat intake if this isn't the solution it's been made out to be. It's not just me thinking this:
Low-Fat Food Is A Damn Lie. Walk into any supermarket and you'll see "Low-Fat" foods that are supposed to help with your figure. Well let me suggest for a moment that the only figures that Low Fat foods help are the food-manufacturers' profits.
The bottom-line is that Low Fat foods will still add fat to your bottom (if you're female) or to your belly (for males). Let me explain.
Now technically, when they measure the chemical content, there will be less fat in these Low Fat or "Lo-Fat" foods. But that doesn't help anyone who wants to lose weight. Why is that, you ask?
Well FAT in the food we eat isn't the problem. The problem is the FAT that's piling up on out under-exercised and over-fed bodies. But our excess fat didn't come from eating fatty food.
And this so-called fat free food that's offered to us is almost always full of sugar. Added sugar makes our food taste all the more appetizing, especially to those of us with a sweet tooth.
Why low fat food is a damn lie
As long as we are eating whole unprocessed foods and not too much of them plus plenty of plants, I don't think we need to obsess about fat. I'm a skinny bitch and I take whole or cream in my coffee. I just don't eat transfat (except when I'm hurting today and need the VERY rare McDs breakfast). Thanks to the mamas from the school for a super fun time that I'm paying the price for today. Way to end the school year you cool ass mamas!
So gone are the days of thinking that anything low fat is game to eat. This is the era of eating whole unprocessed foods and watching portion sizes. This time, this eating trend is going to stick but not like fat around your middle.
Any observations about my predicted fat is the new black trend...please post!
Hi Jane:
ReplyDeleteI love your posts, love your opinions and love you girl! You are right on about the 'lite', low fat, no-fat craze – it has done serious damage to our bodies and to our perspective on food. As a 'nutrition and disease' professional I must confess this was never intended.
History lesson….in the beginning we told people to watch fat if they were over weight because fat delivers concentrated calories (9 kcal/gm vs. 4 kcal/gm for carbs and proteins). Fat makes food taste good and people ate a lot of it. It was also good to instruct against saturated fats because our intake of these artery cloggers was out of control. But who knew the food manufacturing and processing industries would create a new monster by replacing fat with glucose/fructose corn syrups which are simply bad actors that are converted to fat in the liver and contribute to the diabetes / metabolic syndrome symptoms that now plague us. (But the tactic makes the nutrition label a good read. Lesson = read the ingredient list first, nutrition facts second!).
I support your rational and realistic approach to food & nutrition. You and Michael Pollan…..his 64 rules for eating well are outlined in this Toronto Star article. http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/743865--michael-pollan-offers-64-rules-for-eating-well
Donna Andersen,
Dietitian
Great article Jane - and also great that you are hurting. Thats coz we had TOO MUCH FUN xxx
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