What about a low-fat diet?

For those of you who still think you’re going to lose weight on a low-fat diet, think again.

Our bodies crave fat and we cannot survive without it. As soon as we deprive ourselves of good fats and oils (in fish, pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplementation and extra virgin cold pressed olive oil) our bodies panic and send messages to our brains for a quick fix in the way of sugar, sending us into diabetes contenders and susceptible to other degenerative diseases.

It is clear from the ever-present chronic diseases, skyrocketing overweight and obesity rates and widespread degenerative illnesses facing developed and developing countries that something has gone wrong with our diets. The biggest fad diet in the world has encouraged food from machines and sickly animals instead of whole foods from organically grown sources and this is a major issue that contributes to the failure of our health.

Identifying and eating low-fat foods provide many with reassurance, but fat is often substituted with increased levels of sugar. Many people believe a low-fat alternative has up to 40 percent fewer calories than regular brands, when the true figure is more likely to be only around 11 percent, say researchers.

A person's perception of what amounted to a regular portion of food was often slanted when faced with low-fat alternatives. People believe they will feel less guilty eating the low-fat foods, so they tend to overindulge.

Unbeknownst to the general public, the theory that bad health follows high intake of fats in general or saturated fats in particular has long had its detractors--and the list of detractors has been growing noticeably in recent years.

Have a read of what DrSears.com has to say on this topic - you'll need to register, but worth reading!

Image source

Keywords=d_n

Dieting does not work, researchers report

Anyone who has been on a diet will tell you that over time, they do not work – that is why so many people yo-yo diet. The temptation of a ‘quick-fix’ will always lure overweight and obese people to ‘try just one more diet’. It’s a mug’s game that is certain to fail. From a common sense angle, we know our bodies understand feast and famine very well, as we are conditioned to store nutrients in our fat cells if a drought shows the slightest chance of being apparent.

Think of it this way:

As soon as we reduce our intake of calories, our bodies are conditioned to store food because they think a drought is at hand and could get worse. So food is stored in the fat cells ‘for later’.

Another aspect that is going to encourage a diet to fail – our bodies crave fat, but the world has gone mad and has encouraged a ‘fat-free’ lifestyle to reduce fat, which is completely against the way our bodies function best. Our brains alone consist mostly of fat, and work at optimum levels when our essential fatty acids are in balance. If we reduce fat, we unknowingly turn on a craving for fat which manifests itself in a craving for something sweet. So we have a quick fix bar of chocolate or muffin or breakfast bar (even worse!) in the hopes of stilling the nagging urge, and so set up a cycle for storing fat once again. Sugar turns quickly to glucose in the blood and if we don’t use it immediately it becomes toxic, so turning on the insulin response which removes the toxic sweet stuff out of the blood stream – into the fat cells!And so the cycle goes on.

There is only one certain way to lose weight and keep a healthy body as a result, and that is to eat a variety of foods which are not processed and are still in their natural form, exercise sensibly, drink plenty of water and make certain you have enough good fats and oils in your diet. Find a nutritionally trained health professional who understands how your body reacts to different foods and keep away from fad diets.

Article source

Image source

Keywords=d_n

What's Omega-3 all about?

Everywhere we look it seems, we learn of more benefits of Omega-3 from fish oil, while at the same time, because of its popularity as a supplement, more confusing opinions are presented by the market place and the aggressive advertising amongst producers. In the hope of clearing up a few myths, over the next few weeks I’ll be writing in depth on the advantages of fish oil supplementation and reporting on up to date scientific findings

According to the International Food Information Council Foundation in the USA, 2/3 of the population is concerned about the level and type of dietary fats they consume, yet less than ¼ believed fats are healthy. Naturally, as we’ve been told over decades to ‘cut fats from our diets and go fat-free to lose weight and protect our hearts’. What the ‘fat-free’ pundits don’t know is that it’s the type of fat we eat that can be harmful, not ALL fats. We cannot live without fat in our diets, but it has to be the right fat.

So let’s try and untangle the misinformation, and do a Basic Course on Omega-3

EFA’s or Essential Fatty Acids, are exactly that, essential to proper growth and development for children and adults, but by far the most important of these is Omega-3. This EFA is far out-weighed in ratio by Omegas 6 and 9 in our regular Western diet and we need to supplement heavily on Omega-3 in order to balance the ratio. We encourage you to eat fatty fish at least twice a week for a minimum intake of Omega-3, but if you are like many people on the modern diet, you will need some form of supplementation additional to what you get through your diet

Omega-3 PUFA’s are vital for healthy development of every cell, tissue and organ in the body, by working to keep individual cell membranes flexible for proper functioning. They are found in fish and shellfish¹.

In fish and shellfish, eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids are the major Omega-3 PUFA’s and are often referred to as ‘very long chain’ PUFA’s. They are found in higher amounts such as fatty fish such as halibut, mackerel, herring, salmon, tuna and anchovies. Although plant forms of Omega-3 (called alpha linoleic acid) can be consumed, only a very small percentage of it can be converted to very long chain PUFA’s within the body²

There’s a great deal of research showing that very long chain Omega-3 is the most beneficial fat for the body. The Physician’s Health Study found that increasing Omega-3 intake reduces the risk of sudden cardiac death by more than half. The Italian GISSI study found that the consumption of Omega-3 PUFA’s resulted in decreased rates of mortality, nonfatal myocardial infarction and stroke, with particular decreases in the rate of sudden death

It is uncertain exactly how marine Omega-3 PUFA’s protect the heart, but there is evidence they may stop the heart from beating in an irregular pattern (arrhythmias) and reduce the chance of a dangerous blood clots, lower inflammation in the blood vessels as well as reduce blood triglyceride level

REFERENCES:
¹ International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation; Consumer Attitudes toward Food, Nutrition & Health a Benchmark Survey 2006
² Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board, Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Fat, Protein and Amino Acids (Macronutrients). Washington, DC. National Academy Press; 2002

Keyword=n_d