“Do not focus on how much fat you eat but instead on the kinds of fats you are taking in.”
Our love affair with fat would be a cruel joke if it was not for the fact that fat is a vital part of a healthy diet. By now you have probably discovered that maintaining good health and optimal weight has more to do with the quality than quantity of food eaten. Quality food means eating an abundance of low-calorie raw foods like fiber-filled fruits and vegetables, whole grains, raw nuts and seeds, and as we are going to learn, healthful fats and oils. Healthy food, and this includes good fat, is not addictive, resulting in eating according to hunger instead of craving, which reduces overeating and weight gain.
Quality rather than quantity especially applies to fats and oils. A stunning example of this is comparing Scots’ and Mediterranean people’s intakes of fat. Scotland’s diet is very high in fat, like their famed deep-fried Mars bars, served as a dessert after a plate of their illustrious fish and chips. Not surprising is Scotland’s appallingly high rate of cardiovascular disease. But what is surprising is that Mediterranean countries who eat comparable amounts of fat to the Scots have low incidences of heart and degenerative diseases. The difference is not the amount of fat intake but the kinds of fats they are eating. Their fat is mainly in the form of the very beneficial olive oil, whereas in Scotland, the fat mainly comes from animals.
So do not focus on how much fat you are eating but instead on the kinds of fats you are taking in. In fact, limiting your fat intake, as some of the popular diet regimes demand, is unhealthy. If you only eat good fats, then the rest will take care of itself. While bad fats contribute to weight gain and a breakdown in health, good fats do the complete opposite. And good fats will do more to enhance flavor because healthy fats taste better than their unhealthy counterparts.
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