Big Fat Tips: Part I
Fat is not a dirty word. Not anymore, anyway. Though for many years, it was accepted as truth — fat makes you fat.
Hallelujah! It’s now known that good quality dietary fat is critical for:
Brain function: fat makes up more than half of our brains
Hormone production: affecting fertility, metabolism, mental health and sleep
Nutrient absorption: add a little fat to your veggies for optimal nutrition
Oh and just EVERY CELL IN THE BODY: fat is the building block for our cell membranes
Let's not forget, fat wasn't always a nutrition darling. Here's the fascinating and very abridged history of how low-fat mania began:
Over 50 years ago the hypothesis, “fat in the diet, especially saturated fat, leads to heart disease,” was presented within the scientific community. Such was a finding of Ancel Key's infamous Seven Countries Study. Money poured in for testing the hypothesis and support rallied, especially from those with a keen interest in taking down saturated animal fat. For example, there were the politicians whose peers were suffering from heart disease and wanted a scapegoat. And of the course the sugar industry was happy to be out of the spotlight.
Several layers of controversy arose in the following decades. First, there is critique of the Seven Countries Study as bad science. Then, public communication around the correlation of saturated fat and heart disease was construed as "all dietary fat is bad." It was obvious. Why wouldn’t fat make you fat? People's minds were firmly made up. Cholesterol in food = cholesterol in the arteries = heart disease ...right?
Fortunately for our health and the glorious flavor of food, we now know it’s not such a simple equation.
Before you break out the cheese whiz and bacon doughnuts, let me reemphasize "good quality" fat. For more, read on in more Big Fat Tips: The Essentials.
