Corrie Cath: Eat fat & lose weight
Coronation Street actress and presenter of Tonight – Fat: The Healthy Option?
Iknow all too well how hard it is when you’re trying to lose weight. When I was 17, long before I got my job on Coronation Street, I was almost 15 stone and thought a healthy meal was a large bowl of pasta.
I took control of my weight, and I slowly and steadily lost more than 5st. Along the way, I learned to understand just how important a healthy, balanced diet is. It sparked my huge interest in healthy living and nutrition.
Faddy yo-yo diets are everywhere, and the advice seems to vary from day to day. It can be confusing if you’re trying to lose a few pounds. One in four people in Britain is obese and it’s estimated that by 2050, half of us could be obese.
Fat has often been blamed for Britain’s battle with the bulge. So, when ITV’s Tonight programme asked me to investigate the issue, I looked at the role of fat in our diet and whether it harms or helps us. What I found made me wonder whether we should change our thinking.
When you look into which types of fat are good for us and which we should avoid, the advice is confusing. Sometimes we’re told butter is better, the next day the message is to eat low-fat spread. Most of us are aware that some fats – in fish oils, for example – are good for us.
But everyone thinks the big no-no is saturated fat – full-fat milk, butter and cheese. But are they really that bad?
I spoke to dietitian Nichola LudlamRaine, who explained there are three groups of fats we need to eat – monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and, in some foods, saturated. Avocados, nuts, olive oil and eggs are good sources of monounsaturated fat, while oily fish, pumpkin seeds and walnuts are rich in polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. These are fats that our body can’t produce, but which we need to eat for a healthy heart.
But what about the alleged superfood, coconut oil? Nichola says it is predominantly made up of saturated fat, too much of which can harm your heart.
So, in her view, it’s better to stick to olive oil, which is rich in “heart-healthy unsaturated fatty acids”.
Dairy foods, often avoided because of their high saturated fat content, actually contain important nutrients that seem to negate the effect of the saturated fat.
Professor Ian Givens, from the University of Reading, says: “There was a belief that dairy makes you fat – in fact, the
evidence suggests it doesn’t and in some cases it can actually enhance weight loss. Some dairy foods, like yoghurt or cheese, actually indicate a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes. “Indeed, some of the studies show a reduced risk of stroke, particularly associated with cheese and milk.” But according to a recent survey by the National Osteoporosis Society, one fifth of under-25s are completely cutting out dairy from their diets, often due to concerns that it is fattening. The worry is that this results in calcium deficiency and could damage bone strength. But the most dangerous type of fat – trans fat – has been linked to a substantial increase in the risk of heart disease. Unlike other countries, the UK has not banned trans fats, since the nation’s average consumption is low. But some independent restaurants and takeaways still use oils with substantial amounts of trans fats to fry food.
Tower Hamlets in East London has one of the most intense concentrations of takeaways in the country – nearly 400 in eight square miles. It also has some of the highest rates of heart disease in the UK.
The council inspected seven independent takeaways and found very high levels of trans fats in nearly half of the chips tested. It said that certain population groups are exceeding the UK’s dietary limit on trans fats “on a day-today basis” and called for a ban.
But the amount of food you eat – healthy or not – has a huge impact on your weight. In 2013, the British Heart Foundation found that most portion sizes have ballooned in the past 20 years.
Nichola’s advice is not to ditch the diary, but be wary. She says: “If you’re filling a third of your plate with green vegetables or salad, a third with carbohydrates such as pasta, potatoes, and a third with proteins such as meat, fish, lentils, then you’ve got a really balanced plate. On top of it, you could add some healthy fats like half an avocado or some feta cheese or a little bit of olive oil.
“When it comes to weight loss, though, you might want to up the vegetables and salad and down the other two portions just a little bit.”
So, the best advice seems to be everything in moderation. Fad diets don’t work but making sensible choices and keeping an eye on your portion sizes is the key to a healthier you.
Tonight – Fat: The Healthy Option? is on ITV at 7.30pm this evening.