Fat is back
Get your health back on track with a good helping off at
It’s not hard to understand why, for most people, it’s hard to shake the notion that fat makes you fat. In fact, the entire concept of healthy eating has gone so awry over the years that the misinformation that surrounds it is getting increasingly prevalent – and as a result, we’re all losing out. Dr Joseph Mercola has long been praised for his no-nonsense approach to nutrition, and his experience as a physician has contributed to his website, mercola.com, becoming a go-to for anyone after nutrition, natural health and wellness advice.
While the misinformation around fat has undoubtedly led to increased obesity levels, Dr Mercola’s new book Fatforfuel outlines how learning to feed our bodies properly can also help us to deal with health issues like, low energy, cancer and reduced metabolism. In other words, understanding why upping our healthy fats is good for us will not only help us to reach a desired weight, but also optimal health.
It’s not how it used to be
The first thing we need to understand is that food isn’t what it was almost a hundred years ago. The way it’s sold, manufactured and marketed has completely changed and, as a result, we’re being exposed to more processed foods and less real food. ‘In the 1930s, chemical and industrial technologies were introduced into the agricultural sector. At that time, food production started going through a major transformation, from farm to plate,’ Dr Mercola explains. The reasoning behind this was simple: increased production and more affordable food. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite pan out this way. ‘As time went on, and food was grown by fewer and fewer people, consumers forgot what real food was. Food comes from the grocery store, and that’s it. How it gets there is a bit of a mystery.’ This disconnect has led us all to become disengaged with food – especially what is truly good for us and how our bodies react to different kinds of foods. This book aims to change all that, and to help us understand why adopting a ketogenic diet high in healthy fats and low in carbohydrates will do so much more for our bodies than just weight loss.
Where did it all go wrong?
You may not be able to remember a time when dietary fat wasn’t villainised. Everywhere you look now, low-fat products are flying off the shelves, and diet versions are available in all of our favourite drinks. The reason? A man named Ancel Keys. ‘The primary reason for the low-fat dietary myth can be pointed to one man, Ancel Keys, who was one of the most prominent nutritional researchers of the mid-20th century and whose views were widely adopted by most professional and public health organisations.’ Dr Mercola reveals. Keys’ study of seven countries made out that heart disease was associated with dietary fat, but what it didn’t show was that the study actually looked at 22 countries – Keys chose to omit evidence from the countries that didn’t match his hypothesis. However, the damage was already done. ‘The irony of Keys’ position was that fat was indeed the problem, but it had nothing to do with excess fat or saturated fat. It was the introduction of industrialised and processed omega-6 vegetable oils that distorted the important omega 6:3 ratio, causing metabolic catastrophes,’ adds Dr Mercola. But refined carbohydrates – which many replaced dietary fat with – were already taking centre stage on dinner plates, and these ‘metabolic catastrophes’ were simply exacerbated.
The metabolic catastrophe that Dr Mercola refers to is specifically damage to the mitochondria. These are our cells’ powerhouses, of which there are thousands in each cell, and are necessary to stay healthy. But in order for them to do their job, they need proper nourishment. ‘Providing less than ideal fuel will, over the long term, sabotage your health, just as putting junk fuel in your car will,’ Dr Mercola explains. ‘Your gut bacteria require raw, whole foods – vegetables mainly, which people don’t get nearly enough of. And your mitochondria need healthy fats.’ A bad diet – which all too often people don’t even realise is a bad diet due to the misinformation we’ve been fed over the years – will damage your gut bacteria and mitochondria, which means they’re unable to do their job. If they can’t do their job, our health deteriorates, which is where chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes come into play.
What to do next
While steering clear of refined sugars and grains, pesticides and artificial additives will be a good start to your road to recovery, there’s more to understand than we might think. We’re often told that saturated fat is bad for us, but in reality it has a wealth of benefits which Dr Mercola outlines in the book, from acting as brain fuel when converted into ketones to helping lower cholesterol levels. It’s also likely to help us lose weight, thanks to its high satiety levels making us less likely to snack and make bad food choices. Not to mention it tastes delicious!
Eating fewer carbs and more fat might sound familiar – the Atkins diet and even the Paleo diet both promote this way of eating. But Dr Mercola’s approach (which tackles health as a whole rather than just weight loss) varies slightly, and could explain why fad diets like Atkins have been less successful in the past for long-term weight management. ‘The Atkins diet has excessive protein, which is likely more dangerous in the long term than excessive carbs,’ he says. ‘Eating more protein than your body needs interferes with your health and fitness goals in a number of ways, including weight gain, extra body fat, stress on your kidneys and leaching of important bone minerals.’ According to Dr Mercola, balance is key: we need to be opting for a diet high in healthy fats, low in net carbs with an adequate amount of high-quality protein.
Providing less than ideal fuel will, over the long term, sabotage your health, just as putting junk fuel in your car will