Many people start a low carb or ketogenic diet to lose weight. They’re often looking for a quick fix solution but any calorie deficit diet will produce weight loss results. What they don’t do is give you the adequate nutrition to thrive, in fact some will just add to health issues, even if you are losing weight. Weight loss doesn’t always equate to being healthy. They also don’t give you the ability to stop craving the foods that led to the weight gain in the first place that leads to yo-yo dieting and they do not eliminate the inflammatory foods that can lead to chronic disease and are often very high in sugar. Your diet, what you eat, is very much connected to your overall health and well-being.
We are so focused on the calories in v calories out, eat less move more, fat is bad scenarios that it can often be very difficult to transition to a diet high in fat as it goes against everything we have been told is right and healthy. But not all calories are equal. Fat, whilst high in calories, will keep you feeling satiated for much longer than food full of empty calories devoid of nutrition that will keep you craving more.
Fat actually plays a very vital role including helping our bodies absorb vitamins such as A, D, E & K. You could be following a low fat diet, eating a salad of spinach leaves, grated carrot and peppers thinking you’re eating very healthily but without fat your body will not be absorbing them and you will not feel adequately full. Fat-soluble vitamins are most abundant in high fat foods and are much better absorbed into your bloodstream when you eat them with fat.
Fats are essential nutrients important for the development and function of the brain and nervous system. The brain is largely made up of fat, it requires a high amount of cholesterol as a source of energy which is why some of the best brain foods have high levels of healthy fats. Every cell in your body has cholesterol.
Fat is also essential for the production and healthy balance of hormones. Hormones are made from protein and fats whilst sex hormones are made from cholesterol, cutting fats out of your diet can seriously impact hormone production and function.
When you take all this into consideration, it is easy to see why so many women struggle with menopause. As we get older we become more insulin resistant and we start to lose muscle mass, muscles help mop up excess glucose. We start to see weight gain, the “menopause belly” arrives and so we revert to a low fat diet, as per common guidance. The low fat diet is high in sugar adding to our insulin resistance and our already out of whack hormones are now lacking its vital food to function properly and we’re not absorbing all the vitamins we need. The body becomes more stressed, our cortisol levels go up everything spirals and symptoms become worse.
Saturated fat does not make you fat, foods high in cholesterol do not cause high blood cholesterol but fat is vital for optimal health, it will keep you feeling fuller for much longer, reducing the need to snack and thus often lowering calorie intake in the process and lets face it, fat just makes everything taste better!
EAT THE FAT!
