THURSDAY, JULY 15TH, 2010
9am / 10am / 2:30pm / 7:30pm
9am / 10am / 2:30pm / 7:30pm
To view the entire July Schedule click here: July Schedule
Nowadays, in the industry within which I operate and the circles of people that I keep, if someone still lays claim to the statement that, “a low-fat diet is healthy and good for you” they are immediately disregarded and, more often then not, severely discredited.
Today, the importance of healthy fats in a diet are extremely well-known and include, but are not limited to: disease/illness prevention (including cancer), fat loss AND mass gain (depending on how you use your fats), optimal neurological function and cognition as well as mineral and nutrient absorption to name only a few. Fats contain 9 calories per gram, while proteins and carbohydrates each contain 4 calories per gram. But don’t worry about the calories because healthy fats will actually speed up your metabolism, curb your hunger for longer periods of time, and aid in the weight-loss process. If you eat as I suggest (“Foundations of Good Nutrition”) you eat you don’t really need to worry about your calories at all anyways. That can be a whole other overhyped issue.
Fat is also the preferred fuel for your heart and your body during exercise. Just for reference I’ll let you know right now that my diet contains anywhere from 30% to 60% of my caloric intake.
But wait! What about saturated fat? That’s obviously still bad right? Nope, duped again.
There are many different types of saturated fats, however, in our diets we predominantly consume only 3 of the more than dozen different kinds. Those 3 being stearic acid, palmitic acid, and lauric acid.
It’s already been well established that stearic acid (found in cocoa and animal fat) has zero effect on your cholesterol levels, and actually gets converted in your liver into the monounsaturated fat called oleic acid.
The other two, palmitic and lauric acid, do raise total cholesterol. However, since they raise “good” cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) as much or more than “bad” cholesterol (LDL cholesterol), you’re still actually lowering your risk of heart disease!
Never fails, the next question of discussion is always, “So what does cause high cholesterol Coach?” Without going into depth on this one I can tell you that high LDL cholesterol has been shown to be mainly caused by consumption of grains, wheat, flour, breads, pastas, tortillas, corn, rice, etc. Furthermore cholesterol it has been realized has no effect on your heart health anyways…save for another day. (Check this article out if you want to read up on cholesterol “High Cholesterol and Heart Disease”)
How did all of this misinformation make it’s way to mainstream and influence our diets in such a drastic way over the past handful of decades then? Through some amazing sifting and skewing of scientific studies. According to MSNBC (What if Bad Fat Isn’t So Bad?) and Dr. Joseph Mercola of Mercola.com, the first scientific indictment of saturated fat was made in 1953. Dr. Ancel Keys published an influential paper comparing fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Italy, and Japan. The Americans ate the most fat and had the highest death rate from heart disease; the Japanese ate the least fat and had the fewest heart disease deaths.
But while data from those six countries seemed to support the diet-heart hypothesis, statistics were actually available for 22 countries. When all 22 were analyzed, the apparent link disappeared. The death rate from heart disease in Finland was 24 times that of Mexico, although fat-consumption rates in the two nations were almost the same.
So…short story long, no matter what your goals are you NEED fats…unless your goals include illness, disease, obesity, and death.
Check out these websites for more amazing facts and research about FAT. This first article should explain it ALL!
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/08/17/saturated-fat1.aspx
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/good-news-on-saturated-fat/
Coach-Chugs-Him-Some-Coconut-Oil-Justin
No comments:
Post a Comment