How To Identify Good And Bad Fats ?

As I’ve previously mentioned,we need adequate amounts of healthy fibrous carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats to maintain good health .So if you refrain from consuming some of these nutrients you wont get lean soon and it will affect your health as well. So now that we’ve established that eating adequate amounts (generally 20-40% of your total calories) of healthy fats will actually help you lose body fat.

Now  let’s examine which fats are good and which are bad. 

To understand which fats are healthy and which are unhealthy, just ask yourself the following simple questions:

•For plant based fat sources - Is it a minimally processed natural product or a heavily processed fat.

•For animal based fat sources (meat or dairy) - Did it originate from farm animals or from free grazing animals?

I guess the answer becomes intutive once you answer these questions.

Now moving on to plant based fats.It is important to know that the saturated fats in minimally processed oils such as coconut oil, palm oil have received an undeserved bad rap.You can see that if a source of dietary fat is unprocessed and natural, it will be healthy, regardless of whether it is mostly saturated, polyunsaturated, or monounsaturated.

Does Consuming fat makes you fat ?

EATING FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT!

As long as you eat the right kinds of fat without overdoing the quantity you can never become fat . Yes, fat (at 9 calories/gram) is more calorie dense than protein or carbohydrates (at 4 calories/gram), but eating adequate quantities of healthy fats will actually help you lose body fat .There is a mixed reaction to consuming fat these days everywhere , even in the medical industry .

Some so called “experts” still stick to the assertion that a low-fat/high-carb diet is the best way to lose weight . On the other end of the spectrum, people argue that a high-fat, high-protein, low-carb diet is the magic secret to losing weight .The answer is cosuming fats some where in the midrange.

Instead, it is the processing of foods that is the key factor in acquiring a lean healthy body. For example, it is known that heart disease, type II diabetes, and obesity are unheard of in historical Eskimo populations despite consuming an extremely high fat diet comprised of mostly whale blubber, seal fat, cold water fish, and organ meat. 

So the key here is to consume 20 - 40% of your calories as fat .Let us examine which fats are good and which are bad in the oncoming posts.

Why Not to Follow Fad or Crash Diets ?

There are hundreds of fad diets on the market today . The problem with most fad diets is that they limit consumption of a certain macronutrient like protein, carbs, or fat, For example, with any of the low-carb diets , they severely limit your consumption of important carbohydrate sources. You may experience initial weight loss with these diets, But I strongly suggest not to follow such diets,because they will lower your RMR and put you at 

risk of regaining weight faster .

One of the first reasons people experience a quick weight loss with a low carb diet is because they  lose water weight by depleting their muscle glycogen stores. A significant quantity of water is also held in the muscle cells of the body along with the glycogen. So going on a low carb diet and depleting your glycogen stores will result in a weight loss initially .And you loose your muscle in the process as well.

Another one of the reasons that a low carb diet can cause people to lose weight is that they maintain lower blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels, and therefore can lose fat easier since high insulin levels promote fat storage and make it harder to burn fat.

However, there are ways to still eat your carbohydrates in moderation while still maintaining reasonable blood sugar and insulin levels to allow fat burning. So please do not fall into the trap of the low carb diet. The trick here is to appear at a balance between your carb and lean protein diet . You’ll never get lean if you’re overfeeding on carbs. Including a moderate quantity of healthy carbs in your diet will help you have the energy to workout intensely and maintain good energy levels through out the day .

Another type of fad diet that has been promoted in the past and even still now  for weight loss is a low fat diet. So you are limiting one of the most important macro nutrients. People struggle to lose weight on a low fat diet .A larger quantity of refined carbohydrates in the diet will now trigger higher insulin levels, which will make you crave more carbs as your blood sugar crashes. This becomes a difficult endless cycle of craving refined carbs. This makes weight loss on a low fat diet very difficult.

Also, low fat diets affect hormonal processes in the body, which can shut down your fat loss and muscle gain efforts. Fat is also needed to satisfy your hunger.Studies indicate that in order to maintain all of the healthy metabolic processes in which your body relies on dietary fat, you should keep your total fat intake somewhere between 20-40% of your total calories. Consuming a diet containing lower than 20% fat can affect your weight loss efforts and damage your health as well. So what fats to consume and what fats not to consume ? .I will post about it in th enext chapter .

Glycemic Index(GI) And Bodys Response

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Insulin today is considered as a demon and has gotten a bad reputation since high levels of it within the body tend to promote fat storage and make it harder to use body fat for energy. However, insulin is also a very anabolic hormone that can help shuttle nutrients into your muscle cells and promote muscle recovery. When you eat carbohydrates, they are broken down in your system and raise your blood sugar. 

Your pancreas secretes insulin to remove the excess sugar from your blood and deposit it into fat stores  muscle glycogen stores, or liver glycogen stores. If your muscle and liver glycogen stores are already full, the excess blood sugar will be stored as fat. If your muscle glycogen stores are depleted such as after an intense workout, insulin secreted in response to a high carbohydrate meal will push the excess blood sugar and other nutrients into your muscle cells. This is one time when insulin is very good and helps promote muscle protein synthesis (recovery). The degree to which ingested carbs will raise your blood sugar depends on the quantity of carbs you ate and how fast they are digested. Factors such as the quantity of fiber the carbs contained, along with how much protein and fat you ate in combination with the carbs all affect how quickly the carbs are digested.

Generally speaking, the more unrefined and fibrous the carbohydrate source, and the more protein and fat eaten with the meal, the slower the carbohydrate will be digested, and the lower and more steady the blood sugar and insulin response. Slow and steady carbohydrate sources are ideal because they give you steady energy levels, reduce cravings, and allow your body to utilize fat for energy in addition. More heavily refined starches and sugars where the fiber has been removed will be digested much more quickly and cause a higher blood sugar spike and subsequent crash after insulin has done its job. People who eat a lot of refined processed carbohydrates typically go through these cycles of blood sugar spikes and crashes, which causes them to crave more carbohydrates and leads to body fat gain. 

A little known fact is that carbs are not the only food substrate that can promote an insulin response. Large doses of certain free form amino acids and quickly digested proteins such as whey protein also can trigger an insulin response.

One of the methods that was devised originally to help diabetics manage their blood sugar properly was the glycemic index (GI) of foods. The GI basically categorizes foods (generally carbohydrate sources) into low, moderate, or high on the GI scale.

 Basically, foods that raise your blood sugar quickly will have a higher GI and foods that raise your blood sugar slowly and to a lower degree will have a lower GI. 

Examples of foods with high GI’s are white rice, white bread, white potatoes, corn flakes, crispy rice cereals, sugars (except fructose), ice cream, bananas, cooked carrots, candy, and any other refined carbohydrates where the fiber has been removed.

Examples of foods with lower GI’s are most dairy products, most fruits and vegetables, whole unrefined grains, sweet potatoes, barley, beans, and most other higher fiber carbohydrate sources. 

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