Many people believe the common (and logical) misconception that eating fat makes you fat. However, current research shows us that high fat, high protein and low carbohydrate diet reduces hunger, increases energy levels, assists with weight loss, improves athletic performance, and in some cases, may even reduce the need for diabetes medication.
Scientists have encouraged us to follow the Australian food pyramid guidelines, which recommend that we reduce fat and consume mostly high carbohydrate foods such as cereals, grains, and pasta. One of the main problems with this concept was that taking the fat out of whole foods meant sacrificing flavour, which was then replaced with sugar, and a cascade of adverse effects followed.
Many experts are now admitting that “eat less fat” didn’t work, even suggesting it may have contributed to chronic disease and the growing population of Type 2 Diabetic and overweight individuals.
Yes, carbohydrate foods such as bread, pasta, cereals, soft drinks, fruit juices and snack foods are a cheap and easily accessible energy source. Unfortunately, they are also generally nutrient-poor, packed with sugar, and only offer a short burst of energy followed by a drop in blood glucose levels and sugar cravings, and so the cycle continues.
The increasingly worrying obesity epidemic should be enough to make us question our current ideas and beliefs about diet and what is being fed to us through media and government-funded nutritional education.
Natural medicine practitioners have advocated the consumption of good fats such as coconut oil, eggs, butter, nuts, oily fish and grass-fed meats for preventative health in most of the literature for decades. Now we find ourselves at the cutting edge of research; apparently, we were not the silly ones after all.