We all have a problem with fat. Actually, most of us have two problems with fat. I’m sure you are familiar with the first problem – that our bodies overproduce fat. Statistically speaking, most Australians just need to look down at their waistline to see how big the problem is for them – Australia now leads the world in obesity.
So the first problem is that we tend to put on weight. To help our friends and family take simple steps to reduce the size of their waistline over the course of 2012, the Savvy team have a “One Ton Challenge” (so make sure you find out more about that).
But the second problem, and you probably don’t realize it, is that you aren’t getting enough “good fat” in your diet. This is often a contributing factor to the first. Is ‘Stay away from fats!’ ringing in your ears? This used to be the ‘classic’ saying that you’ve heard from weight loss ‘experts’ over the years. You’ve probably lost out on the health and weight loss benefits of many ‘good fats’ because you’ve believed in the misconceptions surrounding this topic.
Are you thinking – there really is no such thing as good fat? Well there really is. The residual effects of the low-fat craze of the 1990s linger, causing many people to believe that less is more when it comes to fat, instead of choosing the correct fat. With the focus on low-fat diets over the last few years, we have forgotten about those essential fats that our bodies need for optimal health and energy.
Using Low Fat Products Is Not The Answer
A low-fat diet is not the optimal way towards healthy living. In fact it leads to poor vitamin and nutrient absorption, depression, increased cancer risk, high cholesterol and heart disease, an imbalance of nutrients, especially carbs, and overeating! Now do you see why a low-fat diet increases obesity? For more tips on things that may be making you fat, read to 8 Things That Are Making You Fat.
Fortunately, things changed. Unless you just bought your computer, television or magazine subscription a few days ago, you’ve probably already heard that essential fats are an important aspect to weight management, as well as to overall good health. Here are some Questions and Answers about Essential Fats you may be asking. You need to add fats into your diet, and those have to be right kind of fats.
Well, what exactly are good fats, what’s the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fats and why are they called essential? The ‘good’ fats are actually called “Essential Fatty Acids” because they are essential for health and life, you absolutely need them to live but they cannot be produced by your body. Did you know that the only way to get them into your body is by by ingesting (yep, that means eating) them.
Some people have gone overboard with the low fat concept, especially women watching their weight, without understanding the health ramifications of their choices. It’s calories that put weight on, and the foods that contain more calories are sugars and simple carbohydrates. With specialty “health” foods advertised as low-carb or low-calorie, the best means of losing weight can become confusing. Energy is measured in calories, so a high-calorie food fuels the body for more work than a low-calorie food. If you’re overweight, you already have lots of available energy already stored as fat. You can burn up that energy, and thereby shed pounds, by reducing your intake of calories, which is what the Savvy Team Fat On The Move Program helps you do.
Why Good Dietary Fat Is Good For Health
In all the confusion about weight loss, it is important to know that dietary fat is needed for good health, as fats supply energy and fatty acids, in addition to supplying fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K. In fact fat calories slow the flood of carbohydrates into the blood, which helps to eliminate “sugar highs” as well as the corresponding crash after the glucose is burned off. Without the fat, the cravings are intensified.
If you’re always choosing low-fat or fat-free foods at the grocery store, you could be shortchanging your weight-loss efforts. Low fat does not mean low calorie, in fact usually the opposite. Many of these processed foods contain added sugars to enhance taste; often they’re similar in calories to the original full-fat product, and sometimes even more.
Professor Kerin O’Dea believes that packaged foods are the problem, because when you see the words “low fat”, “no fat” or “99 per cent fat-free” on a product, it must be a healthy choice, right?
Research has shown that people tend to believe these foods are “freebies” and will even overeat them, thinking they’re healthy or low in calories when they’re anything but. Plus, fat helps carry flavor in our foods. It leads to fullness and satiety, which means you can get by longer on a meal or snack that provides fat without feeling the need to eat again soon. When that fat is missing, your appetite may get the best of you.
Athletes improve their performance and diabetics become healthier when they switch to a diet higher in certain kinds of fat and protein and lower in calories. In addition, there are certain fatty acids which we require for optimal health which can only be found in certain foods. And some researchers believe that people with type-O blood may be more likely than others to thrive on a diet rich in protein and fat and low in grains and dairy products because they trace their genes back to hunter-gatherer societies.
Why Do You Need Essential Fatty Acids or Good Fats Again?
You need them because the body can’t produce them and because essential fatty acids support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. The human body needs the essential fatty acids to manufacture and repair cell membranes, enabling the cells to obtain optimum nutrition and expel harmful waste products.
A primary function of good fats is the production of prostaglandins, which regulate body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood clotting, fertility, conception, and play a role in immune function by regulating inflammation and encouraging the body to fight infection.
Essential fatty acids are also needed for proper growth in children, particularly for neural development and maturation of sensory systems, with male children having higher needs than females. Fetuses and breast-fed infants also require an adequate supply of essential fatty acids through the mother’s dietary intake. But, what about weight loss benefits?
Essential Fatty Acids and Weight Loss
Don’t let the phrase essential fat or essential fatty acid fool you. These are not going to make you gain unwanted weight. As those of us who truly understand weight loss and gain can tell you, the key to losing or gaining fat storage from your body centers around the bodies short term energy storage supply. Essential fatty acids can actually speed up the burning of fats in the body and hence aid weight loss.
Studies on EFAs have shown that people who consume them on a daily basis, or who have a diet that is rich in essential fatty acids have a significant increase in the amount of body fat they’ve burned. And they keep insulin levels in the body low. Lower insulin levels make the body burn the excess fat and speed the rate of weight loss.
Essential fatty acids serve numerous bodily processes and are particularly beneficial to the immune system and heart as well as arthritis, skin conditions, pre-menstrual tension, mental function, improving memory and reducing depressive symptoms. The effect that essential fatty acids have on our emotions are considerable, and when we feel better we often eat less, or have less emotional cravings.
You Do Have To Supplement With Essential Fats For Health – We Recommend Krill
When it comes to increasing your essential fatty acid intake, you do have to focus on bringing more fatty acids rich fresh foods into your diet. But we recommend you also a supplement like stenabolic, because this is just to important a nutrient to be short of. Eating fish and seafood such as salmon, halibut, tuna and scallops a few times a week is an easy way to increase your omega-3 intake. Plus you’ll get all of the other nutritional benefits that these foods have to offer.
Unfortunately, the FDA and EPA have put out health advisory warnings against certain fish and shellfish consumption for young children, women who are pregnant or may become pregnant, and nursing mothers. So we recommend that you supplement with a source of krill, safflower, evening primrose and linseed oils for best absorption, prevention and protection.
Like fish oil, krill oil is a great source of omega-3 fats, docosahexanoic acid (DHA), and eicosapentanoic acid (EPA).Plus did you know that fish oil’s fatty acids are in the triglyceride form, whereas in krill oil, they are in double chain phospholipid structure. In humans, these fats are in phospholipid form as well, which is why you get much more benefit from krill compared to fish oil, with less.
For many years it was difficult to be confident when taking essential fatty acid supplements, because the processing was complex and expensive to remove the mercury. But now we have easy access to krill oil – a marine oil that is also a rich source of high-quality protein, with the advantage over other animal proteins of being low in fat and a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids; higher antioxidant levels in krill than in fish; and because of their phospholipid structure, EPA and DHA in krill oil are more absorbable. They can easily pass through the mitochondria and the cellular nucleus.
It’s great that the Savvy Team helps solve the dilemma by recommending a uniquely and synergistically combined formula of essential fatty acids of the highest quality. The best news is that you don’t need a lot of these essential fatty acids per day. A tiny tablet or two every day will suffice. We’ve made it even easier for you to get the good fats you need by providing a fantastic source of krill oil, along with a range of other essential fatty acids in one tiny capsule. Talk to your Savvy team contact as to how you can access this products at the best price.
If you are already a Savvy Team Member go here to find out more about our recommended product.
HEALTH TIP: As noted, walnuts and flaxseeds can be important contributors to an omega-3 rich diet, and all nuts have high amounts of healthy essential fatty acids. To increase your intake of these foods, adding nut-seed oil combinations to meals, salads, pastas, or baked potatoes is just one of the many ways to easily incorporate these foods into your meal plan. Additionally, if you grind nut butters at home, they could also be used in the above ratio as a nut-seed blend. (Although it is somewhat difficult to clean, a standard coffee bean grinder usually does fairly well as a nut-seed grinder than can produce a very creamy buttery blend.) If you like your nuts roasted, do so gently – in a 160-170 degree oven for 15-20 minutes – to preserve the omega-3 fats.
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