Do you spend hours trawling through science research findings [like I do]? Probably not. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do with your life.
So I’m thinking you may not have read some of the latest results on weight loss and healthy eating.
Therefore let’s bury a few of the worst myths that are being shared on the internet by ‘experts’ that remained stuck in the dark ages.
For the next little while I picked just one myth to be debunked per week and I hope my explanations will allow you to be better informed.
Rubbish Myth #1
Let’s talk about fat. The recommendations go like this: yes, do eat fat, no..do not eat fat, then back to yes, do eat fat. Enough to drive everyone crazy!
A few years back we used to be fat and cholesterol phobic.
When we read the word ‘fat’ on an ingredients list, YAIKS!!!!! We dropped the food item back onto the supermarket shelf like a hot potato.
Suddenly all sorts of no-fat products hit the market, but unfortunately they were loaded full of sugar instead.
Eating those caused a new wave additional weight gain, because people thought: Ha! It’s low fat, so I can eat more of it.
And then…..some clever bunnies said exactly what we all wanted to hear: Fat Does NOT Make You Fat.
OMG. They still make a lot of money out of their books! Plenty of hopeful dieters bought it. A free ticket to eating fat? Yippee. (Insert happy dance)
They recommended to just go ahead, make my day and knock yourselves out with fat. You won’t gain weight.
Bad, bad advice.
Because now people drenched their salads in virgin olive oil until they looked like soups and spread their low carb crackers with blobs of organic butter and full cream cheese. Yet again, people were putting on weight.
So here’s the deal with fat:
Fact: YES!. We need to eat some fat for our health. .
BUT….[I bet you knew there was a ‘BUT’] unfortunately fat has twice the calories of carbs and protein. And although I do not advocate feverish counting of calories, it’s good to be aware. In addition, excess fat does horrible things to our health (think possible Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver etc.)
And here’s another BUT … although this time a good one.
Dr Sears wrote this: “Essential fatty acids like Omega 3+6 stimulate metabolism by speeding up the rate at which the body burns fats and glucose.”
Now you may ask how much?
Without knowing your weight, age, energy output, health history, I will only offer approximate suggestions here. If you were one of my personal clients I’d be able to work out the correct amounts.
Here are approximate daily amounts for those on a vegan weight loss plan:
- 35g of nuts and seeds or 2 TBSP of nut butter
- ½ an avocado
- 2 Tablespoons of flaxseed meal, chia seeds or hemp seeds
Is this it?
Yep. This is it. All plant foods have a little fat in them. Even apples. Just tiny bits. But when combined with the above good fats, there will be plenty of healthy fats for you. SOme plant based doctors even suggest we do not need to eat nuts, seeds or avocado. But Ill leave that decision up to you.
Next week I’ll tell you about one of my other pet myths: ‘Healthy’ sweeteners….Find out the latest research on how some of them actually are worse than Darth Vader.
But which ones?
Until then, yours in Health
Nicki Kelly.