Don’t be alarmed, I’m not directing the headline of this article at anyone in particular.
We need to talk about fat. In all senses of the word. You see we have a big problem with fat, being fat, calling people or animals fat and the fat we consume.
Fat is as valuable as gold. Well, it is to our body as a food molecule. Despite its demonisation over the past 20-30 years.
Fat contains twice the amount of energy per gram as carbs and protein.
Fat males up 80% of our brain and nervous system. It helps us think quickly (our nerves are coated in a type of fat that speeds up electrical signals) and some of the most important messengers in our body (hormones) are made of fat.
In fact, every cell in our body has a membrane made largely of fat.
Most average diets that we check in clinics largely lack fats that are beneficial to our bodies (Big Macs and KFC are not included in this!)
This can assist in creating widespread inflammation and pain in the body.
Both cold pressed virgin olive oil and fish oils have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties as well as improving cell damage, arteriosclerosis, eye disease and Alzheimers.
However, do not start frying your eggs and bacon in the expensive Waitrose finest olivio. These types of oils (linseed, rape etc) get damaged when they are heated and trap free radicals (responsible for damage and strongly linked to cancer risk).
Better options are more stable fats such as butter, coconut oil or ghee. Higher in saturated fat but better at heat and overall a lesser risk to your health in cooking. Step away from any hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Unfortunately, you will find this type of oil in 90% of processed foods (pastries, crisps, cereals, cakes, ready meals). Cutting these out of you’re diet has been proven to significantly reduce your chances of pushing up daisies.
So getting as much as 25-35% of daily energy from fat is what nutritional physiologists recommend.
There are diets like the ketogenic diet that tests these limits. This type of diet sees the body use something called ketones for energy rather than sugars (or glucose in fancy medical language).
These types of diets have shown promise with neurological conditions like Epilepsy, dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Having an excess of fat in our body is a big, obese problem. Anyone can choose to be any size they want to, it’s their choice.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that being overweight, carrying too much fat and having a bigger waist to hip ratio is unhealthy.
Being overweight means you are at risk from most major diseases such as Cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Losing weight is hard, no matter how big someone is when you start giving your body less energy than it needs to maintain weight, your body lets your brain know and ups your appetite hormones and reduces energy expenditure.
To find out why you want to lose weight, don’t cut out fat.
As always take care and be well
Gareth
Dr Gareth Ward DC MChiro (Doctor of Chiropractic)
