Eating Good Fats and Avoiding Calories That Causes Bad Fat
Some types of fat are essential not only for good health, but also to help the body to burn fat. These are the essential fatty acids, or EFA’s – ‘essential’ because they are essential for good health, cannot be produced by the body, and so have to be consumed. Because of the modern obsession with fat and the promotion of low-fat diets, the role of EFA’s has gone largely unnoticed. The original idea was that, since 1gram of fat gives more calories (9 kcals) than 1gram of protein or carbohydrate (approximately 4 kcals), the quickest way to cut calories was to cut fat. But we now know that this simply doesn’t work. Low-GL (glycemic load) diets are far more effective for weight loss (and healthier) than strict no-fat diets, and the GL of your diet predicts weight gain much more accurately than the fat content of your diet.
The type of fat you eat is vitally
important, both for health and for weight loss. When you eat saturated fat, all
the body can do is use it for fuel or store it as fat. But when you eat
polyunsaturated fat from seeds or fish, it is used by the brain and nervous
system and boosts immunity, balances hormones, reduces inflammation and promotes
healthy skin. Only if there is any left, will the body use it for energy or
store it as fat.
The omega-3 fats found in flax and pumpkin seeds and oily fish help fat loss in two additional ways. They help produce hormone-like substances called prostaglandins, which help to regulate the metabolism. Also, when glucose levels in the blood spike continually, it causes inflammation, which can damage the arteries. Omega-3 fats help to calm this inflammation.
Omega-6 fats found in sunflower and sesame seeds are good for the skin and assist in maintaining hormone balance (for example in combating PMS), but are not as important for the brain.
Omega-9 fat, found in olive oil, is not as good for you as omega -3 and -6 fats, but not nearly as bad as saturated fats. There are studies that indicate that switching from saturated to omega-9 fat, helps to stabilize blood sugar levels, improve insulin resistance and control diabetes. A simple change is to fry food (if you have to fry at all) in olive or grape seed oil rather than sunflower oil, as these oils are far more stable at high temperatures and do not change into trans-fat when heated. Heating fats make them oxidize, which can set up a chain reaction of oxidation in the body – damaging body cells.
The fat in meat and dairy, which is saturated, doesn’t have the health benefits of the EFA’s.
Worst of all, however, are the kinds of fats found in processed and junk food, and in deep-fried foods. These are trans-fats and hydrogenated fats. Eating excess saturated fat is associated with obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes. And yet despite this, the current craze of high-protein, low-carb diets often start off with over 60% of their calories from fat!
Avoid any processed food that contains hydrogenated fat, for example ‘partially hydrogenated vegetable oils’, which are extremely damaging to the body.
Foods that contain trans-fats include:
- French fries
- Hamburgers
- Battered and deep-fried food
- Crisps – potato or corn
- Biscuits, donuts
- Margarine
- Mayonnaise, most salad dressings
- Many vegetarian processed foods (check labels before buying)
Supplements for weight loss
One of the biggest misconceptions in nutrition today is that if you eat a balanced diet, you will get all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. One well-known health researcher has scoffed this belief as being as outdated as the flat earth theory! The sad fact is that due to modern farming methods, the soil in which foods are grown is severely depleted of minerals (see chapter 6 for more on this). This leads to far lower levels of minerals in the food we eat. The harvesting of unripe or partially ripe fruit and vegetables, and storing them for a long time before they are eaten, also severely depletes their vitamin content. And of course individuals are unique in their vitamin and mineral requirements, based on many external and internal factors – pollution, gender, stress, how much we exercise to name but a few.
The daily functions of the body depend on a myriad of chemical reactions, which, in turn, depend on vitamins and minerals. This includes your capability to burn fat. For example, to produce insulin you need zinc and vitamin B6. Chromium assists insulin to control blood sugar levels. To turn glucose into energy instead of fat, you need B vitamins, vitamin C and magnesium. Before you consider any other specific supplements to assist in weight loss, make sure you are eating a well-balanced diet as recommended, and supplementing according to your specific needs.
The following minerals are essential for creating energy in the body: iron, calcium, magnesium, chromium and zinc. Magnesium is also vital for blood sugar control and burning carbohydrate for energy, rather than storing it as fat. Zinc (with vitamin B6) is needed to make enzymes that digest food and to produce insulin. A lack of zinc leads to lack of appetite control and causes loss of taste and smell, which leads to overeating of strong-tasting foods like meat and cheese. Optimal zinc intake is 20mg a day.
A good multi-vitamin and mineral supplement should contain all these minerals.
There are 3 additional supplements you can take that assist the body in losing weight.
1. Chromium is an essential mineral that helps to stabilize blood sugar levels and therefore weight. Chromium works with insulin to do this. Therefore, the more unstable your blood sugar levels, the more chromium you need. A diet high in sugar and stimulants is most likely to be chromium-deficient. Chromium reduces sugar cravings and hence your appetite for the wrong foods. It is found in whole foods (white flour, for instance, has 98% of its chromium removed – another reason to avoid refined foods), beans, nuts and seeds, asparagus and mushrooms. Take 200-400mcg a day for the first three months of a fat-loss diet, ideally a split dose twice a day.
2. HCA (hydroxycitric acid) is extracted from the rind of the tamarind fruit. It has been proved to slow down the production of fat and reduce appetite. It has been extensively tested and found to be non-toxic and generally safe. It works by inhibiting the enzyme that converts sugar into fat. The carbohydrates we eat are first used to provide fuel, with the excess being converted to fat by an enzyme called ATP-citrate lyase. HCA reduces the activity of this enzyme. It enhances the burning of calories and helps to increase energy levels.
Take 750-2,250mg a day for the first 3 months, one capsule 3 times a day, 30 minutes before your meals.
3. 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) is another natural substance that helps weight loss in an interesting way. As we have seen, one factor that controls appetite is blood sugar levels. The other major factor is the level of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is the chemical that controls your mood, and a low level of serotonin causes depression6. Serotonin is made from an amino acid called tryptophan. Weight loss diets are notoriously low in tryptophan, because they are low in carbohydrates. While carbohydrate is not rich in tryptophan, its digestion releases insulin, which carries any available tryptophan to the brain. While protein-rich food does contain tryptophan, the tryptophan simply isn’t transported to the brain without insulin. That is why when we feel down, we crave something sweet or starchy, not protein.
But that’s not all. Serotonin actually controls appetite. The more you have, the less you eat and vice versa – which is why most of us eat more when we are depressed, and low in serotonin.
One of the quickest ways (and the safest with no side-effects), to restore normal levels of serotonin and thus normal mood, is to supplement with 5-HTP (a form of tryptophan). It literally makes you feel happier and want to eat less. Not only does it supply tryptophan directly to the brain, but it also reduces the craving for carbohydrate (which is really your body craving the insulin that will carry any available tryptophan to the brain).
Take 100-200mg daily, ideally with some carbohydrate like a piece of fruit.
Don’t take 5-HTP if you are on SSRI’s (serotonin-reuptake inhibitor drugs) like Prozac, Xeroxat, Lustral or Paroxetine to name a few.
Exercise every day
The human body is designed to be active and functions at optimal levels only when exercised regularly. Modern life, however, discourages activity! And once you become inactive, the weight creeps on and it becomes more difficult to ‘get going’
There are 3 reasons why exercise is so important for weight loss.
1. The effects of exercise are cumulative. Exercise burns calories, so even a small amount every day adds up to a significant amount. Incidentally, the more overweight and less fit you are, the more benefit you will gain from small bouts of exercise.
2. Exercise decreases your appetite. The natural appetite-control mechanisms in the body need some activity to work properly. If you don’t exercise, your appetite ironically increases and the weight piles on.
3. Exercise boosts your metabolism. During aerobic exercise, your metabolic rate is increased 8-10 times. Lifting weights not only increases your metabolism, but also maintains it for many hours afterwards.
Combining a proper diet with all 3 types of exercise discussed here,(link to Exercise) is the best way to lose weight. Weight lost through diet alone is often as much lean muscle tissue as fat. Since muscle burns more energy than fat, the less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism is.
Exercise also increases your sensitivity to insulin, which means that the body has to produce less for the same effect – good news for blood sugar control.
You can start exercising at any age, and gain tremendous advantage, but the sooner you start the better. It will improve your energy levels and mood, help reverse aging, and keep you supple and strong into old age. Make the decision to start – and never stop!
According to surveys, the best life extension benefit of exercising is to expend more than 2,000 calories a week. Walking uses around 300kcals and hour – 6 hours a week. Running burns twice as much, so you need to do around 3 hours. The more overweight you are, the more calories you burn with less effort, so initially you will need to do less to burn the calories.
Six diet myths
Below are 6 common myths of dieting that may be holding you back in your quest to lose weight. Understand the underlying principles of weight loss so that you don’t get taken in by the latest fad or miracle pill.
Myth 1: All calories are equal in quality
The old principle of weight loss was based on calorie counting. As fats have the highest number of calories per gram, the theory was – cut out fats and you will lose weight. Then the importance of certain types of fats for good health was discovered, so we began eating fats again.
Then a new puzzle presented itself. Two government surveys conducted in the UK7 show that the average daily calorie intake over the last 15 years has dropped, and yet the incidence of obesity is increasing. So people are eating less but getting fatter! It was then thought to be due to a change in exercise habits – but this could not, on its own explain the obesity epidemic. Surveys also found that women are exercising slightly more than before, while men have stayed around the same8. The Chinese, for instance, lead less active lives than we do and consume on average more calories per person per day – and they have an extremely low incidence of obesity. So the only other possible answer is to look at the quality of the calories being consumed.
What the surveys found9 is the following:
Consumption of calories from fat has decreased, but from protein and carbohydrate has increased.
Calories from carbohydrates (sugar, grains, vegetables and fruits) have increased significantly more than protein.
Many countries that consume large amounts of their calories in the form of carbohydrates don’t have the same levels of obesity – China is a classic example.
The types of carbohydrates we consume were then examined. It was found that intake of fiber (insoluble carbohydrate) has gone up slightly – good news. Intake of complex carbohydrates (vegetables, starch) has gone down, and our intake of sugar has gone up significantly – not good news.
The figures for sugar consumption (around 22kg per person a year) in surveys did not add up to the amount of sugar sold into the British food supply10.
This agreed with surveys done in the USA that showed that the annual intake of sugar per person has risen from around 56kg in 1975 to around 71kg in 1999.
The ‘missing’ sugar is lurking in a myriad of foods – soft drinks, convenience foods, many savory snacks, condiments and breakfast cereals. There is a huge amount of hidden sugar being consumed, and our bodies just can’t cope with it.
While consumption of starch foods has decreased slightly, much of what is being consumed are refined, fast-releasing carbohydrates – white bread, white rice, baguettes etc.
The conclusion from the surveys is that sugar and refined carbohydrates are the culprits for the high obesity rate in the West – which makes sense if you consider what these foods do to your blood sugar levels and what effect this has on your weight.
A study done on rats11 clearly illustrates that all calories are not equal in quality, especially when it comes to weight loss. In the study, half the rats were given a high glycemic load (GL) diet, and half were given a low-GL diet. The amount of calories in each diet was exactly the same. The results were quite astonishing – by the end of 32 weeks, the high-GL group were not only 16% heavier, but had gained a massive 40% more body fat! The low-GL group maintained their original weight. Same calories, different results. The experiments have been repeated time and time again with humans – and the results are the same. A calorie, despite what we have believed all these years, is not a calorie is not a calorie! You can lose weight by changing the quality of what you eat, not just the quantity.
Myth 2: You cannot change your metabolism
Your metabolism is the way in which you convert food into energy or fat. Metabolism is partly inherited – some people simply turn food into fat a lot faster than others, for instance. But metabolism is primarily controlled by what you eat and how active you are.
You can speed up your metabolism by changing to a low-GL diet and starting a program of regular exercise that includes aerobic and weight-bearing exercises. The more lean tissue and the less fat you have, the higher your metabolism, as it takes more energy just to keep your body alive.
And you can slow down your metabolism by crash dieting.
Myth 3: Stimulants help you lose weight by reducing your appetite
Caffeine and nicotine do help to reduce appetite. But as we have seen, long-term consumption of stimulants affects your blood sugar control and this is detrimental for weight loss. Blood sugar dips leads to cravings, fatigue and mood swings, and stimulants exacerbate this cycle. The healthiest way to reduce appetite is to control blood sugar levels by eating a low-GL diet.
Myth 4: Slimming pills work
Many slimming pills are based on stimulants and yes, these do help to reduce appetite (as would drinking 10 cups of coffee a day). But again, the question is – what do they do to your blood sugar levels – and ultimately to your long-term physical and mental health? (This includes guarana, a so-called ‘natural’ appetite suppressant, which contains large amounts of caffeine.)
The latest fad is starch or fat blockers. The theory is, if you can’t digest it you can’t gain weight. But having undigested carbohydrate in the colon is very bad for your health. Bacteria and yeast thrive on this, potentially causing gas, pH imbalance and infection in the gut. Fat blockers unfortunately also block essential fatty acids, needed not only by our brains, but almost every cellular activity in the body. The average diet is so deficient in EFA’s that we can ill afford to block what little there is. Again, the best way to get control of your appetite and diet is by eating according to the principles in this website.
Myth 5: A high protein diet sheds calories in your urine
A high protein, low carbohydrate diet forces your body to use the energy from protein and fat instead of carbohydrates. A by-product of this process is a substance called ketones, which are excreted in the urine. The process is called ketosis. Supposedly, because fat and protein are a less efficient fuel than carbohydrates, you can eat more. The thinking is that the body excretes some of the calories of this less efficient fuel as ketones.
These diets have been tried and tested to see what the actual reason for weight loss is, as people do lose weight on them. The reason has found to be because they automatically eat less on high-protein diets – and the reason why they do this, is that high-protein diets help stabilize blood sugar. All the tests show that these Atkins-type diets work, but the results (which are not spectacular), are primarily due to eating less in general, rather than eating fewer carbohydrates. Moreover, there are serious health risks associated with eating a high-protein, low-carb diet. Ketones themselves can be very toxic. The risk of yo-yo dieting weight gain is very high. Lack of fruit and vegetables can lead to nutrient deficiency and constipation. Nausea and tiredness are common complaints. And high-protein diets based on meat and milk potentially increase the risk of bone and kidney problems and breast and prostate cancer.
Incidentally, another problem with high-protein, low carbohydrate diets is the effect they have on our moods. This is due to tryptophan as we saw above, which is what our bodies use to make serotonin, our brain’s ‘happy’ chemical. Serotonin also controls and regulates our appetite. Many people suffer from low-grade depression on low-carbohydrate diets because of this, often without fully realizing it. This explains the common craving of high-protein dieters (especially women) for carbohydrates. Women have much less serotonin in their brains than men, so a serotonin-depleting diet will make women feel irritable. And if the carbohydrate craver eats protein instead, he/she will become grumpy or restless; if he/she eats fatty foods it will make him/her feel tired, lethargic and apathetic. The only solution is to avoid high-protein diets and instead follow the recommendations in this book, not only for weight loss, but also for optimal health, energy and mood.
Myth 6: Don’t eat protein with carbohydrates
These ‘food-combining’ diets are based on the principles of Dr. Hay, a physician writing in the 1930’s. Some of his principles were excellent – eat whole foods, fruits and vegetables; eat fruit separately to other foods as they digest a lot quicker and if trapped with other heavy foods in the stomach, they ferment. But he also advocated eating carbohydrate-rich foods separately from protein-rich foods. However, nature itself does not do this – lentils, beans, nuts and seeds – in fact, most foods – contain both carbohydrate and protein. We have also seen that combining protein with starch helps to slow down the release of sugars into the bloodstream and so helps stabilize blood sugar levels, and hence control weight.
The food-combining technique can be used effectively for a short time to assist in correcting digestive problems, but it has certainly not been shown to be effective in long-term weight control.
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