The Big Fat Myth

I haven't blogged in four days.  I have only been doing this for a couple of weeks and am already hooked enough that four days without blogging about food seems like 4 months.

I have been on a cooking class mission.  I spent the weekend shopping, chopping, dicing, experimenting, prepping, loading, unloading, slicing, sauteing, budgeting, laughing, learning and teaching.  I wish I could have blogged the entire time but am not that talented.  So, I made it a point to find out what the most asked question was and that question would be the topic of my next blog.

That question was..."Why am I allowed to eat so much fat?"
(You have surely noticed the abundance of what are referred to as "good-fats" in my recipes.  And you will never see a "low-fat" or a "no-fat" recipe on this blog.)


The answer is not a short one, and to hear the answer you have to be open-minded.  I strongly feel that what this country has been taught for the last few decades about fat is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I think that we as a country are finally beginning to understand that the low-fat, no-fat way of doing things has made this country what it is....fat and sick.

Let's look at some statistics!

This map from the CDC breaks my heart.  And it says something very important to me.  What we are doing, in my opinion is not working.  I think we as Americans were brainwashed into thinking that eating a diet low in fat would make us thin.  I don't think we realized that taking fat out of our foods would mean that in order for it to taste good, food manufacturers would begin to add things like sugar, high fructose corn syrup, fake chemical sweeteners and chemical taste enhancers.  It would appear that a steady diet of these things makes our country fatter than fat does.

Think about it.  How long have we had problems in this country with childhood obesity and diabetes in such epic proportions?  These are fairly new epidemics...they certainly were not around in our grandparent's time.  Yes, our processed, high sugar, high grain (which turns to sugar immediately), processed chemical and manufactured diet appears to have taken it's toll and unfortunately I fear our young ones are paying the high price.

And they will continue to do so until we change it!

 So back to the question: "Why am I allowed to eat so much fat?"

I am not pointing a finger.  I asked this question myself, and am I ever glad that I did.

This answer came from my Chiropractor, Dr. Narrell.  It went like this.

"Fat does not make people fat.  The inability to burn fat makes people fat.  What makes us unable to burn fat?  When we have trained our body to burn only sugar.  How do we train our body to burn only sugar (the wrong energy source)?  When we eat a no fat-low fat diet and force our bodies to burn sugar for energy.  Your body can only burn one thing for energy and it's choices are fat or sugar.  People who are overweight are 'stuck' in sugar-burning mode.  This is plan B or an emergency back up plan ONLY.  Forcing your body to burn sugar for energy causes two things...weight gain and inflammation which causes the body to not function properly and this will eventually cause disease."

And that is the answer...in a nutshell of course!

This is why eating "good-fats" is so important to me.  Additionally, from what I have read, I personally feel that my son needs a lot of "good-fats" for his developing brain.  I can tell when my family eats good fats instead of bad fats and sugar. We have more energy, our skin looks better, our thinking process is smoother, and we feel over-all healthier. 

Please, do your own research on this.  I think you will find that "good-fats" are maybe the most misunderstood food category in the American diet.

Here is a short list of sources of good-fat:
Avocados
Nuts and Nut Butters
Coconut
Olive Oil
Coconut Oil
Butter
Flax seed oil
Seeds
Raw dairy