Ok so with my clean eating etc I have found out some interesting things about food etc and thought I'd share some of that too. This is a sample of the information that Ashy Bines has shared so I make no claim that I researched it or it is my own information.
Here’s The Skinny On Fat
Fat…
This is one of the areas of nutrition that produces the most debate. Our food guide pyramid makes fat into the “Bad Guy” and as a result, most people are scared of it. Until our clients and readers come to us, they are under the common misconception that fat is out to ruin their bodies and their health! This is simply because they do not understand the role of fat in our diet or how it contributes to optimal health and well-being.
So…
We are going to clear things up for you right now. Fat is the only macronutrient (the other macronutrients are protein and carbohydrates), that does not effect your insulin AT ALL. In fact, it actually can assist in regulating blood sugar and insulin, which results in less fat storage for you! Fat also stimulates certain hormones in your body that will help to keep you feeling full as well as decrease your cravings.
Vitamins like A, D, E, and K, are absorbed best in the presence of fat, so once again, fat IS required to absorb the nutrients our bodies need to function optimally. If you add a little bit of good fats such as organic butter (REAL butter, NOT margarine or any other fake butter), or olive oil ( a personal favorite of mine) to your veggies, you will absorb the vitamins they provide much more effectively. Be careful when taking vitamin A, D, E, and K supplements however. These are liposoluble vitamins, and if you take too much of any one of these, you can become toxic in the body because they can be stored in the body unlike water soluble vitamins.
Let’s talk about some other fun facts about fat.
- Fat is an essential part of our cell membranes and it helps in the detoxification process.
- Good fat sources contain a number antioxidants
- If you eat a diet that is at least 30% made of good fats, you will have healthy sex hormone levels
- When you increase your fat intake, there is an increase in testosterone as a result, which always means
LESS body fat for the consumer!
- Not enough fat in the diet will basically decrease a man’s ability to perform sexually and it also lowers a
woman’s sex drive and vitality. (No Fun!!)
If you want to know if your diet contains 30% of good fat, it’s important for you to know your total caloric intake each day and how many calories you are consuming from fat on each day. Calorie King is a great resource for stuff like this. It is an online calculator that helps you with all your calorie calculations. It’s very cool J
We NEED Omega 3 fats for our brains to function optimally. DHA is a good source of this for our brains. EPA is another Omega 3 that helps with inflammation, which again, we NEED. Inflammation is known as “The Silent Killer.” It is one of the leading causes of disease and death in the world today because we rarely know when we are under it‘s attack until it‘s too late. EPA also helps lubricate the joints and reduces inflammation in injuries for faster recovery an minimizing pain. The amount each o us need is bio-individual, but typically around 4000mg of high quality Omega 3 (combined DHA and EPA) from fish oil per day is an effective amount. These types of Omega 3’s also increase the basal metabolic rate, helping you to burn more calories overall throughout the day. As you provide your body with proper amounts of high quality Omega 3 fats, it become efficient in using fat for fuel, and as a result, you grow stronger and leaner because you increase muscle and decrease body fat at a faster rate.
So these are just a few of the amaaazing benefits of good fat consumption. Honestly, we could go on all day talking about the many more good things fat has to offer your health and fat loss. However, for purposes of this article I am going to summarize.
Now, there are definitely some not so good things about eating fat. First of all, make sure you know the difference between good fat and bad fat. Trans fat is an example of bad fat. It is the WORST fat, and illegal in more and more countries and cities now, due to it’s disease causing properties. Trans fat is also known as hydrogenated fat. If it’s on your food label…throw it away right now! Hydrogenated means that they have added hydrogen atoms to the natural fat, which changes it from it’s purest form. Food companies began doing this because it helped food last longer and taste a bit better. The flip side of that was people began getting sick, obese, and dying.
It has been said that if you eat trans fat, or hydrogenated oils, you will gain a 1/3 inch on your waist line PER YEAR! This is shocking isn’t it? Especially because trans fat is everywhere! It’s hidden in cakes, snacks, cookies, margarine, and almost every fried food. Yep…the French fries and packaged snacks have to go BU-BYE.
The typical Western diet promotes lots of Omega 6 fats vs. Omega 3 fats. Omega 6 fats are not bad necessarily, unless you are consuming much more of these than Omega 3’s. When Omega 6’s totally outbalance Omega 3’s, it creates metabolic disaster in our bodies. A health ratio of Omega 6:Omega 3 should be in the range of 4-2:1, whereas some experts report that the predominant Western diet has a ratio of 40:1.
The main source of Omega 6 in our diets usually comes from vegetable derived oils like canola. Rather than using vegetable oil, change it up and use organic REAL butter, macadamia oil, and use Omega 3 supplements to support a healthy metabolism and body. This will also go a long way in correcting the out of balance ratio between Omega 6 and Omega 3 in your diet.
A good place to get your fat sources are from smaller fish. Larger fish such as swordfish, tuna, and shark, all tend to contain higher levels of mercury than the smaller varieties.
Some other great sources of Omega 3’s are ground flax seeds, a mixture of different kinds of nuts (except peanuts which are actually a legume), avocado oil, olive oil, macadamia oil, coconut meat and avocados.
Most NATURAL occurring fats are good sources to add into you daily food intake. As you can see now, fat is not the “Bad Guy” the food guide pyramid makes it out to be. It just really comes down to what types of fat you are eating. Fat has far too much for you to benefit from for you to not take me seriously and begin adding it into your lifestyle plan.
So…
Have you begun to heal your relationship with fat? As you choose to nourish and nurture your body with high quality, natural sources of fat, your body will repay you ten fold. You will feel better, think more clearly, have more energy, reduce your body fat, increase your strength and lean muscle tissue, and avoid health risks such as cancer, heart disease, and hormonal imbalances.
Next time you hold a package of something in your hand, I want you to make a conscious effort to look at the nutrition label. Yes, that’s right, actually LOOK at how many grams of sugar are in what you are about to eat.
The first step to changing something is becoming aware of the consequences of your actions.
Divide the number of grams of sugar by 4, and you will know how many teaspoons of straight up SUGAR you’re consuming by having that little snack in a pack. Scary isn’t it? Would you actually take 4 teaspoons of sugar by themselves and eat them?
I get this question all the time. “How does sugar make me fat if there is no fat in it?” First of all, let’s be clear, processed sugar DOES make you fat and fat-free foods are loaded with sugar. Therefore fat-free foods are fattening. The joke is on us, or at least those of us who are uneducated about this.
First of all, you should know that sugar isn’t inherently evil. Our bodies use sugar for survival, and they burn sugar to provide us with the energy that is necessary for life. Many whole, natural, and healthy foods are actually broken down to sugar in the body- through the conversion of long and complex sugars called polysaccharides into simple sugars called monosaccharide’s, such as glucose. In addition to the breakdown products of fat and protein, glucose is a great energy source for your body. This means that your body needs fat, protein, and glucose to function optimally.
However, sugar can and WILL sabotage your body if you misunderstand it.
One problem that is fairly common, is that people tend to eat more fuel than the body actually needs.
This is VERY easy to do when you eat processed, packaged foods that contain high amounts of sugar content and artificial ingredients. These packaged and artificial flavored foods are a huge issue and one of the major causes of obesity. The massive amount of hidden calories coupled with the lack of knowledge the people have, are a recipe for overweight, sick, and unhealthy lives. This is mostly because by the time you eat enough of these low quality foods to feel full, you’ve already consumed way more sugars and calories than your body can possibly use, not to mention having also put ingredients into your body that it has no idea what to do with.
Anytime you fill your body with more fuel, or sugar than it actually needs, your liver’s sugar storage capacity is exceeded. When the liver is maximally full, the excess sugar is converted by the liver into fatty acids (that’s right - FAT!) and returned to the bloodstream, where it’s taken throughout your body and stored as FAT, wherever you tend to store it, such as the stomach, thighs, hips, butt, and breasts.
Unfortunately, once you store enough fat in those regions, and you cannot store anymore there, the fat will begin to spill over into your organs, such as your heart, liver, and kidneys. This makes for a weak and sick body, and an ineffective metabolism, and a really unhappy mood. I am not kidding! This will literally reduce your organs ability, raise your blood pressure, decrease your metabolism, and weaken your immune system.
NOT IDEAL! Don’t you agree?
Whilst you must be educated about all of the above, you should also be aware of another major reason for how sugar makes you fat.
EXCESS INSULIN.
Insulin is a major hormone in the body, and is released in high levels anytime you take in certain types of foods. These "certain types of foods" can also be referred to as SIMPLE SUGARS. Some examples of simple sugars are things such as fruit juices (unless they are freshly squeezed or juiced straight from the fruit/vegetable), white bread (most wheat breads are just darker versions of white bread because they may have a tiny bit more fiber in them), white rice (because the brown shell has been removed which is why brown rice has more fiber and vitamins and nutrients, whereas white rice is just the white carbohydrate inside the brown shell), white potato, bagels, croissants, pretzels, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, waffles, corn chips, cornflakes, cake, jelly beans, sugary drinks, Gatorade, beer, and anything that has high fructose corn syrup on the label.
Two actions occur when the insulin levels are spiked. First, the body will immediately shut down it's fat burning process, so it can use the newly ingested sugar for energy. It cannot burn fat AND use the sugar at the same time. Then, the insulin will attempt to balance out your blood sugar by carrying all the sugar into your muscles. However, since most of us already have pretty full muscles, meaning there is not much extra room for new glucose to be stored, there will be an excess of glucose with no place to go. Anytime there is excess glucose, or sugar, the body will have no other option but to store it as FAT. Whatever you cannot use, will become FAT. Since we are all already carrying around unused energy, the last thing we need is an excess of more, unless of course you enjoy watching your waistline grow thicker??
But that's not all.
Once the insulin does it's job, and gets the blood sugar to lower by taking the sugar to the muscles or storing it as fat in the liver, then the feedback mechanism that tells the body to stop producing insulin becomes delayed. This means blood sugar levels continue to fall lower, which ends up taking the blood sugar in the opposite direction than the sugar was taking it, and it drops below normal measurements. So the body experiences a spike in blood sugar after we eat the sugar-filled foods, then the insulin gets released in high amounts in an attempt to lower the blood sugar. Therefore the insulin takes the sugar to the muscles and then takes the left overs to the fat stores in the liver. As a result the blood sugar goes from too high, to too low which then causes two things:
1) You will immediately become hungry again, because that is the natural response to low blood sugar. So this will most likely cause you to eat more.
2) It will cause the production of a stress hormone called Cortisol.
Cortisol triggers the release of stored sugar from the liver to bring blood sugar levels back up, which, combined with the meal you eat from your appetite increase (the result we just mentioned in #1, from the blood sugar dropping too low and the hunger following so you eat to get it back up again.), begins the entire "fat storage, metabolic decrease" process over again. So you enter a vicious cycle of eating, blood sugar spikes, insulin gets released, sugar gets shuttled to muscles and stored as fat in the liver, blood sugar drops too low, you eat again because your hunger comes in an attempt to balance out the blood sugar, cortisol is released, blood sugar spikes too high again, and insulin gets released, and so on. It's a disastrous cycle.
This process of destabilizing blood sugar levels and sending your body on a roller
coaster ride can occur throughout an entire day, week, or month. The excessive
cortisol that accumulates in the body eventually distresses your hormonal system
and results in other problems, including a further decrease in metabolism, obesity,
depression, allergies, immune weakness, chronic fatigue syndrome and other
serious side effects.
So what kind of carbohydrates can you eat to avoid de-stabilizing blood sugar
levels, constantly sabotaging your weight loss, and spending hundreds of thousands
of dollars in health care as you get older?
Here is a list of carbohydrates do not trigger such a strong insulin response and instead provide long-term, stabilized energy:
Apples, oranges, pears, plums, grapes, bananas (not overly ripened), grapefruit, oatmeal, brown rice, whole wheat spaghetti and egg fettuccine, whole- wheat pasta, bran cereal, barley, bulgur, basmati, Kashi and other whole grains, beans, peas (especially chick and black-eyed), lentils, whole corn, sweet potatoes, yams, milk, yogurt (preferably low-fat or fat-free) and soy.
Again, stay away from processed and packaged foods as much as possible, because they are highly likely to include artificial sweeteners (which basically have a similar effect as sugar), as well as simple and refined sugars. Keep your eye out for ingredients that include sucrose, maltose, dextrose, fructose, galactose, glucose, arabinose, ribose, xylose,
deoxyribose, lactose, and other fake names for sugars. Even "healthy" juice and
many health food products will need to be avoided if they contain high levels of
sugar.
Remember, the goal of eating healthy is to feel great, to have an even amount of energy throughout your day, to give you the life force you need to be the best you can be, to live a happy and joyful life, and to bring vitality into your life experience. Eating foods that are in their most natural state, will be the most supportive of long-term health and happiness.
So, what healthy thoughts, actions, and experiences will you choose to have today? Your optimal well-being is in your hands. Here's to your happiest body and most healthy life!
