Eat more saturated fat and lose weight faster
Affirmative: Eating more unsaturated fats is good for weight loss
The advice on fat has shifted from "eat less fat" to "eat the right fat", and fat has been labeled as "good" and "bad". Good fats are unsaturated fats found in some foods such as olive oil and avocado, as well as unsaturated fats found in sunflower and corn oil, and omega- 3 fatty acids found in salmon and walnuts. Both types of fat are recognized by everyone. They have been shown to lower blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease.
Doubt: Eating saturated fat will definitely make you fat?
There is a case in the United States. A girl named Sally is a slender girl. She buys frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, eats grilled chicken instead of steak, and eats low-fat cheese and low-fat biscuits. She has a family history of high cholesterol, and her own cholesterol is a little out of the healthy range. She believes it is wise to limit saturated fat. But her mind changed. She started eating foods rich in saturated fat and eating unrestricted. However, during a recent check-up, she was surprised to find that her total cholesterol had dropped 10 points, her "bad" LDL cholesterol had also dropped, and her "good" HDL was at an all-time high. Besides, she hadn't gained any weight. How was that possible?
Saturated fat is listed as a "eat less" blacklist
We have always been told that saturated fat is the bad fat. In the 1950s, it was believed that saturated fat found in meat, dairy products, and some plant products increased our total cholesterol levels and the likelihood of heart disease and obesity.
Trans fats, found in packaged goods and fast food, are another bad guy. They not only increase our LDL cholesterol, but also lower our HDL cholesterol. They help sweep away the bad cholesterol from our bodies.
Some experts recommend limiting your saturated fat intake to less than 7% of your food. If you eat 2000 calories a day, that's 16 grams or about a chocolate shake. Also, your trans fat intake should not exceed 2 grams per day.
Confirmation: Saturated fat is vindicated
1. Reduce saturated fat and double the calories
We all seem to know that reducing fat intake from our diet will lead us to lose weight. In fact, on the contrary, because fat-free biscuits, cheese and biscuits lack the fat that makes us feel full, we eat one or two times more portions than usual. Because manufacturers put extra sugar in these foods to make them taste better, we consume more calories. In fact, it is the "low-fat" of food that has led to the proliferation of high-sugar, refined carbohydrates and high-calorie foods on the market. It really backfires.
Eating less saturated fat doesn't seem to help you lose weight either. A study found that people with low carbohydrates in foods, even if they consume more saturated fat, lose weight faster and have better cholesterol levels than those who eat low-fat foods. This may be because people who eat less carbohydrates release less insulin, which may reduce fat storage, control hunger, affect metabolism, and help control cholesterol.
2. Replacing saturated fat is also difficult to protect you from getting fat
Researchers have found that reducing saturated fat doesn't make a big difference if you consider what people replace it with. Replacing animal fats with vegetable oils, for example, using soybean oil instead of butter-appears to reduce cholesterol levels and disease risk. But if you replace saturated fat with refined carbohydrates, your fat concentration may increase, but your good HDL cholesterol may decrease. A high concentration of fat makes you more likely to become fat, and you are more likely to suffer from heart disease. At the same time, your body's metabolism will be disrupted, causing your waistline to soar and turn into central obesity.
3. Is saturated fat really "unhealthy"?
Saturated fat has been criticized by the medical community for decades. However, scientists have found that there is not enough evidence to link saturated fat with heart disease or stroke. This is not the first time this fat has been proven innocent. Four years ago, the Women's Health Study found that consuming less saturated fat did not lead to a lower risk of heart disease or stroke.
Researchers say there are earlier clues that saturated fat is not the culprit. This decades-old "diet-heart disease hypothesis", that saturated fat is bad for the heart, is mainly based on animal studies and short-term trials, looking only at people's cholesterol levels rather than whether they actually have heart disease.