Food for Life 20

Fats and Your Heart 4
Trans fats and your heart
Trans fats are more harmful to your health than saturated fats because they not only raise LDL cholesterol but also lower HDL cholesterol levels.

Fat is a concentrated source of calories—it has nine calories per gram, compared with four calories per gram for proteins and carbohydrates.

This means that small amounts of fatty foods pack a lot of calories.

But simply reducing fat intake does not guarantee weight loss. Not if you don’t feel full, and start eating everything in sight. So as with all things, there must be balance.

Weight is ultimately determined by the total number of calories you consume—whether they come from fats, carbohydrates, or proteins —and the total number of calories expended by your metabolism, daily activity, and exercise. Overeating even fat-free foods can result in weight gain.

People assumed fat-free meant it was good for you, but the products they were eating were often packed full of unhealthful ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup.

Simply put, fat makes you feel full, and fat makes food taste better. If you take out the fat, you need to make it taste better somehow, and that is where the high sugar comes in. It can be no coincidence that obesity and Type 2 diabetes are at epidemic proportions in the US after only a few years of a so-called fat-free diet.

Nevertheless, a low-fat diet that is low in calories and combined with regular exercise will help you maintain an appropriate weight—and lose weight if necessary. Remember that it only takes 2000 extra calories to put on a pound, but 3,500 to take one off.

Weight loss is the most effective way to lower elevated triglyceride levels. It also helps to increase HDL cholesterol. Weight loss is also a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, and a weight loss of as little as 5–10 lbs may lower blood pressure enough to make blood pressure medication unnecessary.

We have also discovered in recent research that fat is not a harmless substance that just sits in our bodies, but can actually release toxins in our system, causing disease, interfering with our feeling of being satisfied when we eat, and more.

These chemical side effects of fat cannot be underestimated, even if we are just beginning to understand them. These new discoveries of the releasing of these harmful chemicals could well be the key to helping explain why Americans are  now more obese than ever despite all of the foods, and dietary and nutrition advice we are surrounded by every day.

The many factors that affect weight control, as well as healthy strategies for losing weight, are discussed in detail in at our sister website Weight Loss Goddess, http://www.weightloss-goddess.com

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Author: cs

Carolyn Stone has been working in consumer health publishing and women’s interest publishing for over 22 years. She is the author of more than 200 guides and courses designed to help readers transform their lives through easy action steps. In her spare time, she is actively involved in fostering children and pets.