I always go to Barnes and Noble to see what new books are out and of course during the month of January they always have a big display of diet books up front because of all the people who make losing weight their New Year’s resolution.
I am a sucker for the diet book display. As a matter of fact, I like reading diet books. I like reading diet books because I want to check out the author’s hook. What new gimmick does an author have (or their publishing company have) to get people to buy their gimmicky diet book. The gimmick can’t be “eat less, exercise more,” because you can’t make any money off of that and that is too simplistic and boring. I have pretty much figured out the diet industry. The diet industry does not want people to lose weight. If every body lost weight, they lose a lot of money. So, they must have gimmicks so to speak to keep people buying their product.
But once in a while I will come across a book that just makes me want to buy it and Why Women Need Fat by William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J.C. Gaulin, Ph.D is such a book. This book totally explains how Americans got duped into eating a “low-fat” diet. The authors explain why women have more body fat than men and why women need to eat good quality fats. If any of you read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, he explains how Ancel Keys, a researcher from the University of Minnesota, scared us into thinking that fat was bad for our bodies, especially saturated fat. Lassek and Gaulin discuss this same topic in their book and they have come to the same conclusion Taubes and others have: Ancel Keys research was bad science and Americans have gotten sick, fat, and diabetic because of this terrible dietary advice. Because Ancel Keys gave this horrible advice that people stay away from animal fats (saturated fats) and move towards vegetable oil (made out of soy) and corn oil, we have gotten obese. These oils have caused the obesity problem because they are high in omega-6 fatty acids. Our bodies need more of the omega-3 fats, which comes from fish, eggs, grass-fed beef, flax seeds, walnuts, etc. We use to get a lot of omega-3 fats from beef, pork, chicken but guess what? Back in the 1950′s, the federal government change their food policies and began to subsidize corn and soy. Factory farming of animals, which is now the norm, mainly uses animal feed made out of corn and soy. Corn and soy is high in omega-6. The only way animals can get omega-3 is from eating grass. Another interesting fact that I learned from this book is omega-3 fat makes us thinner by increasing the burning of fat in the body and decreasing the amount of fat we store. It also reduces the amount of insulin in our blood and as many of you know, insulin in the fat storage hormone.
We have to have some omega-6 in our diet but unfortunately Americans get way too much and it is causing a lot health issues. When we eat omega-6 fat, high levels of arachidonic acid is produced in our blood. When there is a high level of arachidonic acid in our blood, our appetites increase. This book list so many detrimental causes of omega-6 that you have to read it for yourself to find out. Just get this: The more omega-3 fats that you consume, the thinner you be. And do not be afraid of real butter, whole fat milk, whole fat cheeses, etc. That is not the cause of yours, mine or any one else’s weight problem. It is the processed junk food that we eat that is full of carbohydrates, sugars and processed oils.
But how does this affect women? Most of us know that women carry extra fat for the preparation of pregnancy and child-birth. According to the authors, women stockpile fat specifically in the hips, thighs, and buttocks area so there is plenty of DHA for their growing baby. Babies and all human beings for that matter require DHA because our brains need it to function and babies need a lot of it to help their brains develop while in utero. Mothers must stockpile this DHA in their fat tissue so when they become pregnant that DHA can be diverted to their growing babies. Yet the mother’s brain still requires DHA. So some DHA is being stored in her fat for her future babies and some is being used for her current needs, which means a human being, especially a female, requires a lot of DHA! The only way one can get DHA is through omega-3 fats.
By the way, process food makers hate omega-3 fats because they go rancid really quick. Omega-6 fats have a very long shelf life. That should tell you something right there.
The human body is going to get this DHA, one way or another. American women have a very high omega-6 and low omega 3 in their diets, which means they have low DHA in their blood and fat tissues. Since American women consume less omega-3 fats and therefore have less DHA, they must store twice the amount of body fat versus women in Japan, where the omega-3 fat consumption is very high, in order to have enough DHA for their future pregnancies. So that is why women are fatter than they were 40 or 50 years ago: We are not eating enough omega-3 fats and too much omega-6. Also, saturated fat from animals was demonized and yet saturated fat from animals keeps us full and satisfied. Yet 100 years ago, women ate way more saturated fat from animals and were thin and there was not heart disease. Presently,women in European countries eat more saturated fat from animals and are on average 20 to 30 pounds thinner than American women. According to the authors, the majority of the saturated fat that Americans eat does not come from animal products, it comes from processed omega-6 vegetable oils. I also read the exact same thing from Dr. Loren Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet, that Americans get the majority of their saturated fat from processed junk foods, not animal products. Think french fries, potato chips, pizza, and cookies.
The authors kind of pooh-poohed the carbohydrate debate, saying that carbs and sugars are not the cause of America’s weight issues. I kind of disagree with that because I think all three things, refine carbohydrates, sugar (high fructose corn syrup) and these processed vegetable oils, are the culprits when you put them all together. Within the last 50 years we took on a bad experiment in the American diet, trying to get people to lower their fat consumption and we all became fatter for it. Women began to work outside of the home and the food industry met the demand for quick, easy to prepare foods. By reading this book, I totally understand the importance of eating “real food.” I do not eat fake fats. The only fats I consume are butter, olive oil and coconut oil. I now understand why potato chips are crap, even though I like a small bag from time to time. So for my readers out there, start eating real food. No more box food. Cook more of your meals at home. No more crappy cereal. Give up the fast food. Fast food is full of trans-fats and omega-6 oils. No more skim and 2% milk. Stop counting calories. Eat high quality, nutritious food and the weight will come off and stay off.
