Living Off the Fat of the Land

Image by {link url=”http://www.janabouc.com” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”}Jana Bouc{/link}

Happy New Year to all! I thought I would kick off 2012 with one of my really out-there thoughts on food: namely, that a diet based on low fat food is pointless, counter-productive and basically barking up the wrong tree. Heresy, I know. Gentle readers, allow me to exercise my inner Cassandra for a moment as we explore the myth that low fat food is a good thing.

First of all, I’m not talking about naturally low fat food such as fruits and vegetables, which are great. I am talking about modern, factory processed low fat food: low fat yogurt, skim milk, low fat cookies, low fat bread, soup, salad dressing, low fat-you-name-it, including my personal nomination for most surreal food in the supermarket — fat free half and half (have you read the ingredient list?)

If you have taken one of my classes, you will have heard me explain that fat molecules carry flavor. Based on years of observation as a cook, I believe that when the taste buds are saturated with flavor, we stop eating. Conversely, we are apt to eat more (lots more) of something that has little or no flavor or only one flavor – – salty or sweet for example. (Have you ever eaten an entire bowl of popcorn or plowed through a stack of rice cakes?) Our taste buds cannot send us the stop eating message when our food has no fat and consequently no flavor. The right kind of fat, properly used in the kitchen, is an ally not only in cooking but in healthy eating.

Okay, by now, I guess you are all thinking that I’ve been drinking too many of those green smoothies! I understand; eschewing low fat foods is a novel idea when you consider that for the past 30 years public health officials, dieticians, nutritionists, doctors, magazine editors, cookbook authors and others have been telling us to embrace them. Some of you may need more data points on this topic.

Here is a data point to consider: since the low-fat public health initiative of the 1980’s, the CDC reports that US rates of obesity have doubled in adults over 20 and tripled for children ages 12 to 19. Our meat has gotten leaner, and we are drinking much less whole milk and more low fat milk, but we are still ingesting more calories. Yet people still believe that fat is the culprit.

The low-fat public health campaign has been SO successful that it is often difficult to find full fat food at the grocery store. Interestingly, at the same time, portion sizes have grown enormous. I think this supports my contention that, without flavor, we overeat. We are feeding our nation huge plates of salt- and- sugar-laden-refined-white-flour stuff…but it’s okay because they are low in fat. REALLY? A few years back I was having a conversation with a highly intelligent woman whose 7 year old child was underweight. It went something like this:

Me: Why don’t you give her whole milk if you are worried about her weight?
Mother: Oh no, the doctor says that will give her high cholesterol. I give her ginger ale instead. It’s low fat, but the calories help keep her weight up.

This conversation parallels, in essence, what the entire country has been doing: giving up nutrient rich fats and replacing them with sugar. I’m often reminded of a sketch from the irreverent British TV show, Little Britain. In one of the Fat Fighters skits, one character says “Darlin’, it has ‘alf the calories, so you can eat twice as much!” Indeed, we have been eating not only twice as much, but often three or four times as much of low fat foods.

Enough comedy (tragi-comedy if you consider the consequences), here is another data point: Walter Willet, Chair of the Department of Nutrition at The Harvard School of Public Health and his fellow faculty members at HSPH presented the following findings at a conference in January 2011:

“Dozens of studies have found that low fat diets are no better for health than moderate or high fat diets — and for many people, may be worse.”

“… it’s a myth that eating high fat foods makes people fat…Over the past 30 years in the U.S., the percentage of calories from fat has actually gone down, but obesity rates have skyrocketed.”

“Carefully-conducted clinical trials find that following a low fat diet doesn’t make it any easier to lose weight or keep it off. In fact, study volunteers who follow moderate or high fat diets lose just as much weight, and in some studies a bit more, as those who follow low fat diets.”

“Eating unsaturated fat in place of refined grains and sugar can improve blood cholesterol profiles and lower triglycerides, and in turn, lower the risk of heart disease.”

You get the idea, I’m sure, but I encourage you to read the entire text of this presentation by clicking here. I love it when common sense and science agree.

This is a complex issue; numbers of brilliant scientists are trying to figure this all out. In the meantime you want to know WHAT TO EAT! I am not suggesting that we all run off and eat french fries or doughnuts, especially since so few of us run anywhere, let alone walk anywhere for that matter. The point I’m trying to make is this: It is not how much fat you eat, but what type of fat.

I’ve highlighted some healthy fats in this post my basic rule of thumb is that if it comes from a fish or a plant it is probably okay, as long as humans haven’t messed with it too much by hydrogenating it and the like. Thumbs up for olive oil, avocados, nuts and nut oils, seeds, etc. Mixed reviews for a number of additional fats like Canola oil.  Also, personally, I shy away from corn and soybean oil since so much of the corn and soybean in this country is from GMO crops. Finally, when I use dairy, I use whole milk from grass fed cows as well as butter, cream, and whole fat yogurt. I use the whole egg (BANISH those nasty egg white omlettes!), but I try to be sensible about how and when I use these sources of saturated fat.