Fat is no longer the enemy these days.
What we need to be doing is eating more fat and less processed breads, pasta, and crackers. Paleo or Primitive type of diets emphasize (proper/good) fat and protein as the main source of your food intake along with raw fruits, veggies, nuts or cooked veggies to.
There are basically two ways eating more fat will help you to lose fat..
1. Fats keep you more satisfied and fuller for longer periods of time so you eat less overall.
2. As you eat more fats and fewer carbs your body goes into a more efficient and preferred way of burning stored fat for energy.
It might seem weird at first when you are faced with a decision of whether or not to have a small snack bag of pretzels vs. an apple with 2 tablespoons of almond butter. We need to look at the quality of food instead of focusing so much on calories. The snack bag of pretzels most likely has around 100 calories and 0 fat grams. The apple and almond butter has approximately 250 calories and 16 grams of fat. The difference is your body recognizes the apple and almond butter as REAL food and starts to get to work. When the pretzels are eaten the body takes on a different response almost as to “what is this?” and triesto process the fake food.
When you eat fat as part of your meal, it can actually slow down your food absorption so that you can go longer without feeling hungry. So if you ate the bag of pretzels it got digested, spiked your blood sugar, had pretty much zero nutrients and now your hungry again 1 hr later. The apple and almond butter is probably still digesting, full of nutrients, fiber, and fats and will keep you full so you don’t need another snack. In the long run you actually will end up eating fewer calories throughout the day.Fats are fulfilling, hearty, and satisfying and your body really craves and needs good fats. These fats include the fatty acid conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), found in grass-fed beef and full-fat dairy products from grass-fed cows (butter, milk, cheese, etc.). Omega 3 fats found in flax seed, hemp, nuts, and fish. Even saturated fats found in meat, dairy, certain oils, and coconut are used as a source of fuel during energy expenditure. Be careful there are certain fats to avoid and may hurt weight loss efforts and these are corn oil, canola oil, soy oil, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, margarine, and shortening.
As you eat more fat and less carbs from breads, crackers, cereals and processed foods your body gets more efficient at using up fat and stored fat for fuel. According to Mark Sisson at Marks Daily Apple human metabolism is pre-programmed by evolution to be primarily fat-based (the real preferred fuel). In other words, our genes expect us to function optimally when we consume fats and can easily access our stored fat. So here is how you can put your plan into action.- At each meal you can try to replace a grain carbohydrate with a fat. For example for breakfast you can make coconut flour pancakes instead of white flour for the kids or scramble your eggs in some grass-fed butter and eat some humanely raised pastured pork sausage in place of toast. You will notice you stay fuller longer and may not need to even snack.
- Lunch options can be tuna salad mixed with olive oil and lemon over greens instead of sandwich bread or a large greens salad with hard-boiled egg, bacon, and grated raw milk cheese with homemade dressing instead of a BLT sandwich. Once you start doing this it becomes easier and effortless. Most children can easily adjust to this way of eating especially if their parents are leading the way!
- Eating good quality fats in place of processed carbs will also keep little tummies fuller longer which leads to less snacking. If you have a child who is struggling with their weight this simple switch can jump start the body to burn fat.
