It all started in the late 1970’s. Scientists released their findings about the inherent damage that the regular consumption of fats in our modern diet was a prescription for dietary disaster!
The low-fat/non-fat marketing race was on!
With fats as the boogeyman of heart disease and premature death, popular foods were reformulated to conform to a reduced fat or fat-free form in order to be considered part of the diet of anyone trying to eat a healthy diet. Banished were the fats and we saw refined grains and sugars take their place in foodstuffs. As we can see in hindsight, it was this reliance on refined foods that has created the burgeoning Health crisis of chronic diseases like Diabetes.
Modern scientists are now examining the studies that gave fat this bad reputation and they are finding that many of the conclusions were flawed. Taken with current studies showing the beneficial effects of fats in a balanced diet and Science is giving us a green light to consume these tasty macromolecules guilt free once again!
Not a license to deep-fry everything but by reintroducing fats into your diet, you can trade out some of the empty calories of those problematic refined foods for tastes that include some nutritional value.
All good cooks appreciate the powerful flavoring effect that fats have in dishes. Cultural cuisines, like French cooking, rely on dense fats like butter and cream as regular parts of their food preparation. The paradox has always been that the French, a culture that uses fats so abundantly in their cooking, yet the population expresses a lower incidence of heart disease.
When looking at animal sources of fats, cholesterol also factors in the dietary picture because dietary cholesterol is generally obtained through meat sources – not vegetables. But even this dietary cholesterol is starting to be viewed more favorably these days. The direct connections of cholesterol with life threatening diseases are now also being questioned.
What to make of this new information?
Dietary fats, whether from fish, beef, dairy, or vegetable oil sources (LOTS of flavors to choose from here) all have a place in your healthy diet. Fats serve as energy sources that fuel vital metabolic processes within your body.
As espoused by many of us in Holistic Health Care, a program of “things in moderation” is a terrific approach to dietary and lifestyle choices.
Since fats are dense calories (9 calories per gram), your dietary proportion needs to be only about 20 – 30% of your total calories but considering the tremendous complexities of flavors that fat brings to food, you will not be depriving yourself of any wonderful tastes. (Or as Emeril Legasse put it, “It’s a pork fat thing.”)
So don’t let the fat content of food be the overriding concern it once was. Taken in proportion to proteins and carbohydrates, you’re still eating a Healthy diet. Enjoy more of the flavors that Life has to offer!
“Pasta doesn’t make you fat. How much pasta you eat makes you fat.”
– Giada De Laurentiis
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