Healthy Dieting

Did you ever begin a weight loss diet only to discover you were overcome by chronic fatigue and constant hunger? This is probably because you were following a low-fat regime. Low-fat diets are notorious for being virtually impossible to keep to for long, since low- fat foods just do not satisfy. These diets can also be dangerous. Since so many of your body’s tissues, hormones and all of its cells are dependent on a good supply of essential fats, a low-fat regime undermines your overall health. And it doesn’t enhance your good looks – those fatty acid deficiencies also cause your body to age prematurely.

Throw Out The Junk

It may seem bizarre to lose weight by eating fat. Yet that’s how it works – as long as you’re eating the right essential fatty acids, in the right proportions. We’ll be looking at all that in detail below, but first, an overview of the ones to avoid on the X Factor Diet.

Diets high in the wrong fats are just as harmful as low-fat regimes. Margarines and the golden vegetable oils you see lined up on supermarket shelves are claimed to be good for us. Yet in the Western world, where 45 per cent of our calories come from fats, fatty acid deficiencies are rampant. Why? Because all those oils and `healthy’ margarines are actually junk fats that the body can’t use. And if the body isn’t getting the fats it needs, the results can be horrendous:

• Obesity
• Dry skin and eczema PM S
• Arthritis
• Emotional and behavioural problems Raised cholesterol levels
• Suppressed immunity
• Premature ageing
• Heart disease
• Sterility in men

For generations we have been told that fat is unhealthy. Fats are surrounded by false beliefs. A major one is that the Western diet has increased dramatically in saturated fat over the last century. In fact, the reverse is true.

What has increased is the percentage of fats we are taking in in the form of refined vegetable oils, margarines and junk fats through processed foods. Consumption of these has increased 400 per cent during the same period. It is time to banish our fear of fats. It is also time we became more aware of the fats that can help Ketogenics and Insulin Balance work their wonders, and the fats you need to avoid. This is a complex issue, for each fat is unique. A few even have a capacity to spur fat burning. So bear with me as we wind our way through the labyrinth of fat biochemistry. It is a valuable side trip on your journey towards a lean body.

Saturated and Unsaturated

Fat is a macronutrient which exerts little effect on insulin levels, but which strongly decreases appetite. Provided you are getting the right kind of fats in your diet, they can rebalance hormones and re-orient how you look and feel, thanks to their effects on important regulatory chemicals in the body called prostaglandins.

Fats can be divided roughly into two groups – saturated and unsaturated. In a molecule of saturated fat, each carbon atom is connected to a hydrogen atom in such a way that none of the carbon can connect with other atoms. Because of this, saturated fats – found in meat, dairy products like cheese, ice cream, milk and tropical oils like palm kernel oil and coconut oil – are stable, relatively inactive and virtually inert in your body. There are exceptions to this, however, and we’ll look at these later. The raison d’éire of most saturated fats is to provide energy which can be stored in the body’s fat cells and used later.

Unsaturated fats are very different. They are found in foods of vegetable origin like nuts, seeds, grains and vegetables, although some of the most health-giving oils are also found in fish and game. Unlike saturated fats such as butter, which are solid, unsaturated fats come in liquid form. According to classical nutrition, only two unsaturated fatty acids are necessary for human health – linoleic and alpha-linolenic acids – so these are called ‘essential‘ fatty acids. These two types of fatty acid are actually families – our old friends omega-3 and omega-6. Alpha-linolenic acid is head of the omega-3 family, while linoleic acid is head of the omega-6 family.

They are the fundamental nuts and bolts that your body uses to structure the brain, eyes, ears, reproductive organs and cell membranes that surround and protect every cell in your body. Without them, you would not be able to move a muscle. You could not think, see or hear. Essential fatty acids are also needed for your body to make hormone-like chemicals called prostaglandins. Critical to cellular functioning in the body, a good balance of prostaglandins helps your body resist illness – from arthritis and ulcers to migraines and cancer. It also supports the working of your immune, reproductive and central nervous systems and your heart. Finally, prostaglandins regulate brain chemicals – neurotransmitters – which are themselves created out of essential fatty acids.

Fat Burners

Omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids – in the right balance – can help your body shed fat stores in at least three different ways:

They increase metabolic rate and fat metabolism so more of your stored fat can be burnt as energy.

M They influence the production of prostaglandins in subtle but powerful ways favourable to fat burning.

They increase your cells’ sensitivity to insulin, which allows it to do its job of regulating blood sugar.

At the Garvin Institute of Medical Research in New South Wales, Australia, Dr Leonard Storlien and his team discovered that the omega-3 fatty acids – prevalent in fish oils and also in flaxseed – improve insulin levels and increase your body’s ability to use both fats and carbohydrates as fuel. So dramatic was the effect of the omega-3s on insulin that they are now used to prevent insulin resistance and diabetes in animals prone to both conditions.

Your body needs a balance of omega-3 and omega-6 to maintain health and normal weight. Palaeopathologists have determined that our distant ancestors consumed omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in a 1:1 to 2:1 ratio. In other words, these essential fats were eaten in relatively equal quantities.

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