The Fat You Eat is the Fat You Wear – Dr. John McDougall.
Another common saying is “From Your Lips to Your Hips”.
Are either of these sayings true to you? Probably because that is exactly what your body is supposed to do with fat…. store it.
Fat is nothing more than ‘stored energy’. It’s a way for us to set some energy aside so we can ride out that long winter.
Think about animals that hibernate. What do they do right before they finally bed down? They eat – a lot. A black bear can gain up to 30 pounds a week during its pre-hibernation eating binge. They need those extra calories to survive the long, cold, winter.
That’s what fat is for. To store that energy – for those tough times when there is no food readily available.
Because fat IS an energy source for many animals, including us humans. But for us it’s a secondary energy source, after carbohydrates.
Burning fat for energy was designed to be a backup system for us, to help us when times were rough and food was hard to come by.
But today in 2018, we really don’t need to worry so much about those long winters without food. But our bodies don’t know that – so it still continues to what it was designed to do.
Which is store fat.
Effortlessly.
In fact your doctor could take a biopsy of fat cells from your abdomen and tell you exactly what kind of fat you’ve been eating….
- Trans fat? You probably like junky processed foods.
- Monounsaturated Fats? You probably like your Olive Oil or Avocados.
- Saturated Fats? You probably love your meat and dairy.
- Omega 3s? You like your fish.
Isn’t that wild? It’s not only effortless, but the fat doesn’t even change….. It’s like a door in your cells open up and that fat just swoops right on in without any trouble at all.
But here’s the problem with fat
It only takes 1 gram of fat to add on 9 calories, compared to carbs and protein which only add on 4.
Remember that – 9 calories for every 1 gram of fat.
And when you consider that our Standard American Diet of cheeseburgers, pizza, ice cream, and chicken wings is mostly fat – you can easily see where our obesity problem comes from.
All those grams of fat – and all of those calories – 365 days a year (and we don’t hibernate!).
And so with all of that fat comes our obesity problem, our diabetes problem, our heart disease problem, and a world of other problems.
The solution is simple – we HAVE to STOP eating so much FAT.
We’re not going to starve this winter, and we’re not going to hibernate, so we really don’t need to store so much!
How much fat do some of the longest living people in the world eat?
Maybe 10% of total calories, or LESS.
What do they eat instead? CARBS. Because that’s our PRIMARY energy source. 80% or more of their total calories come from Carbs and only 5-10% comes from Fat.
And they’re thin, and their healthy, and still walk, garden, or even climb trees way into their 90’s and 100’s.
Bottom Line
CARBS are your primary fuel. Potatoes, rice, squash, sweet potatoes, corn, fresh vegetables, fruit right off the tree. Don’t be afraid of carbs – FAT is what you should be staying away from.
Fat from Animal Products, Dairy, Vegetable Oils, Processed Foods, Fast Food, Restaurant Foods…..
Eating a Whole Food Plant Based Diet with no Added Oil with give you all the energy you need with just the right amount of fat.