A low-fat diet was once touted as the best for weight loss and optimal health. Groceries stocked low-fat foods on the shelves and everyone avoided fat like the plague. Unfortunately, the low-fat diet trend did America a great disservice. In fact, obesity rates in the United States have consistently climbed. Adena Neglia, MS, RDN, CDN, Senior Dietitian at The Mount Sinai Hospital, explains why fat is not the enemy and how to incorporate ‘good fat’ into your diet.
Do fatty foods make you fat?
Let’s clear up a common misconception: Fat does not make you fat. We gain weight when we eat in excess of our needs, whether the excess comes from protein, carbohydrates, or fats. From a weight management standpoint, fat makes food taste good. When we eat it, we feel more satiated and wind up craving and eating less food later on. In fact, getting adequate amounts of healthy fats in your diet may make managing your weight easier. From a health and wellness standpoint, fat is needed to help our bodies absorb certain fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamins A, D, E, and K. In the brain, fat stimulates the creation of new brain cells and improves our memory. Fat is critical for reproductive health in men and women because it is used to both produce and balance our hormones.
What is a ‘good’ fat?
As with any macronutrient, quality matters. Healthy sources of fat include avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, grass-fed beef, and fatty fish. Incorporate healthy fat into your diet by mashing avocado on toast or pureeing it into a sauce for zucchini noodles. Drizzle olive oil on vegetables to roast them or use as a dressing with lemon on a salad. Add chopped nuts to yogurt and oatmeal or eat them as a snack by themselves.
So, what fat do I need to limit or avoid?
Trans fat. Found in most processed and packaged foods—such as cake, cookies, chips, and crackers—it can be hidden on the nutrition label as “partially hydrogenated oils.” This kind of fat is terrible for our hearts. Not only does it raise your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, but it also lowers your HDL (“good”) cholesterol. In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically designated partially hydrogenated oils as no longer “generally recognized as safe.”
How can I avoid trans fat?
Choose whole food sources and check your labels for lurking trans fat. Here’s a list from the FDA of foods that contain trans fat.
Adena Neglia, MS, RDN, CDN, graduated from Long Island University with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and received her Master’s degree in Nutrition Education from Columbia University. She is the senior dietitian at The Mount Sinai Hospital’s outpatient nutrition program where she provides counseling for both pediatric and adult patients. She covers several clinics including nephrology, hematology, oncology, cardiovascular disease, and general medicine.
What’s so bad about low-fat food?
When companies start to take fat out of their products, they often replace it with sugar to compensate for the taste. We now know that increased sugar intake contributes to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Food additives, emulsifiers, and stabilizers are also added to mimic the texture and mouthfeel of fat. Many people are under the impression that they can eat more of these foods because the low-fat label makes it “healthy.” As it turns out, these low-fat products often do more harm to our health than good.
