With all the low-fat foods available on grocery shelves, Americans should have the skinniest nation in the country. Yet according to the National Center for Health Statistics, 66% of Americans are overweight and 32% are obese.
There are reasons for this phenomenon. Once educated, those who wish to lose weight can take action, other than simply cutting out fat.
Fat Reduction and Weight Loss
Simply cutting out dietary fat does not result in weight loss. To lose weight, a person must increase physical activity and burn more calories than are eaten.
Americans have cut out fat in recent years, but they have not decreased the amount of calories they consume. Ronette Briefel, former senior research epidemiologist and nutrition policy adviser at the National Center for Health Statistics, has stated, "Between the 1970s and the 1990s, Americans decreased their intake of total fat from about 37 percent of calories to about 34 percent of calories. Yet, during this same time period, average adult calorie intake increased by approximately 300 calories."
Unless those who ate more calories also increased their physical activity to accommodate the extra food, they would gain weight, not lose it.
Low-fat Foods and Weight Gain
Many foods, from cookies to deli meats, are available in low-fat versions, but this doesn't mean that they are healthier. Low-fat foods can be deceptively high in sugar. The USDA recommends that no more than 40 grams (10 teaspoons) of sugar be consumed daily, but many low-fat foods contain it. For example, Wish-Bone Red Wine Vinaigrette Salad Dressing contains 8 grams per serving. Spaghetti sauces, which most people assume are healthy, contain added sugar; Newman's Own Marinara has 11 grams per half cup. Even Kraft Louis Rich Oven Roasted Fat-Free Turkey Breast lunch meat has 0.48 grams of sugar per serving. All this sugar adds up quickly.
Dr. Barry Sears, creator of the Zone diet, looked at a study from the Jan. 4, 2006, Journal of the American Medical Association. The study followed older women following a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet and found they lost 2 pounds over seven years, on average.
However, the data showed something troubling: the women gained fat around their midsection. "I believe the study supports my contention that the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet recommended by groups like the USDA and the American Heart Association have caused Americans to gain fat," Sears said.
The Solution
There is a solution: eating more nutrient-dense low-fat foods, such as fruits and vegetables; and eating fewer manufactured foods that provide little nutritional benefit. "Healthful eating efforts need to shift from focusing only on fat--or its absence--to a combined focus on increasing nutrient density and reducing fat at the same time," stated J. Bruce German, professor and John E. Kinsella Endowed Chair of the Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California-Davis.
Fat should not be eliminated from the diet, either. Some fats are necessary for the body to function and play key roles in brain, nerve, heart and other organ function. But fat should be chosen wisely.
Monounsaturated fats, found in plant sources such as nuts, canola and olive oil, and so forth, are good fats. So are polyunsaturated fats, found in fish (including Omega-3 oil, which cannot be produced by the human body), flax seeds and sunflower oil.
Foods from the saturated fat family (full-fat dairy, red meat, tropical oils) should be used sparingly, as they can increase bad cholesterol.
Trans fats should be avoided whenever possible. These fats, which usually contain the phrase "partially hydrogenated," are created through a chemical process and can be found in baked goods and fried foods. Trans fats increase bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol.
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