From a health standpoint, fat-containing foods have many advantages over sugary, high-carbohydrate foods. Foods containing healthy fats will fill you up faster and help you feel satisfied longer. Foods high in sugar do not significantly reduce hunger and cause you to overeat and feel unsatisfied; this includes many processed foods that contain large amounts of sugar added for taste and extended shelf life.
Food manufacturers started replacing fat with sugar in processed foods in the 1970s when well-intentioned “experts” recommended a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet for heart health. This set in motion a fifty-year research project that essentially made all Americans the guinea pigs in an ill-devised dietary research project. Today many developed nations have followed the American diet plan, adding carbs and sugars to their diets, thereby joining in the experiment. This “research project” resulted in our current obesity epidemic. An epidemic leading to heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, eye problems, some cancers, inflated medical costs, and millions of premature deaths are now being replicated across the developed world.
Let’s compare the benefits of healthy fats over sugar.
| Sugar Vs. Fats | ||
| Sugar | Fat | |
| Energy | Sugar is a source of energy. | Fat is a source of energy. |
| Metabolism | Sugars that are not used for energy, cell repair, or new cell growth are stored as body fat. | Fats that are not used for energy, cell repair, or new cell growth are stored as body fat. |
| Nutritional Benefits | None. | Fats help your body absorb a number of vital nutrients. |
| Comfort | None. | Fat help your body stay warm. |
| Essential hormones | None. | Fat helps the body produce essential hormones. |
| Fatty acids | None. | Fat contains essential fatty acids that the body cannot make itself. |
| Vitamin A | Sugars do not help your body absorb Vitamin A. | Fats help your body absorb Vitamin A. |
| Vitamin D | Sugars do not help your body absorb Vitamin D. | Fats help your body absorb Vitamin D. |
| Vitamin E | Sugars do not help your body absorb Vitamin E. | Fats help your body absorb Vitamin E. |
| Satiety, feeling full, insulin | Sugars stimulate insulin releases that drive up hunger. | Fats do not stimulate insulin release and do not increase hunger. |
| Satiety, feeling full, ghrelin | Sugars stimulate the release of ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and increase the feeling of hunger. | Fats do not stimulate the release of ghrelin and help you feel satisfied longer. |
| Addiction level | Very High. Sugar is as addictive as cocaine. | Low. Fat is not addictive. |
| Heart Health | Sugar is not good for the heart and contributes to atherosclerosis and the related vascular calcification. | Moderate amounts of good fats are required for heart health. No clear associations have been identified linking healthy fats with the risk for atherosclerosis. |
From a nutritional and health standpoint, fat provides many more advantages than sugar or carbs.
Quick Review
– Healthy fats are good for you.
– High sugar and high-carb foods are less healthy than food containing healthy fats.
– The current recommended SAD (Standard American Diet) is based on little research and is contributing to our current obesity crisis.
– Obesity is associated with a variety of health problems.
– The best advice is to reduce high carbohydrate, highly processed foods in favor of whole, fresh foods higher in fats and lower in carbohydrates.
Regular Features
This Week’s Diet and Lifestyle Q&A – Question Yes or No: The #1 goal of the diet industry is to make you slim and healthy. (answer below.)
Food for Thought – The “calories in – calories out” diet approach have led us to believe that zero-calorie soft drinks and artificial sweeteners are ok when dieting. They are not; they can stimulate insulin releases that resist fat burning, increase fat storage, and increase the hunger hormone ghrelin.
Trouble Shooting – If you have been intermittent fasting for several weeks and still have excessive hunger, it is time to reconsider your current approach. Fasting should be clean or pure; if you use diet soda or artificially flavored water to get through your fast, you sabotage your efforts. The chemical sweeteners in diet drinks can trigger insulin releases and stimulate the hunger hormone ghrelin. Put that stuff in the garbage and go to black coffee, tea with no cream or sugar, unflavored club soda, or good old water.
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This Week’s Diet and Lifestyle Q&A:
Question: The #1 goal of the diet industry is to make you slim and healthy.
Answer: No – The #1 goal of the diet industry is to make money.
