Today, so many people are worried about their intake of fat! Well, we know that there are “good” fats and “bad” fats. Some examples of good fats would be flaxseed oil, olive oil, fish oil, walnuts, almonds, avocados, grade seed oil, and emu oil. Bad fats include “transfats“, which can be found in a wide variety of packaged goods (I prefer not to refer to anything packaged as food, as I find them to be chemical compounds, not real food). Some examples are microwave popcorn, potato chips, and candy bars.
We need the good fats for vital and necessary bodily functions- like thinking! Yes, essential fats make our brain work. This is why I recommend Fish Oil for children (particularly high doses of DHA). Essential fatty acids also make hormones which act as messengers for a variety of body processes. Unfortunately, the body does not make them, we need to get them from our diet! (Some animals make their own Vitamin C- how did we get passed over for that one, too!) Anyway, regardless… We need to do some work when it comes to what we put in our mouths.
Think good fats, not sugar! Snackwells is a popular name brand that offers LOW FAT packaged products (I shall not call it food). Many people think they are doing themselves a favor, when it actuality, they are doing themselves a HUGE disservice. How do they get the flavor in that chemical soup when they took out all the fat? Well, my friends, they replaced it with SUGAR! “Dr. Gold, how is sugar processed in the body?” So glad you asked that question- the answer is…. AS FAT!! And if you’re not eating only one serving of those LOW FAT Snackwells, and you’ve just downed the whole box… we’re talking a lot of sugar, and you guessed it- A LOT OF FAT!
Read your labels! Look for sugar content, not just fat. Even LOW FAT flavored yogurt has a ton of sugar in it. It’s better to go for the plain low fat yogurt and add your own fruit. This way you are getting a little bit of fat, but gaining good digestive enzymes (from the yogurt) and fiber (from the fruit, which is also a digestive aid). You can also choose Greek Yogurt, which is can be higher in fat, but is very healthy.
Another thing about sugar is that it makes you hungry, so you wind up eating more! Let’s say you just had the low fat “Key Lime Pie” yogurt (not naming any names here, but I think we’ve all seen the commercials). I’m going to guess that within an hour or so, you will be hungry again for something else. That’s because all the sugar you’ve just ingested has spiked your blood glucose (sugar) levels. That “high” is short lived when it comes from sugar. Now your blood glucose has dropped, and you are hungry once again, in the hopes of regaining that energy high you just had. It becomes a vicious cycle. It’s better to eat a little more fat, so as not to be hungry again within a short period of time. When that happens, we wind up grabbing something sugary again, looking for that same high.
The key is maintaining blood glucose levels so that we don’t feel starved, have sugar cravings, or wind up overeating. I will continue to write about how to do that.
Stay tuned for “How to Read Labels” in my next blog.
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