Since the early eighties obesity has taken on pandemic proportions. Strange how this coincides with the massive increase in the marketing of fast foods, margarine, refined cooking oil and quick-fix diets....
The first thing the quick-fix diet gurus will tell you when you consult them is to limit your fat intake as much as you can. This means you would have to seriously restrict the intake of dairy products, meat, oily fish, avocados, nuts, seeds and olives. Next they will tell you to replace the butter in your diet with margarine and to use refined salad oils, and oh yes, to also eat only fat-reduced products - those foods with labels shouting 'liter, 'lean!', low-fat!' and 'fat-free!'.
The explanation for this advice will be that if you starve your body of dietary fat, it will start using your body fat as energy and that's how you will lose weight.
In theory this sounds plausible enough, but should you take their advice, things will turn out very differently, I'm afraid. Yes, from then on you will be consuming far too little of the essential fatty acids that actively promote leanness, and at the same time you will be taking in (albeit in small quantities) fat and oils that are known as 'free' fats. Free fats have been through a process of hydrogenation, heating and refining that changes their molecular structure to such an extent that they could become more harmful than any other fat. Studies indicate that free fats could lead to obesity and disease. In addition, you will be depriving your body of sufficient nutrients - especially energy-giving foods - with the result that your body will immediately start drawing emergency supplies from your lean muscle cells. Remember them? They are your 'red meat' cells, alive and well, filled with energy and health-sustaining nutrients; elements your body constantly requires. So losing them throws you right back into that cycle of increased weight problems because losing the good cells means reducing your metabolic activity. Permanently.
The bottom line is therefore that these low-kilojoule slimming diets promote obesity because:
- the restriction of fat causes insufficient intake of essential fatty acids - those fats that are needed to achieve leanness in a number of ways, and
- the restriction of nutrients causes a permanent lowering of the metabolic rate as a result of used-up lean muscle cells,
So what is the truth about fat in thediet:
There are many myths regarding fat in the diet, fat in food, fat added to food and so on. The chapter titled Facing the fats provides perspective and better insight into this matter. Right now we are tackling one myth about fat in the diet: avoiding essential fatty acids if you want to lose fat, is a fruitless exercise. Avoiding those fatty acids is in fact one of the reasons for the yo-yo syndrome of losing and gaining weight!
The truth simply comes in the shape of conjugated linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid. The reason is that, without sufficient conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), your body will be totally devoid of the one essential nutritional element necessary to facilitate the loss of body fat,
No other nutrients than the range of essential fatty acids are scientifically named 'essential'. These fatty acids are found in a wide range of animal and plant foods, but as mentioned before, most of us struggling with weight problems have come to believe that avoiding them in our diets will help us lose weight because they have been labelled by the diet industry as 'too fatty'. But the horrifying truth is that we are getting fatter and fatter despite the fact that we are consuming less and less fat!
So how can I be assured of taking in a sufficient supply of essential fatty acids but at the same time avoid the Wrong -Id!? This is where I call in the help of a product called Tonalin CLA 80. It is a dietary supplement of conjugated linoleic acid, one of the most important essential fatty acids. Without sufficient conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) your body will be totally devoid of the one nutritional element required to facilitate the loss of body fat. Its as simple and important as that.
