The Rare Truth about Fats
Most of us have grown up believing that carbohydrates (starches and sugars) were the major dietary villains.
We view potatoes and cakes as "fattening," and think weight loss involved limiting the total number of
calories one ate. The centerpiece of restaurant "diet plates" was a ground beef patty.
But in the last 20 years, nutrition scientists have shown that there's really only one villain in our diet -- fat. Carbohydrates, including fruits,
vegetables, beans, and grains provide most of the body's energy. They are our friends, the body's main source of energy. Even long-vilified sugar doesn't
hurt most people when used in moderation with good dental hygiene. As far as weight control is concerned, if you limit fat calories, you don't have to
worry much about your total caloric intake. "It's not the potato that's fattening," says Ron Goor, Ph.D., co-author (with his wife, Nancy) of The
Choose to Lose Diet: A Food Lover's Guide to Permanent Weight Loss. "It's the butter, sour cream, and bacon bits people put on it. The same goes for
sugar. Cakes, pies, and ice cream are fattening not because they contain sugar, but because they're loaded with fat. It's people's 'fat tooth,' not their
sweet tooth, that gets them into trouble."
How could this be? Simple: all calories are not created equal. One gram of carbohydrate or protein contains only 4 calories, but one gram of fat contains
9. "Fat calories really sneak up on you," Dr. Goor says. "A few handfuls of potato chips has the same number of calories as two medium-sized baked
potatoes topped with nonfat yogurt and steamed vegetables."
Carbohydrates have a lot of bulk per calorie. Eating them triggers feelings of fullness. It's difficult to overeat if you base your diet on them. "If you reduce
your fat consumption from the typical 35 to 40 percent of calories down to the 10 percent level of my program," says Dean Ornish, M.D., the doctor
who pioneered heart disease reversal using a low-fat diet, "you can eat one-third more food without increasing your total number of calories. You feel
full and satisfied, but still reduce your risk of heart disease and the other fat-related diseases -- and you lose weight. That's why I called my book Eat
More, Weigh Less."
In addition to their high calorie content, fats are also metabolized differently from carbohydrates. The body uses most carbohydrates quickly, and can
only store about one day's worth as glycogen in the liver and in muscle tissue. "If you eat normal amounts," Dr. Goor says, "carbohydrates are never
stored as fat."
Fats, on the other hand, are not metabolized right away. They are stored as fat in adipose tissue, which has an almost unlimited capacity to bulge with
fat. Unlike carbohydrates, fat calories don't cause feelings of fullness, so you keep eating and eating, gaining weight, and increasing your risk of all the
fat-related diseases.
Everyone must consume some fats because they are necessary for the synthesis of essential fatty acids. But you only need about 5 percent of
calories as fat to produce all the essential fatty acids your body needs to function optimally.
If a high-fat diet contributes to obesity, does a low-fat diet spur weight loss? In Dr. Ornish's program, the average participant lost 22 pounds in one year.
If a high-fat diet contributes to a host of diseases, does a low-fat diet help
prevent them? Here is the conclusion of a report cosponsored by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the Center
for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer nutrition organization: if Americans cut their fat consumption by about one-third (down
to approximately 20 percent of calories from fat), heart disease and cancer would decline significantly, and the nation's health care bill would plummet
$17 billion a year.
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