What is the low fat myth and have you fallen for it? many have, low fat food products are everywhere but why?
There seems to by an ever increasing and popular myth that fat is bad. This misconception is being fueled further by the food industry. However in fairness food production companies are only giving the people what they want.
People want low fat foods because they believe fat is bad, and that eating fat makes us fat. There is some truth to this but only some. This misconception has led to the production of masses of low fat products.
Fat is a healthy part of our diets, and around 25 to 35 percent of our diets should consist of fats. So if that is true and fat is not a bad thing, then why are there so many food products out there in our shops with low fat written on the packaging? simply because the myth is such a strongly believed concept that the food companies are simply catering to us.
Does Eating Fat make us Fat?
No! eating too much and not exercising enough makes us fat.
Different Types of Fats
There still seems to be some confusion with regards to the different types of fat. Saturated fat is still considered to be bad for us, however there is a lack of evidence to support this idea, many years ago it was labelled as the bad guy.
Trans Fats
This is the fat that you should avoid, trans fat is a chemically modified fat which can be found in processed foods to give it a longer shelf life. Avoid it!
Fat Free Foods
These are still being advertised, fat free yogurt products are very common however many foods that are fat free or low in fat taste awful. So to improve the taste, other ingredients are added to make it taste better, like sugar for example or even artificial ingredients like sweeteners and such things which are unhealthy.
So these food companies are actually taking out good healthy natural fat, and replacing it with unhealthy artificial substitutes, which is craziness!.
Margarine was created as a low fat alternative to Butter, this was because fat especially saturated fat was being wrongly demonized. However butter is a natural product which contains natural fat as well as other vitamins and minerals to help maintain a healthy body. Margarine on the other hand is a chemically altered product which includes trans fats which are now understood to be very unhealthy for our bodies.
The bottom line is Fat is not the enemy, it is a healthy part of our diet which helps to achieve a healthy body, which is the best way of increasing our metabolisms which leads to healthy weight loss and reducing body fat.
Stay away from processed foods, trans fats and artificial products and don’t fuel this fat avoidance myth any longer.
