by roundcoconut » Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:13 pm
Yeah, the biggest thing I notice, is that people have poor nutritional literacy! Someone who looks pretty and sounds smart says something very, very stupid, and because we don't have any proper basis for knowing how food works in the human body, people just sit there all confused, and don't know who to believe.
But no, the dietitian who said that eating good fats will help you lose weight, is foolish. Only someone with low nutritional literacy would be willing to believe this as a blanket statement.
The thing is, when we eat calorie-rich foods, we often wind up eat far more (in terms of calories / energy) in one day than people who tend to eat calorie dilute foods. And this adds up -- people who eat calorie-rich foods, month after month, are much heavier than those who eat calorie dilute foods month after month. So, if you add more fat to your diet, thinking this will help you lose weight, you are pursuing an ineffective strategy. Increasing the calorie density of your food -- all other things being equal -- will cause you to put on weight. Decreasing the calorie density of your food -- all other things being equal -- will cause you to take off weight.
So someone who eats a 1.5 cups of broccoli and 1.5 cups of potatoes at each meal for a year will become lean, generally. Someone who eats 1.5 cups of broccoli and 1.5 cups of potatoes, PLUS 4 Tbsp of olive oil at each meal, wouldn't do so well.
People really do need better nutritional literacy! It is not only eating dietary fat that can cause humans to gain body fat, but also eating any calorie-rich foods in excess. If I ate 1.5 cups of broccoli and 1.5 cups of potatoes, PLUS a liter of Dr. Pepper every day, do you think I'd still be wearing the same pants size in a year? Prob not!
What about sedentary Americans who think that toast with jelly can be added to each meal as a dessert? Low fat, for sure. But calorie-rich! This person would boost the overall calorie density of their meal by the addition of this concentrated source of calories represented by, basically, flour and sugar.
Basically, the nutritional literacy that Americans need, is about understanding which foods should be avoided or limited, in order to lower the calorie density of their meals. They also need to understand that, if they lower the calorie density of their meals in order to lose weight, they would be foolish to compensate by eating medium-calorie density foods to excess, or eating far more frequently, thinking "I can eat all I want now!" It's an equation, and taking oils out of the equation will lower your calorie density, ONLY if you don't tamper with the equation horribly in other ways.
But overall, the calorie rich foods to be avoided or severely limited, in order to lower your overall caloric load would include those with hardly any fat (such as raisins, dried mangos, carrot juice, pomegranate juice, Dr Pepper, marshmallow fluff, etc) as well as calorie-rich processed fatty foods (olive oil, coconut oil, peanut butter, almond butter, almond milk, coconut milk, etc.) and calorie-rich whole natural fatty foods (nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut, olives).
Hope that is relatively comprehensive! I just think we spread more misinformation by acting like dietary fat is the only thing that influences overconsumption, because it's not -- not by a long shot!