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Dietary fat reduction has numerous appeals not the least of which is that billions of human beings eat this way normally and live long healthy lives. Low fat diets are generally percieved as "normal" by people in that they allow for judicious consumption of nearly every traditional food source. Fat reduction is an underlying principle of nearly every major commercial weight reduction program, most notably, Weight Watchers, whose "point system" approach to eating is effectively a sensible low-fat diet. |
Fat reduction is effective for weight loss for several reasons. First, because fat is the most calorie-dense macronutrient, its reduction allows people to eat more and get "less"(calories). Second, fat has the lowest thermogenic effect of the three macronutrients so that dietary fat can rahter easily become stored body fat. Beyond their effectiveness, low fat diets are highly palatable and accessible to vegetarians and generally tend to lower total and LDL ('bad") cholesterol levels in blood (although they also lower HDL ("good") cholesterol. Americans Eat Too Much Fat: Nearly all experts in human health agree that the North American diet is too high in fat and that this excess contributes to obesity and heart disease. Despite this, Americans show little "appetite" for serious reductions in total fat although they have reduced intake of saturated fat and trans-fats. "Good" and "Bad" Fat: Saturated and trans-fats increase blood cholesterol levels, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats lower them (or at least fail to raise them). For this reason they have earned the nicknames "bad" and "good" fat respectively. According to advocates of low-fat diets for weight loss, and for all the reasons cited at the top of this page, all Fats are "Bad" fats as regards weight loss when those fats are consumed to excess. Unfortunately, this is an oversimplification. Essential Fatty Acids: Humans cannot synthesize all the different kinds of fats needed for life and therefore, it is possible by eating a diet too low in fat, for people to develop a defficiency of essential fatty acids. Serious long-term essential fatty acid defficiency is not uncommon in people with a disease that causes poor fat absorbtion or in people who have had bariatric intestinal bypass surgery, but is fairly rare in the general population. Still, it is inadvisable for people to deliberately consume too little fat. While there is no clear agreement on how little fat intake is too low, most experts reccomend no less that twenty grams daily of total dietary fat. |
Low Fat Diets |
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