Over the last thirty years, food nutritionists and the food industry as a whole have embraced the idea of lowering our fat intake. This was a direct result of the information published by the government that encouraged less egg consumption because of the cholesterol found in eggs. After that particular piece of information, doctors began to discover that when we consume fat, we have higher incidences of cholesterol problems. The logical conclusion: fat must be bad for you. And so, an entire generation as grown up with fat-free foods. A whole generation grew up believing that fat was what made us fat, clogged our arteries, and generally caused ill-health.
So what did we do? We turned to carbs to make up for the loss in taste of food that had the fat removed; for you see, fat is what gives many of our foods their delicious taste. When you remove the fat, the taste must be artificially injected into the food. The end result is a food that is higher in carbohydrate content, but lower in fat. Hence, all the wonderful labels displaying the claim of "fat free" but neglect to mention the higher level of carbohydrates. Lowered fat should have created a population of slim, trim, healthy people. Right?
We could not have been further from the truth. As it turns out, fat is a necessary part of our metabolic processes. We need the fat in order to properly utilize many of the vitamins and nutrients we consume. When did we make this discovery? Probably some thirty years too late for some people.
Now, more in-depth research has revealed that maybe it wasn't the fat that created the cholesterol levels that were out of control. Maybe it was a combination of lifestyle and food habits that created dangerous levels of cholesterol. The startling discovery that there are two kinds of cholesterol: HDL and LDL. There are certain kinds of fat that contribute to the overall health of our arteries, not to their detriment. How could we have been so wrong? Because, just as many times before, the doctors performing these tests, found what they wanted to fine, not necessarily the truth. Further testing could have produced the same results in the beginning that they produced in the end.
Now, we have whole food industry formed around low or no-fat food alternatives. These companies have large amounts of money invested in the production of these foods, and is not going to be able or willing to turn around on a dime. It's because of corporate investment that current knowledge about the "good" fat has been suppressed as long as it has. It is a very expensive piece of knowledge that is being passed on to the public today. So expensive, that some companies would be out of business were they to try and reverse their food processing.
Some of the fat that our bodies produce protects us from sickness and disease, and some forms of fat that we produce are necessary for our organs to function correctly. Many of the carbohydrates that we artificially inject into food become stored fat that creates obesity. It would seem to me, that we have traded the normal, necessary good, for the artificial bad.
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