Apparently a low-fat diet isn't the healthy regimen we've believed it to be. When compared with low-carbohydrate and low-glycemic index diets, eating low-fat instead results in more insulin resistance, leads to the biggest decrease in the burning of calories, and causes unhealthy lipid patterns.
Even though Americans are eating 10 percent less fat than previously, more people struggle with obesity than ever before.
This was reported in a BMJ.com article written by Aseem Malhotra, interventional cardiology specialist registrar, Croydon University Hospital, London.
Part of the problem has been that when fat has been taken out of food, it is generally replaced with sugar. And sugar is increasingly being understood to be a far-reaching health hazard.
Sugar may be the single most significant factor in the risk for metabolic syndrome. This includes dysglycemia (abnormalities in blood glucose levels), high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL (good) cholesterol, and unhealthy girth around the waist.
Dr. Christiane Northrup said in her blog that sugar causes inflammation and increases cardiovascular disease risk.
She pointed to low-fat foods that contain sugar instead of fat. In fact, sugar is found in many other foods, even some that you consider to be healthy. This includes some types of tomato sauce, fruit juices, salad dressings and yogurt.
So as you dutifully stick to what you have been led to believe is a healthy diet, you may be filling up on sugar.
When you think of a cheeseburger and french fries as an unhealthy meal, Northrup said, you may be thinking that the meat and cheese are the problems. But what if they're not? What if the problems are the buns, fries and the ketchup?
Northrup said that the February, 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association has reported that sugar is linked to dementia, heart attack and inflammatory disease like cancer, insulin resistance, liver conditions, reduced HDL (good) cholesterol and type 2 diabetes.
It causes cellular inflammation. And excess abdominal fat is the unhappy result of sugar, not fat consumption.
Nina Teicholz has written a book called "The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet," according to Time.com. She said that we have simply replaced fat consumption with more carbohydrates.
Since carbohydrates break down into glucose, our bodies are releasing more insulin, and one of the consequences of this is that we are storing more fat. And it's not just refined carbohydrates that cause this, she advised. Whole grains do not offer protection from insulin resistance.
Teicholz said that the Women's Health Initiative study studied tens of thousands of women, with results that indicated that low-fat diets do not reduce cardiovascular disease risk. It also does not reduce the risk of cancer.
According to a 2010 ScientificAmerican.com article, the obesity rate in the United States has more than doubled in the last 40 years. The diabetes rate has tripled. The heart disease rate has exploded.
A study from 1997 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the women eating carbohydrates high on the glycemic index were 47 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than the women eating on the low end of the glycemic index. The research showed no link between fat consumption and diabetes risk.
A study from Holland in 2007 indicated that overweight women who consumed foods from the highest levels of the glycemic index were 79 percent more likely to have coronary vascular disease than overweight women eating food low on the glycemic index.
Carbohydrates from the high end of the glycemic index have detrimental effects on blood glucose, increase inflammation and body fat production, decreased insulin sensitivity, and the tendency to eat too more calories.
“If you reduce saturated fat and replace it with high glycemic-index carbohydrates, you may not only not get benefits—you might actually produce harm,” the Scientific American article quoted David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston as saying.
Ludwig suggested that when you have a piece of toast with butter on it, keep in mind that the “butter is actually the more healthful component.”
Sources:
Saturated fat is not the major issue.BMJ.com. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f6340
Newsflash! Saturated Fat Is Good for Your Heart. DrNorthrup.com. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
https://www.drnorthrup.com/newsflash-saturated-fat-is-good-for-your-heart/
6 Facts About Saturated Fat That Will Astound You. Time.com. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
http://time.com/96626/6-facts-about-saturated-fat-that-will-astound-you
Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart. ScientificAmerican.com. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbs-against-cardio
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbs-against-cardio/?page=2
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Reviewed July 24, 2014
by Michele Blacksberg RN