What's Wrong with a Low Fat Diet
Why low fat diets fail and how to develop a healthy diet plan.
Most people assume a low fat diet is a sensible way to lose weight. But counting fat grams alone can lead to big problems. Here's why.
If you've read any of my blogs about what healthy cooking is and isn't, you know that I'm no fan of fad diets.
Few people think low fat diets fall into the fad diet category. But to me, any diet that focuses on just one aspect of healthy eating, whether it's fat, carbs or grapefruit, isn't a healthy diet for the long term.
The Trap of Low Fat Foods
In fact, one study by Pierre Chandin and Brian Wansink showed that when people believed they were eating low fat foods vs. regular versions of the same foods (such as a low fat granola bar or low fat chocolate bar), they ate up to 49% more of the low-fat foods.
Eating 49% more means eating 49% more calories. Hence, one of the reasons why people can actually gain weight on low fat diets.
Of course, not all people on all low fat diets always gain weight. But a low fat diet that is heavy on packaged foods and light on fruits and vegetables is destined to fail.
For, much of the time, low-fat foods have just as many calories as their higher-fat versions, and often they have even more sugar.
Fat Grams Alone Won't Tell You Anything About Nutrition
What's more, fat grams alone can't tell you much about a food's health value.
Take avocados. A single avocado has 227 calories, 32% of which come from fat. But the bulk of that fat is heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, which can actually lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol.
So leaving avocados or guacamole out of your low fat diet isn't really healthy eating. Similarly, brussels sprouts with pistachios have 9 grams of fat per serving -- a lot for a vegetable -- but it's all heart-healthy fat from olive oil and pistachios.
The bottom line is when you're interested in healthy eating, you have to look at the total picture. We all need good fats (monounsaturated fats, omega 3 fatty acids, etc.), so you can't just look at total fat grams. You have to know what kind of fat a food has. (Avoid saturated fats and trans fats as much as possible.)
And you have to look at what else the food offers in terms of nutrition. Is it low in fat but full of sugar, like the popular Snackwells cookies? Or is it maybe higher in calories, but full of vitamins, fiber, protein, calcium and iron, like my frozen pumpkin pie recipe?
The best kind of diet is one that focuses on whole foods with good nutritional value. When you adopt that kind of diet plan, you can have your chocolate chip cookies and eat them too!
