nobimbo
Mon, Feb-14-05, 05:18
Now they tell us: eat lots of fat
February 14, 2005
A few years ago, I was in a restaurant in Los Angeles with a group of friends and ate an olive from my martini glass.
As I bit into it, a sickeningly slender American girl turned to me and remarked, in all seriousness: "Are you not staying for dinner, then?" That's how fattening oily foods such as olives were considered to be.
So it's with some surprise and a wry smile that I learn that the latest diet sensation from across the water is ... fat. And not just any old fat, but coconut oil - the oil with pretty much the highest levels of saturated fat you can find.
The food fad which is transforming the brown, hairy fruit of the palm tree into a must-have fashion item began with the release of three books: The Coconut Oil Miracle, The Coconut Diet, and the new Eat Fat, Lose Fat by two well-respected nutrition experts, Dr Mary G Enig and Sally Fallon
"Coconut oil is helpful in combating the risk of heart disease and has immune-boosting properties"
.
The books are flying off the shelves in America and the trend will arrive in Britain later this year.
Eating more fat is a rather shocking idea to anyone who dieted in the 1980s. Low-fat was everything and there are many of us - myself included - who would still never order a creamy sauce and think of mayonnaise as the Devil's food.
But, of course, the diet industry has moved on. Even as people were told that low-fat, high-fibre diets are good for their health and waistlines, heart disease became more prevalent and obesity became an epidemic.
So high-protein, low- carbohydrate became the mantra, with fat a good thing so long as it was the right kind - mono-unsaturated, and high in the essential fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6. Olive oil, fish oils, seeds and avocados were suddenly great for us.
Now Eat Fat, Lose Fat says coconut oil is the best oil of all. This, despite it being a saturated fat. In fact, Enig and Fallon say that is exactly why it's so great and that we should all eat more saturated fat, from full-fat (unpasteurised) milk, unpasteurised cheese, butter, red meat and even lard. And I thought lard made you ... well, lardy.
The book cites the South Pacific and Thailand as evidence - there, everyone eats an abundance of coconut oil and people are generally slim, with low rates of heart disease and cancer.
Of course, it does not mention the fact that in those countries the diet is based on fresh fruit and vegetables, with rice and small amounts of meat or fish, and very little dairy produce. Nor that the populations are very active and generally not exposed to huge amounts of pollutants.
The authors suggest we should all eat one to two tablespoons of coconut oil, depending on our weight, dissolved in a cup of hot water 20 minutes before each meal.
That boosts our metabolisms and fills us so much we might not even want all of what follows.
Then we should have meals such as a cheese omelette fried in coconut oil or a coconut smoothie made with full-fat milk and yoghurt for breakfast, a coconut-marinaded chicken salad for lunch, and a beef Thai red curry with lots of vegetables for dinner. Bounty bars are unfortunately not allowed.
Stick to the diet and you should lose about 1kg a week, while feeling full at all times.
According to Enig and Fallon, it is the fact that coconut oil is high in substances called medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). These MCTs are converted to energy - burned up - more quickly than unsaturated fats, which contain long-chain triglycerides (LCTs), so are less likely to end up stored as fat.
But more importantly, the MCTs boost the metabolism by sparking a process called thermogenesis (the creation of life-giving heat) as your body gets to work on the oil.
But according to Dr James Hill, director of the Centre for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, although MCTs do provide a metabolic boost, it's not enough to make a serious difference over time.
And although MCTs do cause less weight gain than LCTs, they don't produce weight loss.
However, nutritionist Natalie Savona, author of The Kitchen Shrink, says there is some basis to what the authors claim.
"Many scientists say that coconut oil is helpful in combating the risk of heart disease and has immune-boosting properties," she says.
The idea of eating more saturated fat flies in the face of British Heart Foundation guidelines, which insist a diet low in fat and high in unprocessed carbohydrates-such as whole grains, is right for good health.
This is because although not everyone who has a heart attack has high cholesterol levels, it is considered a contributory factor and there is a definite correlation between an increased level of saturated fat consumed and higher levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol.
What is clear is that Enig and Fallon's diet espouses the benefits of organic foods, and wild rather than farmed salmon.
And they say it's better to get your vitamins and minerals from food rather than supplements.
Their diet does seem to be viable. If you are overweight and eat 2 000 to 2 500 calories a day - which is what they suggest - you should lose about 1kg a week, a slow and healthy rate of losing weight.
And many of the recipes do sound delicious - Vietnamese Chicken Curry; Brazilian Prawn Stew; Coconut Almond Cookies; Wild Salmon Salad.
But could anyone commit to this diet for long?
Savona suggests that using any food as a panacea is a bad idea - we need variety as part of a healthy eating plan.
"I find it impossible to imagine that even the most committed coconut-lover could eat so much of the stuff."
"Only a diet that helps you change your way of eating permanently is any good."
"It shouldn't be about having to stick to strange food for life but about shifting patterns to lose the weight, then keep it off."
"In my view it's all about coming back to basics: fresh, wholesome, unprocessed food with a minimal amount of the things we know aren't good for us - fried foods, sugar and manufactured junk."
"Stick to the 80-20 rule: if you are doing the good stuff 80% of the time, you're doing well," Savona says.
The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife (Deep Books); The Coconut Diet by Cherie Calbom and John Calbom (HarperCollins); and Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary G Enig and Sally Fallon (Hudson Street Press).
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=495&fArticleId=2409488
February 14, 2005
A few years ago, I was in a restaurant in Los Angeles with a group of friends and ate an olive from my martini glass.
As I bit into it, a sickeningly slender American girl turned to me and remarked, in all seriousness: "Are you not staying for dinner, then?" That's how fattening oily foods such as olives were considered to be.
So it's with some surprise and a wry smile that I learn that the latest diet sensation from across the water is ... fat. And not just any old fat, but coconut oil - the oil with pretty much the highest levels of saturated fat you can find.
The food fad which is transforming the brown, hairy fruit of the palm tree into a must-have fashion item began with the release of three books: The Coconut Oil Miracle, The Coconut Diet, and the new Eat Fat, Lose Fat by two well-respected nutrition experts, Dr Mary G Enig and Sally Fallon
"Coconut oil is helpful in combating the risk of heart disease and has immune-boosting properties"
.
The books are flying off the shelves in America and the trend will arrive in Britain later this year.
Eating more fat is a rather shocking idea to anyone who dieted in the 1980s. Low-fat was everything and there are many of us - myself included - who would still never order a creamy sauce and think of mayonnaise as the Devil's food.
But, of course, the diet industry has moved on. Even as people were told that low-fat, high-fibre diets are good for their health and waistlines, heart disease became more prevalent and obesity became an epidemic.
So high-protein, low- carbohydrate became the mantra, with fat a good thing so long as it was the right kind - mono-unsaturated, and high in the essential fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6. Olive oil, fish oils, seeds and avocados were suddenly great for us.
Now Eat Fat, Lose Fat says coconut oil is the best oil of all. This, despite it being a saturated fat. In fact, Enig and Fallon say that is exactly why it's so great and that we should all eat more saturated fat, from full-fat (unpasteurised) milk, unpasteurised cheese, butter, red meat and even lard. And I thought lard made you ... well, lardy.
The book cites the South Pacific and Thailand as evidence - there, everyone eats an abundance of coconut oil and people are generally slim, with low rates of heart disease and cancer.
Of course, it does not mention the fact that in those countries the diet is based on fresh fruit and vegetables, with rice and small amounts of meat or fish, and very little dairy produce. Nor that the populations are very active and generally not exposed to huge amounts of pollutants.
The authors suggest we should all eat one to two tablespoons of coconut oil, depending on our weight, dissolved in a cup of hot water 20 minutes before each meal.
That boosts our metabolisms and fills us so much we might not even want all of what follows.
Then we should have meals such as a cheese omelette fried in coconut oil or a coconut smoothie made with full-fat milk and yoghurt for breakfast, a coconut-marinaded chicken salad for lunch, and a beef Thai red curry with lots of vegetables for dinner. Bounty bars are unfortunately not allowed.
Stick to the diet and you should lose about 1kg a week, while feeling full at all times.
According to Enig and Fallon, it is the fact that coconut oil is high in substances called medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). These MCTs are converted to energy - burned up - more quickly than unsaturated fats, which contain long-chain triglycerides (LCTs), so are less likely to end up stored as fat.
But more importantly, the MCTs boost the metabolism by sparking a process called thermogenesis (the creation of life-giving heat) as your body gets to work on the oil.
But according to Dr James Hill, director of the Centre for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, although MCTs do provide a metabolic boost, it's not enough to make a serious difference over time.
And although MCTs do cause less weight gain than LCTs, they don't produce weight loss.
However, nutritionist Natalie Savona, author of The Kitchen Shrink, says there is some basis to what the authors claim.
"Many scientists say that coconut oil is helpful in combating the risk of heart disease and has immune-boosting properties," she says.
The idea of eating more saturated fat flies in the face of British Heart Foundation guidelines, which insist a diet low in fat and high in unprocessed carbohydrates-such as whole grains, is right for good health.
This is because although not everyone who has a heart attack has high cholesterol levels, it is considered a contributory factor and there is a definite correlation between an increased level of saturated fat consumed and higher levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol.
What is clear is that Enig and Fallon's diet espouses the benefits of organic foods, and wild rather than farmed salmon.
And they say it's better to get your vitamins and minerals from food rather than supplements.
Their diet does seem to be viable. If you are overweight and eat 2 000 to 2 500 calories a day - which is what they suggest - you should lose about 1kg a week, a slow and healthy rate of losing weight.
And many of the recipes do sound delicious - Vietnamese Chicken Curry; Brazilian Prawn Stew; Coconut Almond Cookies; Wild Salmon Salad.
But could anyone commit to this diet for long?
Savona suggests that using any food as a panacea is a bad idea - we need variety as part of a healthy eating plan.
"I find it impossible to imagine that even the most committed coconut-lover could eat so much of the stuff."
"Only a diet that helps you change your way of eating permanently is any good."
"It shouldn't be about having to stick to strange food for life but about shifting patterns to lose the weight, then keep it off."
"In my view it's all about coming back to basics: fresh, wholesome, unprocessed food with a minimal amount of the things we know aren't good for us - fried foods, sugar and manufactured junk."
"Stick to the 80-20 rule: if you are doing the good stuff 80% of the time, you're doing well," Savona says.
The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife (Deep Books); The Coconut Diet by Cherie Calbom and John Calbom (HarperCollins); and Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary G Enig and Sally Fallon (Hudson Street Press).
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=495&fArticleId=2409488