{ "id": 8055, "date": "2018-11-02T08:28:02", "date_gmt": "2018-11-02T08:28:02", "guid": { "rendered": "https:\/\/uk.inbody.com\/?p=8055" }, "modified": "2021-05-12T08:11:17", "modified_gmt": "2021-05-12T07:11:17", "slug": "eating-fat-doesnt-make-you-fat", "status": "publish", "type": "post", "link": "https:\/\/ro.inbody.com\/en\/eating-fat-doesnt-make-you-fat\/", "title": { "rendered": "Eating Fat Doesn\u2019t Make You Fat" }, "content": { "rendered": "
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If you went to primary school in the 90s, you probably remember this diagram from a nutrition class. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"food<\/p>\n

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Released in the U.S. in 1992, the food pyramid was designed as an easy way for people to remember which foods they should be getting their calories from and the relative importance of each. Carbs were healthy and good, and so they formed the base; fats were bad and placed at the top. The fat category lumped everything together from healthy fats like Omega-3s and olive oil to saturated fats and sugar. This concept helped trigger the fat-free craze. <\/span>Although this concept seems pretty normal to us now, at the time in the late 1970s it was actually considered quite radical \u2013 so much so that then-president of the National Academy of Sciences, Philip Handler, described the proposed shift as a \u201c<\/span>vast nutritional experiment<\/span><\/a>.\u201d <\/span>Essentially, the Dietary Guidelines suggested that people eat less fat and get more calories from bread, grains, rice, pasta, etc.<\/strong> This was intended to protect Americans from weight gain and heart disease. <\/span>This is why the \u201chigh carb, low fat\u201d diet seem familiar and normal to you, and probably why you think eating fat makes you fat.  <\/span><\/p>\n

What was the result of this recommendation? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Beginning at around the time when the guidelines were first recommended in 1977 and their release to the public in 1980, the percentage of Americans classified as obese increase almost 20%<\/strong> as they followed the government\u2019s advice to cut fat and increase carbs. <\/span>Why have obesity rates in the United States skyrocketed over the last 18 years? <\/span>Because the idea that \u201cfat makes you fat\u201d is wrong. <\/strong><\/span>Fat is just another nutrient source, same as carbohydrates and protein.  What makes you fat is taking in more energy (calories) in a day than you use.<\/strong> That\u2019s called being in a caloric surplus.<\/span><\/p>\n

While this might seem like a somewhat challenging thought, fat isn\u2019t solely to blame for weight gain, and it\u2019s not fair to even say it\u2019s a major factor in weight gain.  At fault is a confusing mishmash of terminology, the negative connotation of fat over the past generations, and a pesky little diagram that\u2019s been imprinted in the minds of generations of Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at how fat got a bad rap to see what you really should be thinking about when you\u2019re trying to lose weight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eating Fat Is Not the Same as Becoming Fat<\/h2>\n

Part of the reason people get confused and think that the fat they eat makes their body store fat is because we use the interchangeably to describe both body fat and dietary fat.<\/span><\/p>\n