The most frightening of new words – Obesegenic.

Posted on November 13, 2012 by jghethe

Welcome Back – Sorry about the break between posts but as John Lennon used to say:’ Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans…”

This week a longer post on a frightening new word…and term that has been created to reflect our current health as a society.

Our Western Societies have become, according to the American Centre for Disease Control (CDC), obesogenic ones.

The typical Western diet (and an increasing number of other culture’s diets as they are exposed to Westerns ‘culture’) is full of unhealthy, fat forming, health damaging foods. On the whole, despite the growth in Gyms, Pilates, Yoga, marathon running, triathlons etc etc there is actually far less physical activity across the population of any Western country then there was 20 years ago. Even in the East as cities become more common and larger the physical activity index of these countries is dropping as well.

Simply put the World’s population is in danger but not in the main from wars, from famine or disease – although there are still plenty of those to go around unfortunately…

No – our lives are at risk because we can’t put our damn forks down!!

Because we can’t seem to eat close to unprocessed, calorie sparse, nutrient dense foods as our main fuel intake. Because we don’t move enough, often enough or challengingly enough.

We are simply killing ourselves and our societies because we are eating too much and too much of health damaging foods.

Moving less, eating more poor food and eating too much are the reasons why our risk and even worse our children’s risk of obesity have increased.

In countries like Australia, the USA & Great Britain the number of overweight and obese citizens was in the minority 20 years ago.

Today, dare I say, the scales have tipped and lean, healthy weight individuals are the minority.

Hard to believe? According to HCF – one of Australia’s top health insurance providers and the Australian National Health Survey and the Australian Bureau of Statistics:

Sixty-five per cent of men and 45 per cent of women are now overweight or obese, says the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. That’s an increase of around 15 per cent among both sexes since 1980.
In the 10-year period from 1985 to 1995, the level of combined overweight/obesity in Australian children more than doubled.
Analysis of data collected in state surveys between 1967 and 1997 shows that from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s the prevalence of obesity tripled
The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently reported that, of a sample of 13,000 Australians over the age of 18, only 52 per cent say they regularly take part in a sport or physical activity.
That’s barely one in two Australians and down from the 59 per cent who said they did so in 1999.
Further the Australia National Health Service reports that 61.4% of the Australian population are either overweight or obese

In the US of A it is reported that:

America has the largest population of overweight and obese individuals. (Although some sources say that Australia has that most dubious of Honours…)
33% of the population are obese – that is a 60% increase from 20 years ago.
1 in 6 American children are obese.
There are over 300,000 obesity related deaths per year, second only to tobacco related deaths.
Two-thirds, or 167 million Americans, are overweight. One-third of those individuals are clinically obese.

Scary stuff – if you want to learn more you can go here:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity

Our ability to stay lean & healthy began to erode significantly with the introduction of processed foods loaded with sugar and extra calories. It skyrocketed with the now discredited food pyramid that de-emphasised fats & protein & stressed bread & ’carbs’ and got even worse when food manufacturers changed to using high fructose corn syrup in their products as a cheaper replacement for more traditionaltypes of sugars.

But if you’re not a part of these stats – Congratulations – you are in what appears to be a dwindling minority…

But if you a part of these stats – what does it mean?

Say you’re 10, 20, or 30 pounds over fat (I prefer to think, as you know, in terms of fat not weight) is this really a big deal? After all in most urban cases, we don’t depend upon our physical fitness to put food on the table or pay the bills. Sure you might not look great naked and your clothes are a little tight, the stairs make you puff and the kids (before they get too fat as well) run you ragged but what’s the big deal? Your joints may creak, your back ache, your Doctor starts talking about adult onset diabetes but hey you’ll lose the extra 20 pounds; that belly centred 10 kilos of extraneous padding at some point. Right?

The evidence suggests not.

Remember we can’t put or forks down, can’t move more or even choose the right health affirming foods.

That extra 10 kilos or even 10 pounds are putting your health at an increased risk of future health complications.

Being over fat puts into place the processes that create unhealthy living conditions, stops fat loss and heads you firmly towards a host of avoidable health issues.

Being over fat:

Increases your chance of disease
Increases inflammation in your body and
Alters the function of fat cells from being health supportive to not.

Being too fat can make your fat cells unhealthy.

Your Fat Cells Are Becoming Unhealthy

By unhealthy I mean that they stop working the way they are supposed to. Healthy fat cells help control energy expenditure and metabolism by releasing amongst them – leptin. Leptin is an important regulator of fat storage.

Leptin, amongst other things tells out brain when we are full signalling the release of ghrelin to make us feel satiated and unable to eat any more.

Leptin comes in two forms, one bound and one free. Lean people have higher amounts of bound Leptin, while obese individuals have higher free Leptin levels. Researchers believe that high free Leptin levels means less of it reaches the brain to signal fullness and ghrelin release – result we keep eating, take in too many calories and store them as fat.

Obese individuals appear to lack the ability to tell their brain to stop eating!

This results in increased appetite, increased cortisol levels, and resistance to the good hormones.

Obesity is also associated with lower levels of Adiponectin than their lean counterparts. Low levels of Adiponectin are associated with increased body fat mass, poorer insulin response, Leptin, and insulin resistance. Adiponectin is a protein which is secreted by fat cells and like Leptin; it has positive effects on obesity.

Adiponectin has anti-inflammatory effects on the walls of the arteries and adipose tissue. Adiponectin works to break down fatty acids in muscle tissue; with this breakdown process resulting in better sensitivity to insulin.

This helps to utilise fatty acids for fuel rather than of storing them in other tissue. This means there is less toxic fat, making us more efficient at utilising insulin.

Without enough Adiponectin, your body is unable to breakdown fat in the blood, resulting in the fat landing in other organs and sites on your body.

Worst of all is that its levels are lower in obese folk. And lower levels of favours inflammation.

Increased Inflammatory Response

Disease creates a break in your body’s homeostatic condition and it responds usually by initiating an inflammatory response as it tries to contain the factor disturbing the equilibrium or actively attacking the body itself.

Inflammation in and of itself can be a good thing – as a part of our body’s immune & repair response it heals wounds, fights of bacteria & viruses.

But when an inflammation response does not stop our cells begin to become inflamed themselves and develop resistance to the hormones that keep our fat cells healthy.

One function of healthy fat cells is the ability to store fat from your blood.

Thing is when prolonged inflammation meets adipose tissue you gain a reduced ability to store fat. This means that increased levels of sugar & fatty acids are in the blood and in order to deal with these our body releases more insulin to force these into storage. It also releases increased levels of cortisol. What is cortisol famous for? Storing excess calories as belly fat.

Increased cortisol leads to higher belly fat levels.

Increased belly fat stores are a known indicator of increased disease risk and inflammation in the body. Increased inflammation also leads to arthritis & gout – painful disfiguring diseases whose incidence worldwide has jumped dramatically the last 3 decades – again lead by those countries following a Western diet.

Of course once your fat cells are becoming inflamed and start to refuse insulin its proper action you’ve established a nice circuit that will keep repeating with only a single way off – lose the excess fat.

Increased Disease Risk

Carrying extra bodyfat is proven beyond all doubt to increase your risk of developing a host of diseases or worsening some you are already genetically predisposed to.

Diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, arthritis, and gout are just a few…

The world wide rise in diabetes has mirrored the rise in obesity. In fact if you want to stop Type II diabetes – lose that gut!

Think of this 221 million people worldwide suffer from some form of diabetes and nearly all of them are in societies that follow a Western diet. America has over 13 million of these folk alone…

It is a no-brainer over fat folk have a much greater risk of developing chronic debilitating disease than lean folk.

Get too fat? Get Sick!!

Like diabetes, heart disease has risen dramatically side by side with obesity – again in those countries & societies that follow the typical Western diet. Heart troubles are amongst the most preventable of diseases. If you are over fat you stand a 10 -50% greater chance of dying from obesity related condition – and heart disease is the main one.

Chronic diseases can possibly lead to premature death.

Being just a few pounds over fat starts you down a dangerous path.

The answer is the same as it has always been – by actively seeking to recondition your metabolism you can alter your body’s make up, drop the extra fat, release more of the good hormones, reset you body’s homeostatic point and avoid the increased risks of chronic disease incubation.

Move LOTS more, eat nutrient dense, calorie sparse foods, eat lots of protein, vegetables & fruit, avoid boxed foods, go easy on the alcohol, cut down sugars, avoid trans fats & HFCS.

It sounds complicated but it’s not – and you can start by putting down your fork more often and

earlier.

By increasing physical activity, watching the source of your calories, and the amount of calories you eat, will eventually lead to lower fat stores and decreased disease risk.

By making intelligent lifestyle changes to curb your body fat gain you will reduce your risk factors for developing chronic diseases.

I’ve already drawn you attention to the fact that being over fat causes your Adiponectin levels to drop and that when they drop fatty acid metabolism is adversely affected. By shedding the extra body fat, you help your body raise Adiponectin levels. This means that you body is then able to burn more calories by utilising fatty acids properly.

Losing body fat helps your body release the right hormones, at the right time, which in turn helps you burn more fat. People who lose fat can increase their Adiponectin levels.

It is never too late to lose body fat. When you do your fat cells actually return to normal functioning, becoming healthy again.

See you next week.

Metabolism – What it is & How you can make it work for you Part 9

Posted on August 16, 2012 by jghethe

How to Keep Your Metabolism Fired-Up as You Age (How to slow the slowing…):

Welcome back to the next to last on this series aboiut your metabolism.

Your Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR is where the majority of our calorie / kilojoule use takes place. The higher this is, the less fat we carry. You see, as we’ve discussed before decreases in your RMR are heavily associated with the reduction of lean muscle tissue.

Age-related weight gain is purely a function of the loss of muscle.

Muscle is a hungry tissue and requires a lot of calories to maintain. The more functional muscle mass you have the faster your metabolism and the lower your fat stores. Muscle tissue atrophies –diminishes – as we age because in general we move less, exercise less and become generally physically less active.

While it’s not entirely clear whether this muscle loss is just a result of the ageing process or because most people become less and less active as they get older, what is clear that you do not have to accept it as inevitable.

It is hard to argue with your mitochondria, but nonetheless you can offset many of the factors which cause the slowing of your metabolism. The quickest way to disrupt your current metabolic set point and loosen your current homeostatic state is through metabolically costly exercise. Challenging regular exercise actually increases the number of mitochondria and as we’ve seen already, the more of these little ‘furnaces’ you have, the more calories you burn. (See the soon to be released Lose 20 in 30 Work Out Manual)

Research has shown that regular, metabolically taxing strength and resistance training can reduce, reverse or even prevent this muscle loss. This in turn leads to less fat. So the first way we can work to negate the

The best insurance against age-related fat gain is lifting weights…

metabolic slowing effects of aging is by maintaining our muscle mass through regular challenging conscious exercise.

Move more and lift weights dammit!

However the type, duration and choice of exercises are vitally important. A specific exercise protocol called Metabolic Conditioning (referred to as Metabolic Chains in the promised Lose 20 in 30 program) has to be used. The up coming Lose 20 in 30 Exercise Manual has all of the details on this.

But exercise is only one of a number of the lifestyle modifications that you can adopt to keep your metabolic rate fired-up – regardless of your age.

What can I do to increase or maintain my metabolic rate as I age?

You can (Warning – recap of some previous information ahead!!):

Ensure that you engage in at least 20 to 25 minutes of medium to high metabolic cost exercise every second day
Ensure that you engage in 20 – 35 minutes of moderate physical activity on the alternate days.
Begin eating more small meals throughout the days instead of just 1 or 2 larger meals.
Look for other small ways to move more and stay more active. Take a parking spot away from the main entrance of the mall. Likewise do the now clichéd but still effective, take the steps instead of the elevator. Give the dog an extra walk each day or just go for a walk each evening after dinner etc etc.
Stop drinking soda & fruit juices and drink more cold water and green tea instead.
Avoid foods that contain high levels of saturated fats and any level of transfats wherever possible.
Sleep – enough & your metabolism thrives, too littel & you get fat – simple really…

Avoid highly processed foods wherever possible especially the ‘whites’ – sugar, flour, rice and other processed carbs.
Don’t eat anything labelled ‘diet’
Try to eat more un – or low processed foods like fruit & veges, fish, eggs and protein.
Eat more protein & fibre.
Add spices to your meals.
Take fish oil
Take Vitamn D ( the D3 version NOT the D2)
Eat like the Lose 20 in 30 Fuel manual suggests – slow, low GI carbs, good fats, lean proteins and as little processed carbs as possible.
Try out stress reducing activities like Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi or start meditating daily. A walk on the beach, in the Park, in a Forest or a Field – are all great stress busters.
Take 500mg of Vitamin C when stressed this will reduce cortisol significantly.
Make love more often.

Your metabolic rate has always been, and will always be, a result of a combination of your activity levels, caloric intake, and the types of foods that you consume. Low or unprocessed foods are simply better for your metabolism and make it easier for your body to maintain a faster metabolism.

It’s very important for all of us, regardless of our ages, to eat better proper foods, more often and to maintain regular levels of physical activity. To a very large degree your metabolic rate is yours to control.

Remember your age or even your sex does not matter, in order to lose fat fast, efficiently and to transform your metabolism three things have to fall into place – you must have an absolute burning desire to change the way you look & feel, you must have a strategic training protocol to follow which disrupts your current

A strong old age – something to aspire to …and within reach for us all.

homeostatic set point and ramps up & re-conditions your metabolism and lastly you must follow a diet that supports the reconditioning of your metabolism by creating a calorie deficit whilst firing up your metabolism and manipulating your hormones.

In the end, age will slow us down. But by staying active and eating well, the experts agree: You can slow the effects of a slowing metabolism.To a very large extent your metabolic rate is yours to control.

Take Away: You’ve heard it before – you don’t have to accept the metabolic slow down of aging – you can offset it!!

54 tips to lose fat

Posted on June 2, 2012 by jghethe

Welcome back!

This week some quick but useful tips to help you lose fat (you’ll notice a lot are food based – remember you can’t out train a bad diet!!)

Be clear on your fat loss goal: Know the amount of fat you want to lose. You’re your time frame. Tell others to invoke accountability. Write in all down in an exercise book or a journal. Be clear.
Have a pair of skinny jeans ready for ‘success’ day. Or a jacket o blouse or bathing costume – whatever. Just have this on display where you can see it every day. It’ll help keep you on track.
Take your ‘before’ pictures. Stick them in a book with your weekly measurements next to your clear goals. (Waist, upper arm, mid-thigh, belly, chest)

No don’t keep these ones, keep the SKINNY ones where you can see them!!
Don’t weigh yourself every day. Weigh yourself the same day at the same time every week. Take your measurements at the same time. Write them down in your book. (Don’t have a fat loss journal – get one – any old exercise book will do.) The best 2 ways to judge your progress is how your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror. Muscle weighs more than fat so you have your weight go up yet be losing fat. Be wary. “
Understand that it’s not all or nothing; if you fall off the fat loss wagon, dust yourself off, don’t beat yourself up and get right back into it!! This is a journey of inches not miles…
Be honest. With yourself— The only person that you fool by sneaking food or eating ‘off reservation’ is yourself.
Eat breakfast. Simply put those that ate a protein heavy breakfast ate less during the day, had more energy and less body fat. It can be eggs & bacon, a protein smoothies, nuts & yoghurt – so long as it is protein plus unprocessed carbs you’re be on the right track.
Drink tea. Lots of research suggests that drinking tea (any tea EXCEPT herbal teas) stimulates your metabolism, works on body weight re-partitioning and lowers your body fat – especially belly fat.
Drink more water. 2 glasses before a meal helps you feel fuller and interacts with fibre from vegetables to bulk them up. Water also helps shift fat by helping your kidneys & liver to function properly. 8 Glasses a day is good rule to follow.
Get at least 8 of these bad boys into each day!

Drop the store juice and sodas: Change to low or no-calorie drinks. Home- made iced tea, Coke Zero, diabetic sodas – all are good alternatives.
Eat more veggies. Calorie sparse, nutrient dense they fill you up, without loading you up with too many calories. Avoid the high fat/high calorie dressings.
Eat eggs. Every day. Forget the cholesterol BS – eggs don’t raise bad cholesterol and are nature’s perfect fast food.
Get enough fibre. Think of fibre like a sponge; it absorbs water and makes you feel full. Focus on fibre, not carbs.
Eat more fruits: No one ever gained weight from eating more fruit even the so called “high sugar” fruits, like bananas, melons and others.
Eat more protein. Lean protein helps satiate you, and increases your metabolism, through the thermic effect of food.
Eat protein at every meal & snack. This maximises the effects of #10
Eat less Grains. Increasingly it seems that grains and grain based foods are not good for us and predispose us to fat gain and a number of debilitating diseases like arthritis. Try to cut down on them. Besides most grain based foods are highly processed and that’s definitely not good for you.
Start meals with soup or a salad. Either will help you feel full more quickly so your

Prefer Chicken? Either is right!!

calories at the meal will be less. E sensible with your soup and dressing choices.
Steak & Salad Rules. Best way to get your veges & lean protein have a steak & salad meal at least once a day.
Add cayenne pepper to your meals. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition showed that when compared to placebo, capsaicin (the active ingredient in cayenne) increased fat burning. Spice up your meals!!
Watch your portions. Each meal try for a palm sized portion of protein and 2 fists of non-processed carbs. Don’t Supersize.
Bake, don’t fry. Slow cook in the oven or quick stir fry on the stove top. Both are healthier than pan frying.
Switch to smaller plates; visually your plate looks fuller and you’ll eat less.
Use a Barbeque or a grill. Less fat, more flavour. Marinade your meat overnight to cut down on the potential of carcinogens from naked flame cooking. Don’t cook or eat well done.
Keep it out of your house – or at least out of sight!!

Keep your house crap free. Chips and Cookies and cakes and banana bread and …you can’t eat them if they’re not in the house. For those of us with families – have less of these in the house and keep them out of sight – in the garage or back shed. Studies show that the food we see more of we eat more of.
Have a big bowl of fresh fruit in plain sight. See above
Don’t grocery shop when you’re hungry. Recipe for disaster. Have a meal or grab a handful of nuts first then go shopping for food otherwise you’ll fill the trolley with all the self-control eroding processed foods you’ve been conditioned to love & want.
Become a nutrition label guru: If you have to eat packaged foods check the labels and put back those with heavy sugars, Trans fats or HFCS.
Decrease/eliminate processed carbs wherever possible. They do nothing for you outside of creating a favourable environment for gaining fat
Eating out? Swap side dishes with steamed veggies. Restaurants will often allow you to switch the fries or chips with steamed veggies; all you have to do is ask.
Order dressing on the side, dip the fork in dressing, and then in the salad.

Ready for what?? Not ready to support health or fat loss…

This saves a ton more dressing than if one was to order it on the side, then poor the entire cup on the salad anyhow. Less calories equals less weight.
Skip buffets. These are a trap to overeating. Don’t.
Skip the Designer Coffees. Great way to get up to an extra 500 calories in one hit. Have black coffee or a tea instead.
Don’t socialise around the food tables at parties; Grab some food and move away from the table otherwise you’re more likely to pick, and eat mindlessly even though you’re not really hungry.
Try to eat slower. It takes approximately 15-20 minutes for your stomach to sense it’s full. Eat too fast and you’ll shovel in more than you need to.
Stay away from the alcohol— I‘ve written on this before – just drink sensibly – 1 or 2 a night is okay but any alcohol will put a dent into your fat loss efforts. Remember your body stops burning fat to deal with alcohol first. Plus having alcohol lowers your inhibition so you overeat other calories too – kebabs at 3 AM anyone??
Take a brown bag lunch. Do this as often as possible – not only will you control what you eat but you’ll save money.
Keep some healthy snacks on hand — like nuts — in your bag, your briefcase or your glove box so you’re prepared at all times. Swap them out regularly so they are always fresh
If you’re working this hard today – carbs aren’t going to be a problem…

Match your carb intake to your energy output. You need fewer carbs on the days you aren’t working out hard than the days when you are. Up the protein on non-workout days to support recovery and satiety.
Have fish oil – several grams a day. Omega-3s have more benefits than possible to list in this short blog – but one is more Omega-3 = less body fat!
Wake up and exercise; not only do you burn more fat but you’re more likely to exercise in the AM than at night after a day in real world.
Lift weights. Heavy weights. Build more muscle, burn more calories.
Do complex exercises like squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, chin-ups, shoulder presses and push-ups. The more muscles you involve in each exercise the more benefit you’ll get. Leave the triceps’ kickbacks to the folk who aren’t serious about getting leaner and stronger.
Cut down rest time between sets. Just because you’re lifting heavy does not mean that you take a 10 minute break between sets. Rest long enough for your breathing to ease and then do the next set. Repeat. This keeps your metabolism surging and those calories burning…
Do intervals. HIIT = Faster fat loss. Study after study continues to show intervals are more effective for fat loss (and in less time) than traditional cardio. Ditch the treadmill and the marathon runs – get down get dirty get lean!!
Sprint twice a week. Sprinters have lower fat and more muscle. Just look at the

A sprinter. ‘Nuff said…

body of a sprinter vs. the body of a marathoner.
If you have a dog, take it for a walk—Aim to do this every day. Set it as a routine.
Buy a pedometer and aim for at least 10,000 steps each day.
At work set a timer. Most of us work at a desk so set a 30 minute timer like ‘Cool Timer’ and get up for a stretch every 30 minutes. Go for a brisk walk after lunch, but sit less and move more.
Try not to use internal email. Whenever possible get up and walk to a co-workers desk.
Eat standing up. In tandem with the above have your snack or lunch at work standing up – you’ll burn more calories. Want quicker meetings? Have them standing up with no chairs in the room.
A classic – Use the stairs, skip the escalator and the lift. Tried and true every bit of additional movement helps you lose fat. Doing this by itself won’t have a huge impact but as a part of the overall effort to move more it helps.
Even at work – move more sit less…

Another classic – Fidget. In Australia the Gut Buster program has this as one of its mainstays – fidgeting. Move more and more often. Get thinner.
Change who you hang out with. If your friends are all overweight, don’t show an interest in getting leaner, eat pizza or other fast foods a few times or more a week then you need to change who you’re hanging with. Research has shown conclusively that the people we hang out with can either assist or undermine our efforts to lose fat and get healthier.

Be well – see you next week.

Carbs are Killing You (the wrong ones that is)

Posted on February 25, 2012 by jghethe

Carbs are killing you more & more research shows that processed carbs are the closest thing to a man made plague of ill health causative facotrs that we’ve seen so far.

Rather than rehash the research this week take a look at this excellent infographic from The Massive Health blog:
See you next week.

The Fat in your diet is not the Fat on your Hips…(or Belly or Thighs or…)

Posted on October 29, 2011 by jghethe

Welcome back!!

There has and continues to be a lot of debate about the best ways to lose weight. Regular readers know that I think that is a poor term – what we want is to drop fat!!

Eating fat in your diet is not associated with cancer

Regardless – if you talk to a Dietician or Nutritionist – they say it is all in the food & calories or else in eliminating particular foods or eating special ones. Doctors tend to say eat less and exercise more. Personal Trainers will emphasise exercise.

One thing that they will all tell you is to eat less dietary fat, that fat in your diet is the enemy and you should eliminate it.

They’re wrong.

More & more research is coming to light that shows that dietary fat is in fact beneficial to your metabolism, your nutrient partitioning and your health. The real message that we should be getting is that most fats are good.

The Chairman of of the Department of Nutrition of the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr Walter Willett, said back in 2000 that ” the relationship of fat intake to health is one of the areas that we have examined in detail over the last 20 years in our 2 cohort studies: The Nurses Health Study & the Health Professionals Follow Up Study. We found virtually no relationship between the percentage of calories from fat and any important health outcome.” (Bold & Italics mine)

So what you say – that was 11 years ago… but wait a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition saw researchers reporting on the results of a recent study looked at the relationship of dietary fat and cancer risk using data taken from 4 separate studies in Great Britain.

But Trans fats will increase your cancer risk...

They looked at the data from 657 breast cancer cases in pre and post menopausal women and compared this data to 1911 control subjects. Essentially they crossed tracked the results with the incidence of breat cancer, with a specific interest in this and the intake of saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturtated fats.

They were unable to find any link.

Yep none. In fact what they did find was that those with a higher dietary fat intake actually enjoyed a slight protective effect. In fact the highest fat intake when compared to the lowest has a 10% reduction in the liklihood of breast cancer.

Now before you go off and start eating deep fried foods etc there are a couple of things for you to put into perspective:

Let’s be very clear – your risk of various cancers (not to mention other chronic health ailments) rises in line with your body fat – this is an identified and recognised medical fact.

Carrying extra body fat, especially a lot of extra body fat is a definite risk factor for many cancer types. Fat cells pump out hormones and inflammatory substances which can increase the risk of cancer (&diabetes & heart disease &…)

The fat on your plate, the marbling in your steak – are not the same as the fat on your belly or on your hips.

You don’t get fat from eating fat. Fat does not magically go from your plate through your digestive system & end up on your waist. You get fat from eating more calories than your body needs for your level of activity.

The percentage of fat in the excess food in your diet does not matter at all when it comes to putting on fat.

It's the Trans fats that'll do you in...

Likewise if you are lean & active – if you are eating calories in line with what your body needs for fuel & to stay lean, then the percentage of those calories that come from fat doesn’t matter either.

The fact is that dietary fat intake has little to no effect on insulin and doesn’t stimulate the fat storing hormones in the same way that an identical number of extra calories from sugar, or cereals or bread or pastries will.

There is one fat, and one fat only to be vigilant about: Trans fats. These, along with high fructose corn syrup are man made disasters and responsible for more health issues than any thing else we have in our diets.

If the fat on your plate has been excessively heated, or does not come from a whole food source, then don’t eat it.

So do something about the fat on your belly & hips – but don’t lose too much sleep about the fat on your plate or in your diet (so long as it is not transfats!!) We know that in order to lose fat you have to increase your metabolism through regular challenging exercise, use foods in a strategic way to support a faster metabolism and to manipulate your hormones (Leptin, Ghrelin etc) and generally avoid nutrient sparse but energy dense processed foods.

In a nut shell – you can’t out train a poor diet. But you can lose fat quicker and become healthier by combining these three things:

Exercise
Food choice
The intelligent use of 1 & 2 to manipulate your hormones

We can't all look like this, but dietary fat in line with our calorie needs won't be the reason if we don't...

In reality, the key to losing body fat is to adopt a strategic, holistic approach that emphasises an intelligent diet, good challenging exercise and lots of rest.

The rules are simple – eat as much nutrient dense, unprocessed, as-close-to-whole-foods as possible, line up your calorie intake with your energy needs, exercise often & in a challenging fashion, move more, sit less and get a full night’s sleep.

Not only will you be healthier anbd happier but you’ll stop worrying about bogeymen like dietary fat.