TOP 10* GLOBAL HEALTH COACH (*PRIMAL HEALTH)

Why Do We Get FAT?

The Old Days

Before we started believing the false science about fat and cholesterol, we were lean and did not develop many of the diseases that afflict a significant proportion of the world today. Prior to the 1970s, our grandparents and even some of our parents cooked with lard, butter, or duck fat.

In those days, obesity and diabetes rates were very low. Today, supermarket is full of low-fat products that come with Heart Foundation Ticks. Many of these so-called healthy foods are full of sugar, additives, genetically modified grains/flour, and toxic vegetable oil products.

The thing is that low-fat foods taste awful unless lots of sugar is added. The common misconception that when you eat fat, you get fat is just plain wrong. Why?

In the ‘60s and early ‘70s, cardiovascular disease (CVD) was becoming more prevalent in the USA. CVD was seen as the no. 1 health problem in the U.S. Well-intentioned scientists had an invalid hypothesis that there was a link between dietary cholesterol intake and CVD.

New dietary guidelines – the biggest public health trial in history

In response to this incorrect science, the government released new dietary guidelines – low-fat, high-carbohydrate food was the order of the day in the newly developed food pyramid. People stopped eating healthy fats and started using highly processed vegetable oils.

These oils have an adverse effect on our bodies right down to the cellular level, and therefore disrupt every system within our body. People were also encouraged to eat high-carbohydrate foods.

Andre’s Tips

Watch this short 5-minute video. How many overweight or obese people do you see in this video from the 1970s?

When we eat highly processed, nutrient-void carbohydrates, they can cause dramatic surges of glucose into the bloodstream.

These constant surges of too much glucose from highly processed food being released into the bloodstream cause many problems for the organs that are trying to control our blood sugar regulation – namely, the pancreas, liver, and adrenal glands. These organs eventually become exhausted and further impact other systems within the body.

Blood Sugar Dysfunction is Killing Us

As glucose levels soar, excessive amounts of insulin are needed to bring the body back into homeostasis. However, insulin is a storage hormone.

Yes, that’s right – it is a FAT storage hormone. Most people think its job is to lower blood sugar, but this is not true. Its main job is to transport glucose to the cells for energy and then store any excess in the muscles and liver.

When we constantly have too much glucose and therefore too much insulin in our blood, eventually, the liver and muscles become full, and the insulin then carries the glucose to the adipose tissue to be stored as triglycerides. This is the cause of us putting on weight, especially visceral fat around the tummy.

It is therefore the consumption of medium and high levels of carbohydrate foods, along with poor-quality hydrogenated vegetable oils, that have caused us to become fat, not the consumption of healthy animal fats.

Unfortunately, we have all been sold the biggest health lie in the history of the world, and this has created a global epidemic of chronic disease… and massive wealth for a small number of massive global processed food corporations that are complicit in helping people to an early grave.

Andre’s Key Point

Blood sugar regulation is a hardwired system in our bodies. Our bodies have the innate intelligence to regulate all their systems. However, today, the intelligence of the body has been largely impeded by stress.

This stress is not just the normal stress you would think about, but rather the significant stress our bodies are put under by having to react to hourly dips and high of blood sugar levels.

Our Fear of Fat is Based on False Science

Our fear of the very thing that we are led to believe makes us FAT and gives us heart disease is actually the one thing that, if we include it in our diet, can help improve our health.

The best macronutrient for the heart is FAT – our hearts need FAT to operate in an optimized state. Inflammation is the true cause of heart disease. So what causes inflammation? You guessed it: high-carb diets, high insulin levels, processed foods, stress, smoking, and alcohol.

Low cholesterol is not healthy. Low cholesterol is linked with depression, aggression, Alzheimer’s, and suicidal thoughts, to name only a few negatives. Cholesterol is required to make brain cells. You need cholesterol for memory and cognitive function.

Yes, the pharmaceutical industry that makes $30 billion a year is now even pushing for children to take cholesterol-lowering drugs when they are as young as 5 years. T

hey are driving to change the health policies of safe levels of cholesterol. If that isn’t like putting the fox in the chicken coop, I don’t know what is.

Summary

Well-meaning researchers wanted to cure the population of heart disease, but they jumped in too fast and sought fame, and they started passionate experiments with ingrained hypotheses.

When the results did not align, they discarded those results and only used the data that supported their beliefs. They then gained positions on the most influential boards and government panels to influence dietary guidelines.

They jumped the gun. The notion that fat makes you fat and eating cholesterol raises your cholesterol are ingrained in our beliefs and seem logical and true. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is this simple concept of “fat makes you fat and eating cholesterol raises your cholesterol” that actually requires a lot of science and understanding to de-bunk, and therein lies the problem.

To prove a simple theory wrong, you have to have a great understanding to truly believe what is counterintuitive. I and many others call this “challenging a belief.”

Andre’s Tip

Sugar of all types is a drug that strips us of our innate intelligence and our dynamic balance to manage our bodies and health. Remember, most low-fat foods are full of sugar.

Let’s challenge beliefs more, as sometimes, we will find that our beliefs are wrong – like that eating healthy fats makes you fat.

If this has piqued your interest, head over to my resources page – subscribe to my newsletter and you’ll be able to access plenty more useful content and hints directly from my members-only resource page.

Andre’s Tip

Clinical trial research shows that people who reduce total carbs are the ones who see the benefit in terms of weight loss, blood glucose control, and lipid markers.

If you really want to get one of the best books on this topic, Nina Teicholz, who reviewed my blog post, provided me with the note below to make more people aware of her book, which I have now read three times and is an international best-seller.

The Big Fat Surprise explains the politics, personalities, and history of how we came to believe that dietary fat is bad for our health. The Big Fat Surprise was also the first mainstream publication to make the full argument for why saturated fats – the kind found in dairy, meat, and eggs – are not bad for our health.

The Economist named it the best science book of 2014 and called it a “nutrition thriller.” The BMJ praised the book in an extensive review, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition said, “All scientists…and every nutrition science professional…should read this book.”

Download a pdf version of “Why Do We Get FAT?” (239 kB)


About the Author

Andre Obradovic

Andre Obradovic is an ICF Leadership PPC Level Coach, A Primal Health Coach, a Certified Low Carb Healthy Fat Coach, & a Certified Personal Trainer. Andre is also a Founding member of the Dr. Phil Maffetone MAF certified Coach. He is an Ambassador for the Noakes Foundation, and a regular subject matter expert lecturer for the Nutrition Network (a part of the Noakes Foundation) Andre has completed 16 x 70.3 Ironmans and in 2017 he competed in the 70.3 Ironman World Championships. He has completed 18 Marathons and over 30 Half Marathons. Andre currently focuses his athletic competition on Track and Field with the occasional Marathon.

6 comments on “Why Do We Get FAT?”

    1. Thanks Dave please share with you friends and as many people as you can it is a critical message

  1. Amen. I agree whole heartedly. Thank you for writing such an excellent and easy to understand piece. I follow an autoimmune protocol for my thyroid illness (Hashimotos) and no doubt I brought that on from years of too much sugar, processed crap, stress, and I'm sure antibiotics and birth control didn't help. I now eat lots of excellent fats and no sugar, gluten or processed food ...and I feel better at 41 then I did at 21. I also read and love Paul Pitchford's book, Healing with Whole a Foods. I'm a health and life coach today and talk about our need for good fats all the time. I'll certainly refer others to your article. Blessings, Julie

    1. Thank you so much Julie, yes our health can really be changed by good healthy food. Not the food we think is healthy, but real food. We really need to create change in the world. I can not thank you enough for your kind words and your post. Maybe we could do a post together.. focused on Hashimotos? Look forward to hearing from you. Eat well.. Andre

  2. Great piece Andre, to many people are ignoring the signs that are in front of them. We are eating ourselves to death..

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