Women, Eat More Fat!

Zeel.com tweeted about a new book called Why Women Need Fat.  The book is written by two male doctors and  uses the science of evolutionary biology to collect and present data that states a clear case of healthy women eating saturated fat.  Saturated fat?! Gasp!  Yes it’s true.  This is not the first we’ve heard of scientific evidence pointing to the consumption of fats, including saturated ones, as part of a healthy diet that actually promotes keeping a healthy weight.

We recently wrote a post discussing exactly a subject covered in the new book: fake health foods.  Many of the trendy “health” foods classified as low fat are now being looked at as responsible for the rise of obesity and heart disease in America.  It is true that Americans, on average, are overweight and this issue must be rectified starting as early in childhood as possible.  But it is not at the fault of eating saturated fats.  If you want a cursory look at the explanations given for the thesis of the book then read this excellent article that interviews one of the authors on Salon.com.

This book comes at such a necessary time.  Women are continually pressured and obsessed with looking like many of the unattainable physical images propagated by our celebrity culture. Low-fat and no-fat foods have been replacing traditional whole foods like whole milks, cheeses, eggs, and oils–all of which contain healthy fats like Omega-3.  Why Women Need Fat explains that many of the health foods and unhealthy fried foods our nation has adopted as part of the Standard American Diet (SAD) are full of Omega-6 fatty acids. This imblanaced consumpution of Omega-6 may actually lead to unhealthy weight gain.

Dr. Gaulin explains, “Omega-6s are one category of polyunsaturated fats found in seeds and grains. Now, it’s not bad to eat grains, it’s not bad to eat corn, and it’s not bad to eat soybeans. What is bad is that food processors extract and concentrate these oils from plants. In an ear of corn there isn’t that much corn oil, but when you subject it to industrial processing and extract everything but the oil, now you’ve got a lot of omega-6. It’s this heavy industrial processing of seed crops that makes our diet so unnatural. Omega-6s make us fat in a variety of ways. They promote fat storage. Omega-6 is also the precursor for certain signaling molecules called endocannabinoids. Will likes to call them the body’s home-grown version of marijuana. Endocannabinoids give you the munchies just like cannabis does. So the omega-6s are telling the body, “Store the fat you have.” And they are also telling the body, “Eat more, I’m hungry!”

We’re hoping that all women will go out and read this book. Even if one can’t personally identify with evolutionary theory, much of the evidence presented in this book is easily accessible and digestible.  Our hope is that women will empower themselves with information that can keep them happy and healthy.  So many women are over-dieting and starving themselves resulting in dangergously low body fat percentages.  Sacrificing their health for image results in many health problems including amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation due to low body fat.  Once this information becomes more available unhealthy “health” foods can stop being purchased and there can be a return to healthy eating, healthy living, and happier/healthier women.