Don't fear dietary fat

In our body-obsessed society, there’s a lot of confusion on dietary fat.
“Fat makes you fat” has controlled the population mindset for many decades.

Thankfully, nutrition research has evolved to prove that dietary fat, in the right amounts and types, is important to a healthy functioning body. In my varied and nutritionally-balanced diet, you'll find olive oil, eggs, avocado, nuts, seeds, 2% dairy, cheese and peanut butter. Yum, yum, yum. 

Due to its slow digestion time, fat may contribute to satiety, delaying the onset of hunger pangs, cravings and overeating. Fat also acts as an energy reserve, provides fat soluble vitamins, supplies essential fatty acids, offers thermal insulation and protects vital organs. 

Because it’s easy to overeat on delicious high-fat cakes, cookies and ice cream, it’s important to prioritize fat from natural sources, primarily plants.  Bottom line: there’s no need to fear fat in your diet.

So what about the Keto diet? 

On the surface, this high-fat, low carb diet sounds attractive, especially with success stories boasting about a drop in appetite, rapid weight loss and improved endurance. In a ketogenic diet, ~75% of calories come from fats, 20% from protein and ~ 5% from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are restricted to less than 50g per day, which looks like one cup milk and 1.5 cup cereal.

Under normal physiological conditions, glucose is the brain’s major energy source. Under ketosis, the body must find an alternative energy source to maintain normal brain cell metabolism since it's no longer obtaining glucose from carbohydrates. Fatty acids are broken down in the liver to produce ketones, which then travel to the brain to be used as the new fuel source. The ketogenic diet was originally developed as a drug-free way to treat epilepsy.

Although current literature has shown metabolic adaptions from a high-fat, carbohydrate restricted diet, the performance and health benefits are not consistent enough to encourage this style of eating for athletes. Implications include impaired metabolism, hypoglycemia, increased sickness/injury, hormonal disturbance, dehydration, disordered eating, restless sleep, nutrient deficiencies, reduced capacity to utilize carbs, and central nervous system fatigue. 

To learn more about dietary fat and how to include it (along with carbohydrates and protein) in your healthy and performance-enhancing diet to support your fitness, health and body composition goals, you'll find a lot of easy-to-read info in my new book Essential Sports Nutrition. 

Because my line of work focuses specifically on sport/athletes, I wanted to pass along a very informative read from a friend of mine, Jenna Braddock (and fellow Registered Dietitian) who wrote an excellent and well-researched post on the Keto diet that I feel will help answer your questions on the Keto diet. 

The Keto Diet - questions answered