Is a low fat diet bad?

[tracy1976]

Is a low fat diet really the way to go or is that old fashioned information? I’m still seeing low fat products a lot in the stores.

[Penny]

I think that a low fat diet is out of date. Some good fats actually help with weight loss. You can't put them all in the same category.

[tobetinytina]

I just recently read an article that said that the latest studies are starting to show that there isn’t even such thing as “bad fats” anymore. So even if you used to think that cutting fats out of your diet was just a matter of getting rid of the bad ones, you’re not on the right track, etiher. It’s just a matter of eating whole foods (not processed ones) and making sure that you are eating everything in moderation. Concentrate on portion size and getting tons of veggies into your diet every day. If you do that, you’re doing it right. None of the low fat, low carb, low anything else is going to help you. As long as the food that you’re eating is from nature in some way and not from a machine, then you’ll be able to know that you’re doing the right thing for your body. If you combine that with exercise then you’ll have everything that you need to get to the right body weight, stay there, and then live a long and healthy life!

[Tiff]

I just recently read an article that said that the latest studies are starting to show that there isn’t even such thing as “bad fats” anymore. So even if you used to think that cutting fats out of your diet was just a matter of getting rid of the bad ones, you’re not on the right track, etiher. It’s just a matter of eating whole foods (not processed ones) and making sure that you are eating everything in moderation. Concentrate on portion size and getting tons of veggies into your diet every day. If you do that, you’re doing it right. None of the low fat, low carb, low anything else is going to help you. As long as the food that you’re eating is from nature in some way and not from a machine, then you’ll be able to know that you’re doing the right thing for your body. If you combine that with exercise then you’ll have everything that you need to get to the right body weight, stay there, and then live a long and healthy life!

I try not to just believe every study that is released. They do help to give a better understanding, of course. Studies have a lot of value. But at the same time, there are studies out there that prove just about everything. It's important to wait until there has been a lot of research to create a pool of evidence instead of just a single one that makes a suggestion that goes against everything that we have ever believed about nutrition in terms of our understanding of fats.

I do believe that it's important just to aim for an overall balanced diet and not eat too much or too little of anything. That way, even if there is something that is bad for you, you're still not getting too much of it!

[bonniekins]

I think that a low fat diet is actually good. Just don't aim for a NO fat diet. You need to reduce your fats and make sure that they don't represent too much of what you eat if you want to be healthy and lose weight. So in that, I think that a low fat diet really is the way to go.

Don't be suckered by all of the low fat or no fat products that just use sugars and salts/sodium to put the flavor back in. YOu're just eating something worse for you!

[PaulLo]

Low fat diets are very old fashioned. science has come a long way since then.

[Penny]

I think that a low fat diet is actually good. Just don't aim for a NO fat diet. You need to reduce your fats and make sure that they don't represent too much of what you eat if you want to be healthy and lose weight. So in that, I think that a low fat diet really is the way to go.

Don't be suckered by all of the low fat or no fat products that just use sugars and salts/sodium to put the flavor back in. YOu're just eating something worse for you!

That's a really good point, Bonniekins. It's not that low fat diets aren't a good idea, it's just that you shouldn't take them to the extreme. Plus those products are awful a lot of the times. I've seen ones that are way lower in fat but way higher in calories!

[bhollytba]

I think Americans typically eat too much fat as a society so I do a semi-lowfat diet to kind of counteract that. But certain vitamins and minerals are fat-soluable, so if you don't eat any fat you don't absorb those.

Some fat is good, but too much fat is bad! (Honestly too much of anything is bad and the typical american diet is too high in carbs, salt, and fat...)