Low-fat yoghurts, skinny lattes, egg white omelettes—these have certainly been the trend in the last thirty years, but they may just be making us age much faster. We need fat, and in fact, we have been enjoying the many benefits of fat for thousands of years prior to the last thirty or forty. Christine Cronau, nutritionist, and author of Bring Back the Fat shares why eating fat is good for our skin.
And, I am not just referring to avocado and nuts, I am talking about real fats. Butter, coconut oil, eggs (with their yolks), fatty bacon, crispy duck skin—all the delicious fats we have spent years avoiding because we thought they were bad for us.
Natural fats never made us fat and they didn’t cause heart disease. We got it wrong!
Back in the early 1800s, our diet was based on protein and fat with some carbohydrate. We were not fat and heart disease was practically non-existent. But our diets changed. In the late 1800s, we started eating a lot more sugar and carbohydrate, and replacing natural fats with cheaper alternatives, such as margarine. By 1926, the first case of a heart attack was documented, but heart disease was still rare. Doctors ignored research about cardiovascular disease because it simply wasn’t an issue they were seeing in their clinics.
However, by the 1950s, rates of heart disease were said to be skyrocketing. Scientists were scrambling for a solution. There were a few theories, and one of those theories was saturated fat. For that theory to be valid, you would think that saturated fat consumption had increased, but it had done the opposite. Cheaper, industrially processed fats had become extremely popular, and replaced many of the traditional fats. We also started eating boxed convenience foods such as breakfast cereals. In the late 1800s, a typical breakfast was eggs, bacon, butter, hotcakes (corn patties fried in lard), and coffee, but a traditional cooked breakfast was replaced with cereal that could be prepared in less than a minute.
In fact, research shows there was no evidence at all showing that saturated fat caused heart disease, and the scientists at the time were very vocal with their objections to the low-fat theory. However, the cholesterol hypothesis was still used to change our dietary guidelines. The very first guidelines were written by the McGovern Committee in 1977 in the US, and in the meeting prior to the change, one of these scientists pleaded with the committee to wait until there was evidence. Senator McGovern said, “We sentators do not have the luxury that a research scientist does of waiting until every last shred of evidence is in.”
The guidelines were changed, and the low-fat era was born. But it had devastating health consequences. When we vilified fats, we started eating more of the very things that were causing the issue in the first place—sugar and carbohydrate. Now our dietary guidelines encourage us to get most of our energy from carbohydrate, strictly limiting quality fats such as butter and coconut oil.
The problem is that humans can only use or store a small amount of glucose (from carbohydrate) at any one time. If we consume more than that, we generally have to store it as fat, and we end up with all sorts of metabolic complications, such as insulin resistance, which increases our risk for type II diabetes, heart disease, and more. In addition, fat is critical to good health and healthy ageing.
Fat is essential for just about every bodily function, including hormone production, healthy brain function, good organ function, and more. It is also essential for healthy cell function, and this is why a lack of fat in the diet makes us age faster.
The cell membrane is made mostly of fat. We need to eat quality, natural fats to keep our cell membranes strong and healthy. A low-fat diet makes the cell membrane weak, making it impossible to keep the cell hydrated and plump. The cell then starts to shrivel, which is what gives the appearance of wrinkles.
Not only that, we have been convinced to replace natural fats with highly processed, damaged fats, such as vegetable oil, margarine, and spreads. The damaged fatty acids make the cell membrane even weaker. In addition, they create inflammation and oxidation within the body, both of which contribute to premature ageing.
Unfortunately, the low-fat era was the biggest failed experiment of all time. It is now time to turn back the clock and go back to eating real food with real fat. Fifteen years ago, I did just that. I radically changed my diet. I eat eggs, butter, bacon, all the fat on my meat, I enjoy whipped cream, and all the other delicious food I previously avoided. And, I feel better now in my mid 40s than I ever did in my 20s.
The best thing we can do for our skin—and our health—is to bring back the fat.
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