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Old 07-07-2010, 04:17 PM   #1  
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Default Cutting Saturated Fat...

Well, I've decided it's probably a good idea for me to try to reduce the amount of saturated fat I consume. Not that I eat all that much, but with my calorie limit a glass of whole milk + yogurt [which is nonfat, but I'd prefer not to consume the aspartame in it] for breakfast is enough for it to be a pretty large percent of my calories a day.

I'm going to switch to non-fat milk [no big deal] and switch my morning breakfast of yogurt to something else, idk what yet as I don't usually have much time in the morning, probably whole grain cereal.

I understand that this means that I'll have to go mostly vegetarian [which is totally fine, I'm already that way pretty much], so my diet will mostly consist of chicken breast and fish for protein as well as legumes and what not. I already use olive oil and all that so this tiny adjustment shouldn't take much effort or many sacrifices.

Does anyone have any feedback, tips, thoughts, general knowledge about this that they could share with me?
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Old 07-07-2010, 04:45 PM   #2  
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Because it contributes to a higher cholesterol level which increases my chance of having a heart attack or stroke.
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Old 07-07-2010, 05:09 PM   #3  
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There is some debate whther or not saturated fat is the evil it has been made out to be. This Men's Health article was eye opening for me:

http://www.menshealth.com/men/health...10000013281eac

Here are a couple other links to give you something to think about:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/

http://www.easy-immune-health.com/da...rated-fat.html

I'm not recommending we go out and live on bacon and cheese but I really don't think they can't be part of your diet and things like 1% milk and chicken are certainly not (in my opinion) going to kill you.

(as for your 0% fat yogurt - I've gone from low fat sweetened with sugar to 0 fat plain greek which I either sweeten with a bit of maple syrup (I liv ein Vermont, maple is manditory) or this time of year with local fresh berries. All he goodness of yogurt and none of the fake chemical sweetners or the fat. I love love love my yogurt. (and my bacon and cheese!)
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Old 07-07-2010, 06:28 PM   #4  
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Here's an interesting article by Dr. Andrew Weil:

Dr. Andrew WeilFounder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine
Posted: July 2, 2010 08:00 AM
Fat or Carbs: Which Is Worse?
In my home state of Arizona, a restaurant named "Heart Attack Grill" does brisk business in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb. Waitresses in nurse-themed uniforms with miniskirts deliver single, double, triple and quadruple "bypass burgers" (featuring one, two, three and four hefty patties, respectively) dripping with cheese, to patrons who wear hospital gowns that double as bibs. The motto: "Taste Worth Dying For!"

Now, there is much for a medical doctor (as opposed to "Dr. Jon," the stethoscope-wearing, burger-flipping owner) to dislike in this establishment. If you visit, I implore you to steer clear of the white-flour buns, the sugary sodas and the piles of "flatliner fries" that accompany the burgers in the restaurant's signature bedpan plates. This is precisely the sort of processed-carbohydrate-intensive meal that, via this and other fast-food establishments, is propelling the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in America.

But the Grill's essential, in-your-face concept is that the saturated fat in beef clogs arteries, and hamburger meat is consequently among the most heart-damaging foods a human being can consume. As the Grill literature puts it, "The menu names imply coronary bypass surgery, and refer to the danger of developing atherosclerosis from the food's high proportion of saturated fat..." Aimed at a certain crowd, this is clever, edgy marketing. Some people enjoy flirting with death.

The problem? It's not true. The saturated fat lauded in this menu won't kill you. It may even be the safest element of the meal.

Saturated fat is made of fatty acid chains that cannot incorporate additional hydrogen atoms. It is often of animal origin, and is typically solid at room temperature. Its relative safety has been a theme in nutrition science for at least the last decade, but in my view, a significant exoneration took place in March of this year. An analysis that combined the results of 21 studies, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that "saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk" of coronary heart disease, stroke or coronary vascular disease.

Although this was not a true study, it was a big analysis. It aggregated information from nearly 348,000 participants, most of whom were healthy at the start of the studies. They were surveyed about their dietary habits and followed for five to 23 years. In that time, 11,000 developed heart disease or had a stroke. Researcher Ronald M. Krauss of the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Center in California found that there was no difference in the risk of heart disease or stroke between people with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.

This contradicts nutritional dogma we've heard repeated since 1970, when a physiologist named Ancel Keys published his "Seven Countries" study that showed animal fat consumption strongly predicted heart attack risk. His conclusions influenced US dietary guidelines for decades to come, but other researchers pointed out that if 21 other countries had been included in that study, the association that Keys observed would have been seen as extremely weak.

Meanwhile, in the years since, there has been increasing evidence that added sweeteners in foods may contribute to heart disease. Sweeteners appear to lower levels of HDL cholesterol (the higher your HDL, the better) and raise triglycerides (the lower the better). That's according to a study of more than 6,000 adults by Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and published in April in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

People who received at least 25 percent of their daily calories from any type of sweetener had more than triple the normal risk of having low HDL levels than those who consumed less than five percent of their calories from sweeteners. Beyond that, those whose sugar intake made up 17.5 percent or more of daily calories were 20 to 30 percent more likely to have high triglycerides.

Science writer Gary Taubes has done more than anyone else to deconstruct the Keys mythos and replace it with a more sensible view, informed by better science. I recommend his book, Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control and Disease. It presents more than 600 pages of evidence that lead to these conclusions:

Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease or any other chronic disease of civilization.
The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis -- the entire harmonic ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight and well-being.
Sugars -- sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically -- are particularly harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.
Through their direct effects on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other chronic diseases of modern civilization.
My point here is not to promote meat consumption. I've written here previously about humanitarian and ecological reasons to avoid a meat-centric diet, especially if the meat comes from factory-farmed animals. Instead, my purpose is to emphasize that we would be much healthier as a nation if we stopped worrying so much about fats, and instead made a concerted effort to avoid processed, quick-digesting carbohydrates -- especially added sugars. The average American consumes almost 22 teaspoons of sugars that are added to foods each day. This obscene amount is the principal driver of the "diabesity" epidemic, sharply increases coronary risks and promises to make this generation of children the first in American history that will die sooner than their parents.

My Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid emphasizes whole or minimally processed foods -- especially vegetables -- with low glycemic loads. That means consuming these foods keeps blood sugar levels relatively stable, which in turn lowers both fat deposition and heart-disease risk. If you make a concerted effort to eat such foods and avoid sugar, you'll soon lose your taste for it. The natural sugars in fruits and vegetables will provide all the sweetness you desire.

While saturated fat appears to have no effect on heart health, eating too much can crowd out vitamins, minerals and fiber needed for optimal health. So I recommend sticking to a "saturated fat budget" which can be "spent" on an occasional steak (from organic, grass-fed, grass-finished cattle, see LocalHarvest for sources), some butter, or, as I do, high quality, natural cheese a few times a week.

Andrew Weil, M.D., invites you to join the conversation: become a fan on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and check out his Daily Health Tips Blog. Dr. Weil is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the editorial director of www.DrWeil.com.

Follow Dr. Andrew Weil on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrWeil

And another interesting article by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAE78.htm


Last edited by JerseyGyrl; 07-07-2010 at 06:45 PM.
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Old 07-07-2010, 06:47 PM   #5  
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I take the stance of some others here...too many people villify saturated fat, there is lots of evidence of its importance. Here is a glipse of an article on sat. fat and the full article is at the link.


"Saturated fat is also a fantastic source of energy, at least if you trust your body to make the right decision – otherwise, why else would we store excess carbohydrates as saturated body fat? In fact, when we burn body fat for energy, either through exercise or through dieting, we are quite literally consuming huge amounts of saturated (and monounsaturated) fat. Body fat is energy to be used for later; dietary fat is energy to be used immediately. Whether you’re burning through your stores of adipose tissue or downing flagons of warm ghee, all that fat goes through the same processes in your body to be converted to energy. Burn your *** flab, take a bite of fatty rib-eye – it doesn’t matter. Your body treats that fat the same way. As Richard and Tom have said before, losing weight is like eating pure lard, which has nearly the same fatty acid composition as human adipose tissue. To vilify saturated fat is to assume that, over the span of our evolution, our bodies have somehow developed a predilection for a deleterious energy source that contributes to cardiovascular disease. That’s absolutely preposterous, unless Darwin and company somehow got it all wrong with the whole natural selection thing. Somehow, I’m leaning toward trusting the millions of years old case study known as evolution."

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/
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Old 07-07-2010, 07:24 PM   #6  
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In honor of this discussion I braved the stove and had carbonnara for dinner - a whole egg (free range), some bacon (uncured, localvore), and some parmesian cheese (cheap store brand) (along with some whole grain pasta and a huge pile of brocoli and snow peas).

Maybe tomorrow I'll make a quiche before the day heats up too much....
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Old 07-07-2010, 09:56 PM   #7  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladadog View Post
There is some debate whther or not saturated fat is the evil it has been made out to be. This Men's Health article was eye opening for me:

http://www.menshealth.com/men/health...10000013281eac

Here are a couple other links to give you something to think about:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/

http://www.easy-immune-health.com/da...rated-fat.html

I'm not recommending we go out and live on bacon and cheese but I really don't think they can't be part of your diet and things like 1% milk and chicken are certainly not (in my opinion) going to kill you.

(as for your 0% fat yogurt - I've gone from low fat sweetened with sugar to 0 fat plain greek which I either sweeten with a bit of maple syrup (I liv ein Vermont, maple is manditory) or this time of year with local fresh berries. All he goodness of yogurt and none of the fake chemical sweetners or the fat. I love love love my yogurt. (and my bacon and cheese!)
Yes, I'm well aware of the two different schools of thought regarding saturated fat. I would not be completely eliminating it from my diet but eating it in lesser quantities and focusing on different proteins than before. BOTH sides of the arguement have good and valid points.

I'm very excited to find out that there is non-fat greek yogurt [albeit I haven't looked very hard for it], I'll have to keep my eye out for it at my store. I love yogurt too, it's my go to snack or breakfast, but I'm thinking I need to change up that breakfast meal.

When you look at the food that is typically high in saturated fat:

bacon
meat
lard
oils (coconut, palm)
sour cream
butter
cream
coconut
dairy products (whole)

I fail to see how many of these things are condusive to me losing weight. I know the health benefits of coconut oil - but they are the similiar to macademia oil which is lower in saturated fat. Butter is easily replaced with olive oil. Red meat with leaner proteins.... etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brown View Post
I was going to say that Kroger/Ralph's has Carbmaster yogurt, which has 80 calories and 4 carbs, and is sucralose (splenda) sweetened. I'm all about greek yogurt, too.

With regards to the saturated fat, yeah... I second the more controversial opinions above. I was just curious if someone had told you that you're at risk of something and needed to cut saturated fat, or if you were doing it on your own as a prevention method.
Splenda is just as bad as aspertame, I'm doing my best to stay away from artificial sweeteners.

I am doing this on my own accord, I've actually never [I find this weird] had a doctor comment on my weight or tell me that I need to change anything in my diet, except for when I'm anemic. I have excellent chloresteral and a shockingly low blood pressure given my weight [or any weight].

Anyhow, thanks for all the links, I'll check them out. However, as I said, there isn't any way for me to cut them completely out of my diet, so I'm really not THAT worried about it either way, it's just another step in me eating more healthily -- that's how I see it.


Sounds like a wonderful dinner vlad, I had some spinach ravioli and tomato sauce tonight. It was delicious.

Last edited by audrina; 07-07-2010 at 09:58 PM.
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Old 07-08-2010, 06:25 AM   #8  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by audrina View Post
When you look at the food that is typically high in saturated fat:

bacon
meat
lard
oils (coconut, palm)
sour cream
butter
cream
coconut
dairy products (whole)

I fail to see how many of these things are condusive to me losing weight.
When combined with limiting refined carbs....all those things are very condusive to losing weight. I'm living proof of that!
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Old 07-08-2010, 08:14 AM   #9  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by audrina View Post
I'm very excited to find out that there is non-fat greek yogurt [albeit I haven't looked very hard for it], I'll have to keep my eye out for it at my store. I love yogurt too, it's my go to snack or breakfast, but I'm thinking I need to change up that breakfast meal.
There's "FAGE", "Oikos", "Chobani", and one more I'm drawing a blank on the name that seems to be in all the stores around here. I brought home a container of each (the non-fat, plain version of each) and did taste tests. Oikos won for me although they were all pretty similar. The Oikos just seemed a little creamier. Plus it had 5 live bacteria, one of the others only had a couple.

Plain yogurt is a bit sour to my taste but with fresh blueberries and strawberries it sure is great. I toss in a few almonds too. This may well be the healthiest thing I eat each day.

(Oikos makes a chocolate and a caramel version they sell in 4oz containers (in a 4 pack). Makes a great dessert! I'd actually choose an Oikos caramel yogurt over Ben & Jerry's ice cream, it's that good. And since it is packaged in 110 calorie containers it is easy for me to stop at just one.)
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Old 07-08-2010, 08:26 AM   #10  
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Good for you! Despite some of the controversies brought up here, cutting saturated fat is generally accepted as a healthy choice.

Changing your milk type will help as sounds like the rest of your food choices already the lower sat-fat type.

As far as non-fat yogurt, I eat Stonyfield Farm as its both non-fat and sweetened with real sugar. When I'm also trying to decrease my calories, I mix half with plain non-fat yogurt.

Last edited by caryesings; 07-08-2010 at 02:13 PM.
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Old 07-08-2010, 01:01 PM   #11  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladadog View Post
There's "FAGE", "Oikos", "Chobani", and one more I'm drawing a blank on the name that seems to be in all the stores around here. I brought home a container of each (the non-fat, plain version of each) and did taste tests. Oikos won for me although they were all pretty similar. The Oikos just seemed a little creamier. Plus it had 5 live bacteria, one of the others only had a couple.

Plain yogurt is a bit sour to my taste but with fresh blueberries and strawberries it sure is great. I toss in a few almonds too. This may well be the healthiest thing I eat each day.

(Oikos makes a chocolate and a caramel version they sell in 4oz containers (in a 4 pack). Makes a great dessert! I'd actually choose an Oikos caramel yogurt over Ben & Jerry's ice cream, it's that good. And since it is packaged in 110 calorie containers it is easy for me to stop at just one.)
Thank you for the information! I love Greek yogurt more than normal yogurt and would happily pay a dollar more than the stuff I normally get. I love how much healthier eating yogurt has made my digestive track, I can really tell that there's a HUGE difference.

I agree about plain yogurt being a bit sour, I tend to add a little bit of local honey [it really helps my allergies as well and it's GREAT for your skin] and then fruit and what not. Tossing in almonds is a great idea, and that would help me keep my calorie range where I need it [I have a bad habit of being under even without trying ]

And the tip on the dessert, THANK YOU. I hate sitting around watching my roommate eat Drumsticks and thinking about how much I want some kind of icecream or frozen yogurt. I'll give it a try.

Quote:
Originally Posted by caryesings View Post
Good for you! Despite some of the controversies brought up here, cutting saturated fat is generally accepted as a healthy choice.

Changing your milk type will help as sounds like the rest of your food choices already the lower sat-fat type.

As far as non-fat yogurt, I eat Stonyfield Farm as they're both non-fat and sweetened with real sugar. When I'm also trying to decrease my calories, I mix half with plain non-fat yogurt.
Yeah I realized last night how I'm already eating a low amount of saturated fat, but there's nothing wrong with being aware of it and continue to make an effort to limit my intake.

It's also GREAT to know that the Stonyfield Farm is sweetened with real sugar, that's my favorite 'non-greek yogurt' kind of yogurt, lol.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Jersey, when I first started on my weight loss journey I had just spent a few weeks in Italy and I noticed how they ate, and how they were all thin. I decided to start cooking for myself and that as long as I cooked it myself -- well I didn't feel too bad about eating it.

I used butter for cooking, cream for sauces, bacon, all that jazz and you're right, I did lose a significant amount of weight. I decided that for me, if I made a habit of continuing to eat those foods it would be easier for me to slip back into my old ways, so I started making different healthy choices, and my diet has changed into what it is now. For me, the weight comes off more easily, I generally feel fantastic and I love the way I eat now.

I don't have any fear or really much worry about eating these things, I just feel that for me to continue living this healthy lifestyle which I am enjoying so much that this is the right choice.
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