Is it possible to switch out the 2 servings of Healthy Oils guideline for 2 servings of Healthy Fats? I tend to forget the healthy oils guideline. And, the first few months I did WW, I didn't even pay attention to this guideline and I still lost.

I found this list on-line:

HEALTHY FATS
Monounsaturated fat
• Olive oil
• Canola oil
• Sunflower oil
• Peanut oil
• Sesame oil
• Avocados
• Olives
• Nuts (almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews)
• Peanut butter

Polyunsaturated fat
• Soybean oil
• Corn oil
• Safflower oil
• Walnuts
• Sunflower, sesame, pumpkin seeds and Flaxseed
• Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines)
• Soymilk
• Tofu

I would still count points for it, obviously. I called my doctor to get her opinion and I am waiting for a call back. But I am well aware that she is a doctor and not a WW leader. I wanted to get some of your opinions and to see if any of you have done this before I do bring it up to my leader.

I want to say YES, to all of the oils except canola which I've read a lot of bad things about, and yes to all the food products, except I don't have an opinion on tofu or fish or soymilk. The reason I'd think no on tofu or fish is that they should be considered proteins. I don't know how fatty tofu is. I know peanut butter is a protein, but back in the day on old WW programs, 1 teaspoon was considered a fat, but more than that a protein. Avocado and olives were considered fats too. Nuts, I can't remember. Now my current take on this is you're told to have 2 healthy oils, which assumes you must consume for arguments sake 2 tsps. of olive oil per day, regardless of how you use it (to cook with or directly off a spoon into your mouth). That is a bit rigid to me. If I choose to have a pat of butter, a whole food, to me that is better and healthier than processed canola oil. I note butter was left off your list. Olives to me, whole and unprocessed, seem a good occasional alternative to oil, as does a little bit of peanut butter. In grappling over this myself, I spoke to my leader and she said she is ok with me having olives or butter occasionally when I don't feel my menu will allow me to incorporate additional fat...so at the end of the day, I don't have to "eat" my oil off a spoon. I don't know about the soymilk either. But the other things, excluding the fish, soymilk, tofu, those used to be iisted under fats and now that there is no category listing of fats, we're kind of on our own to figure it out. I know WWPP wants to steer me away from choosing a ho-ho over an apple, but in doing so has made some things less clear. Yes, olive oil is healthier than butter, but each is a fat...and if a fat is a fat is fat, we should be able to choose the one we like over another occasionally.

I spoke with my doctor and she is okay with me doing Healthy Fats VS Healthy Oils. I picked up some more nuts and fish today while out and about.

I do, tho it means I don't follow a strict WW plan, I think healthy fats in general are better than just healthy oils. And then I actually get them in my diet that way

But I admit I don't follow the GHG strictly because I avoid dairy

Not everyone is going to be able to follow the GHG exactly as written. (Though we can all aim to be getting proper nutrition.) I think it's fine you checked with your doctor and they're okay with it. Go with it.

Why it pays to be a packrat:
I possess, printed in 1992, WW's food plan organizer.

Under fats:
Avocado, 1/8 medium (1 oz.)
Margarine, liquid vegetable oil, 1tsp
Margarine, reduced calorie, 2 tsp
Mayo, 1tsp.
mayo, reduced cal, 2 tsp.
Olives, 10 small or 6 large
Peanut butter, 1 tsp.
Salad dressing, regular, any type, 1 & 1/2 tsp
(oh, what a value there on the dressing)
TARTER SAUCE 1 1/2 tsp. my oh my, such pickle-y goodness
Vegetable oil, 1 tsp.

Nuts didn't make the list back then.
Doncha find it interesting that olive oil and canola oil--neither made the list? Butter didn't make the list, but oh-so-bad-for-you margarine is there. Margarine, for those of you who love it, I'm sorry...to me it is no better than eating vasoline. At least butter comes from nature.

I never even thought of mayo in my prior response. If I'm having a tossed salad and some "restaurant" bought tuna, I'm apt to skip the dressing altogether, and consider the tuna's mayo as my fat (albeit there's probably more than 1 fat in that tuna) but sometimes when you aren't prepared, tossed salad with tuna salad on top is one of your better choices. You can probably even get that salad at a pizzaria when your two best lunch buddies are having 2 slices!

I do believe WWPP is remiss in stating 2 healthy oils, and really not even alluding to other options.

Same with whole grains...while I'm going to eat the occasional potato, it doesn't come in the whole grain variety. I think they should change their category to "starches" and say its better to choose the whole grain starches over potatoes, white rice and white pasta, but lets be real...we're going to attend a barbeque, and we're going to eat the occasional hot dog/burger bun, or potato salad, or pasta salad, or whatever "non" healthy grain that is available, or of our choosing. I'm making the switch, slowly, to a better pasta than the regular white stuff, but ... there's no substitute for a good old baked potato (don't tell me sweet or yam....they are as different as night and day, and I love them ALL)

Thanks ladies!
After some quick research, this is the list I came up with for what healthy fats I can incorporate everyday in some way.

flaxseed
sunflower seeds
almonds
peanut butter (reduced fat variety)
salmon
trout
tuna
mayo made w/ olive oil
olive oil
flaxseed oil
poultry

I think overall it's better than feel like I should "drink" a tsp of olive oil because I missed my healthy OILS for the day.

I agree that WW should have thought more about healthy fats instead of heathy oils. The same with the emphasize on whole grains-but then they limit us on what they consider a whole grain. Unless I eat brown rice or whole grain pasta, I usually miss WW version of whole grain. Even though all the bread I eat is whole grain, I eat oatmeal, etc.

I've had this post on getting healthy fats in bookmarked for a while:

http://www.fitsugar.com/List-Foods-H...-Fats-17978171

p.s. a chocolate chip cookie does not constitute an oil

Never even thought of Hummus! Yay!!

Oh darn! Here I thought a daily cookie would count!

@ patchmama...thanks for the link.

WW would say that only the oil would count. In fact, even salad dressing doesn't count unless you mix it yourself. The theory is that you don't know exactly how much of a salad dressing is actually the healthy oil.

All that said, I think the Good Health Guidelines are, well, just guidelines. I don't believe that any program is perfect and WW has the healthy oils rigid to make it easy for people to know what counts and what doesn't and to make it easy to count it.

In reality, I think the idea of healthy fats is far more nutritionally correct than specifying specific oils that have to be eaten in a specific way.

That's what my doctor and I talked about. I told her how some people mentioning just "drinking" a teaspoon of oil to get it in and she almost gagged! She said she'd much rather see me adding flaxseed to my oatmeal or eating a handful of almonds. Much more "doable" for me!

I can see the problem with substituting a handful of almonds for a healthy oil serving = a handful is about 4 servings. WW has a scientific reason behing all the GHGs. Stick with it. If you can remember to add flax oil to oatmeal, why can't you add canola which has no taste?