Ask AI Mark explains why dietary fat doesn't cause weight gain, pointing to metabolism's complexity beyond calories. He covers hormonal, neurological, immune, and microbiome effects of food, and promotes a high-fat, low-carb diet backed by research.
The wrong-headed idea that all calories are the same when we eat them is why the fat we eat has been demonized and blamed for making us fat. It's why we believe that eating fat makes you fat. If fat has 9 calories per gram versus 4 calories per gram for carbs or protein, then if you eat less fat the logic goes, you will eat fewer calories and you'll lose weight. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work out that way for lots of reasons. The idea that all calories are the same in terms of the effects on your weight and metabolism is one of the most persistent myths in medicine today. They are the same in a laboratory when you burn them in a vacuum, and so while it's true that all calories are the same in a vacuum, they are not the same when you eat them. because of how they affect your hormones, your brain chemistry, your immune system, and even your gut flora or your microbiome. You see, metabolism is not a math problem. It's not about balancing energy or calories in, calories out. Metabolism is a hormone problem, a neurotransmitter problem, an immune problem, and a gut flora problem. The quality of the food that you eat matters so much more than the quantity. You see, if food were only about calories, it wouldn't matter what specific foods you ate as long as you kept below a certain number of calories. I mean, think about it. If you have 1,800 calories of soda or 1,800 calories of broccoli, is that the same when you eat them? Any fifth grader would say, no, that's a duh. But calories don't matter in the way we think they do. Why? Because food is information. It's not just a source of energy or calories. It contains instructions that affect every biological function of your body. It's the stuff that controls everything. Food affects the expression of your genes. It influences your hormones, your brain chemistry, your immune system, your gut flora, and your metabolism at every level. and it works fast in real time with every single bite. And more and more scientists are confirming the importance of the information in fat as it relates to your health. You see, after reviewing most of the research on fat, the conclusions are really clear. Higher fat, low carb diets work better than low fat, high carb diets. In fact, a review of 53 randomized controlled trials lasting a year or more Comparing high fat to low fat diets head to head, found that the high fat diets outperformed the low fat diets every single time. You see, diets higher in good fat can help reverse chronic disease, can make your brain work better and faster, helps your metabolism speed up, and even helps your skin glow and help you lose weight. In the first fat summit, I teamed up with over 30 health experts to take you on a guided tour of fat. We walked through what created this war on fat, we discussed really important topics like cholesterol and heart disease, weight loss, and lots more, and now I want to go deeper. In the Fat Summit Part 2, separating even more fat from fiction, we brought together even more doctors and more scientists and researchers and lots of other experts to share the truth about what makes us fat and sick, and guess what? It's not fat. So if you're interested in learning more about fat, carbs, protein, autoimmune disease, type 2 diabetes, infertility, and lots more, tune in here to Fat Summit part two. I'll see you there.
