4 Big Fat Food Lies that Make You Fat and Sick

Hey, everybody. Welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is? Well, it's not a question. I want to discuss some big fat food lies. Since the release of Eat Fat, Get Thin, I've been noticing a lot of debate on Facebook and Twitter and in the media about calorie counting, about eating fat, avoiding fat, about genetics, and lots more and more. And I thought this would be a really great opportunity to address some of the biggest lies that are still being pushed on us by some doctors, nutritionists, the media, and even our government. You see, when it comes to weight loss, there's a ton of advice out there. The problem is, most of it is terrible. It's outdated, and it's scientifically disproven. And if you believe it, it could be getting in your way of being healthy and thin. Now, if you've read any of my books, you know that the most common myth out there that's preventing so many people from getting healthy and staying healthy and losing weight and keeping it off is the myth that all calories are created equal. Now, this myth drives me bonkers, and sometimes I just can't believe how many people still believe it's true. The idea that as long as we burn more calories than we consume, we will lose weight is simply dead wrong. This lie that losing weight is all about energy balance or calories in, calories out is just making everybody fat. Just eat less and exercise more. That's the mantra we hear from the food industry. It's what we hear from our government agencies and from most doctors and nutritionists. It's all about moderation. Well, guess what, America? How's that working for you? The truth is there are good calories and there are bad calories. And that's because metabolism is more than a simple math problem. When we eat, our food interacts with our biology, which is this complex adaptive system that instantly transforms with every single bite. Every bite affects your hormones, your brain chemistry, and even your metabolism. You see, sugar calories cause fat storage and they spike your hunger and they slow your metabolism. Whereas protein and fat calories actually promote more fat burning. What counts even more than calories is the quality of those calories. So what are high quality calories? Well, it's not that hard, I'm sad to say. It's whole foods, it's real food. It's fresh food. It's foods that your great grandmother might have made. Good quality animal protein, grass fed animal products, not factory farmed organic eggs, chicken, small wild fish, nuts, and seeds. Good carbs. I love carbs. In fact, most of my diet is carbs by volume. And what am I talking about? Vibrantly colored, non starchy veggies. The brighter the color, the better. And you know what? You can binge on these as much as you want. I have 10 pounds of broccoli, if you like, and have good fruits that are low sugar fruits like wild berries and apples and kiwis and watermelon, and includes superfoods like chia and hemp seeds. Also lots of good fats like avocados, extra virgin olive oil, all kinds of nuts and seeds, coconut oil and butter, and omega 3 fats from fish. Now we've covered the myth that all calories are the same. Let's go to the next myth, which is about genetics. Now, you may think that if your mom is fat and your grandma's fat, well, that's why you're fat, that you drew the fat card or diabetes card in the genetic lottery. But guess what? The truth is there are 32 genes that have been associated with obesity in the general population, and they only account for 9% of obesity cases. So even if you had all 32 obesity genes, the likelihood is you'd only put on about 22 pounds. The thing is that people don't realize is that our genes only change 2% every 20,000 years. By 2050, it's projected that over 50% of Americans will be obese. Now it's about 35%. Our genes just don't change that fast. What changed is we went from eating about 10 pounds of sugar per person per year in 1800. And by the way, our hunter gatherer ancestors ate about 22 teaspoons a year, not 10 pounds. And now we eat about 152 pounds of sugar a year per person. About 146 pounds of flour per person per year. And flour is just like sugar in the body are a little worse at these doses. Sugar and flour are actually drugs. And these doses hijack our metabolism. They make us store fat, particularly belly fat, and they make us sick. The truth is that obesity is caused by all kinds of factors, but most of it is not genetic. In fact, where are all the fat people? 200 years ago, the they didn't exist. There may be in a couple, but they weren't there. There wasn't 70% of our population. The next myth is that we can exercise our way out of a bad diet. Now, if you think you can exercise your way to weight loss, I'm sorry to say you're Going to be in for a big disappointment. Do you treat yourself to a post workout sugar laden smoothie or a muffin or some other healthy snack? Quote, healthy snack. Do you suck back some Gatorade because it's supposed to be a good sports drink to quench your thirst after 30 minutes on the treadmill. Well, if you rely on exercise to lose weight without changing your diet, it's like asking for failure. You can change your diet and lose weight, but if you exercise and keep your diet the same, you actually are going to gain a little muscle, improve endurance and be healthier. But you won't shed that many pounds. Remember, if you consume one 20 ounce soda, that's an average size of a Coke or Pepsi these days, you're going to have to walk four and a half miles to burn it off. If you have one super sized fast food meal, you have to run four miles a day for a whole week to burn it off. And if you eat that meal every day, you're going to have to run a marathon every single day to burn it off. It's just impossible. The simple fact is that you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet. Exercise is important, but it has to be met with a healthy diet filled with plenty of healthy plant foods, healthy fats, proteins and good food. And finally, my favorite myth of all, the myth that fat makes you fat. Well, guess what? Fat is not a four letter word. Eating fat not only doesn't make you fat, it's actually critical to health and even weight loss. You see, studies comparing identical high calorie fat diets to high sugar and carb diets had totally different effects on metabolism. The higher fat diet, it caused people to burn an extra 300 calories a day. That means they were eating the same amount of calories. But the group that had more fat, 60% fat versus 60% carbs, they burned 300 calories more a day. That's like running an hour a day without doing any exercise. That would solve our entire obesity epidemic. Fat actually speeds up your metabolism where sugar and starch slows it down. Now, in studies of animals eating identical calories of low fat in high sugar diets or higher fat and higher protein diets, show that the higher sugar diets led to more fat deposition, especially belly fat, and more muscle loss, even though they were the same calories they were eating. So more fat calories helped them. Where the sugar calories and the carb calories led them to lose muscle and gain fat, while the higher fat and protein diets guess What? They got more muscle mass and more fat loss. Now, the important part of this study is that this is actually what happened, even though they were eating the same number of calories. And this just blows up the whole calories of the same myth. Now, there are some special fats that are actually preferred by our cells for fuel. These are called medium chain triglycerides, big word or MCT oil. And these come from foods like coconut oil. Yes, you do need to stay away from the trans fats. You do need to stay away from the refined vegetable oils. But the good fats like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts and seeds, nut butters, omega 3 fats, whole eggs. These fats keep us full and they lubricate the wheels of our metabolism. So please don't fear fat anymore. I had this patient the other day, she was so scared of eating avocados, I had to convince her. Now I've created a plan which uses movement, supplementation and, and above all, the power of food and fat as information, food as medicine to reset your body and move you toward your best self. The Eat Fat, Get Thin program that I've Created is a 21 day plan designed to support weight loss, to maximize your energy, help your mental clarity, get rid of brain fog, reduce inflammation, and kickstart your health. Thousands of people all over the world have done this program and and the results have been astonishing. So if you're tired of the typical calorie deprivation diets that just don't work and leave you feeling hungry and miserable, I highly recommend joining our Eat Fat, Get Thin January challenge, which I'm going to link to below. And if you like this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter and submit your questions to drhyman.com and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you.