pig and lard by wwritter, on Flickr

I loved seeing this article from the Boston Globe: What does saturated fat cause? Arguments.

Especially helpful was the conclusion of the article, merely one example of straight-up comparison that sheds so much light on what can be, for some, a confusing issue:

Here are some breakfast comparisons: 1 cup nonfat fruit-flavored yogurt usually contains 233 calories and 46 grams of sugar. An alternative is to top 1 cup whole-milk yogurt with 1 cup unsweetened frozen berries. You still get 230 calories, but the sugar drops to 24 grams. That extra bit of fat in whole milk yogurt tastes good and provides a lot of satiety. It might just keep you from grabbing a muffin (about 440 calories, 30 grams of sugar) at midmorning.

Without going into the whole good fat/bad fat issue, this article skips over the surface of a very important point. Our bodies are wired to seek out filling, tasty foods. If you’ve ever tried to survive on a diet of rice cakes, non-fat cottage cheese and boiled chicken breast for any length of time (I have, I’m sorry to say) you will most likely admit: that’s one hard row to hoe. The food is bland and tasteless, leaving your taste buds screaming for FLAVOR, and no matter how full your tummy is, you often go searching for food with substance soon after eating.

It doesn’t take a lot of fat to satisfy, or to feed your body with the essential nutrients fat contains and helps your body assimilate. But it is just not something we need to fear any longer. Having grown up in a fat-phobic home during the fat-terrified 1970s and 1980s, it hasn’t been an easy gear for me to shift. But going from being constantly hungry, yet hating the food I was eating to not even thinking about wanting a snack and really enjoying every bite of a meal: that has really told the story for me. My portion sizes are down and I really look forward to creating and eating meals with my family.

Yeah, it can still get interesting when I talk to some people. But that’s okay. I’m not here to convince anyone of anything, just to share what’s been working in my life. For me, this works. In spades.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.

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