The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health (28 page)

Added sugar displaces nutritious foods.
The more sugar you eat, the less room there is in your diet for healthy foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and whole grains.

Added sugar has dangerous friends.
Many processed foods that contain large amounts of added sugar also have trans fats (more on this later), artificial flavors and colors, and other unhealthy ingredients that contribute to poor health.

Added sugar raises heart disease risk.
Quite simply, excess added sugar turns to fat in our bodies. That’s why too much sugar increases belly fat and raises triglycerides, and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, which amps up your chances of heart disease.

It’s no surprise that so many of us are addicted to sugar. Eating sugar stimulates your brain’s reward center and triggers the release of feel-good brain chemicals. And because sugar is everywhere, it can be difficult to break its grip on you.

Facing down a sugar addiction is definitely a challenge—but it’s something you can do. Once you understand the hold that sugar has on you, and once you decide to start taking steps to free yourself from sugar’s stranglehold on your diet, you really can take charge. By following the steps I’ve outlined here, you can free yourself from sugar’s grasp and open yourself up to the naturally delicious flavors of healthy foods.

No, it won’t be easy. But look back at your life and count up all the difficult challenges you’ve confronted, all the victories you’ve achieved. You’ve done harder things than breaking up with sugar. And you’re stronger than you realize! Do this now and you’ll achieve one of the sweetest wins of your life!

If you’ve tried losing weight before, you’ve probably gone down the low-fat fad road. You’ve tried all those rubbery fat-free cheeses, the cardboard-like fat-free cookies, the bizarrely tasteless fat-free chips, the thin, flavorless fat-free ice creams. You’ve been there, and I’m guessing you’re not particularly interested in going there again.

Well, you can relax. One of the great things about The Doctor’s Diet is that it’s not a super low-fat diet. Sure, we keep an eye on the amount of fat you’re eating because fat has a fair amount of calories, and we’ve got to keep calories in check in order to bring down weight. But there’s no reason in the world to cut all fat out of your diet. In fact, eliminating fat is actually a really bad idea.

I’m not saying you can lose weight by eating unlimited amounts of full-fat cheese and snack foods—definitely not. But you can—and should—eat adequate amounts of healthy fats in order to bring down your weight as well as your risk of disease.

When it comes to dietary fat, there are three really important things you need to know right off the bat.

For years we were told that dietary fat was just about the worst thing you could eat. Scientists said it. Fad diet opportunists said it. Even the most well-meaning doctors said it. We all thought it was true, and we advised people to cut out as much fat as possible from their diets. But when people ditched all the fat in their diets, researchers were amazed to see that health problems actually got worse rather than better. Super low-fat diets didn’t eliminate heart disease or cause people to thin down to healthy weights overnight. More careful research told us what we now know: although some kinds of fat are not healthy, and although we do have to limit our overall fat intake because of the calories it contains,
there is actually no reason at all to cut every bit of fat from our diets. In fact, some kinds of dietary fat are incredibly good for us, and by leaving them off our plates, we’re missing out on some amazing nutrients.

That’s right—replacing full-fat foods with highly processed, commercially manufactured low-fat or fat-free alternatives—fat-free cookies, chips, cakes, some kinds of cheeses, and so on—actually can cause more harm than good. When people eat a low-fat diet, they typically cut out the good fats as well as the bad fats. And they eat way more sugar, simple carbs, and artificial fillers.

In fact, including a healthy amount of fat in your meals can actually satiate your hunger and help you lose weight. If you’ve ever suffered through the agony of a salad tossed with fat-free dressing, I can’t wait to tell you about the studies that show that olive oil–based salad dressing can be a better weight-loss tool than the fat-free sludge that’s sold in the name of good health.

It’s time to stop fearing fat and start being smart about it. As long as you know what kind of fat to eat, how much fat to eat, and how to include it in your diet in the healthiest way—which is what I do in The Doctor’s Diet—you no longer have to think of fat as your enemy. Instead, consider it an ally in your quest for weight loss and good health.

All fat is not created equal. Some are good for you, some aren’t. So let’s start with a quick look at the various kinds of dietary fats.

For a long time, scientists believed saturated fat—the kind found in meat, full-fat cheese, butter, cow’s milk, cream, ice cream, and palm and coconut oils—was a major cause of heart disease. But that belief has undergone a seismic shift recently, as researchers have learned more about saturated fat. As it turns out, the connection between saturated fat and heart disease is more complex than we previously thought.

Here’s the current thinking. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol, which is bad for your heart. But it also seems to raise HDL cholesterol and lower triglycerides, which is good for your heart.

In effect, current research shows that saturated fat can have both a positive and negative impact on heart health. Recent population studies
(i.e., studies of large numbers of people over long periods of time) back this up: they are finding that there is no significant evidence that saturated fat intake is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. It doesn’t seem to raise risk, and it also doesn’t seem to lower risk.

Of course, we saw hints of this awhile back when the French paradox first came to light. The French paradox is the discovery that the French have lower heart disease rates than their high-saturated-fat diet would suggest, leading researchers to wonder if saturated fat really is a cause of heart disease.

Separately, we also know that monounsaturated fat (found in fish, nuts, olive oil, avocado, and the like) is good for your heart. Studies of people who include ample unsaturated fats in their diet find that they lower heart disease risk.

So where does that leave us—should we go ahead and eat saturated fat, or stay away from it?

The answer is, it depends on what you’re comparing it to. I don’t mean to be coy here, but this really is a complicated question. Here’s what it comes down to: When people replace saturated fat with healthier unsaturated fats, it benefits their heart health. But if they replace them with simple carbohydrates, trans fats, and other unhealthful foods, it harms their heart health.

As it appears now, saturated fat can be both good and bad—in other words, neutral. But unsaturated fat is good. And trans fat is bad. So whether saturated fat is a better choice really comes down to what you’re comparing it to.

Think of it this way. You’re looking at a dinner menu with three choices, each with an equal number of calories: fried chicken that’s breaded and cooked in shortening that contains trans fat, sirloin steak, and baked salmon. Which should you order?

The salmon is the best choice, because it’s loaded with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids that help your heart. The sirloin steak, which contains saturated fat, may be heart-health neutral. And if it’s from a grass-fed cow, that’s even better. But the fried chicken is flat-out bad for your heart.

So compared to the fried chicken, the grass-fed sirloin is a better choice. But compared to the sirloin, the salmon is a better choice.

My advice? Order the salmon most of the time. Have a steak occasionally. Avoid fried chicken pretty much all the time. In other words, keep saturated fat to a minimum, but it’s OK to enjoy it occasionally. Think of red meat, butter, full-fat dairy foods, and other high-saturated
fat foods as things you eat occasionally in smaller amounts.

It boils down to making sensible choices. I’d rather you choose natural foods with some saturated fat over unnatural foods filled with simple carbs and trans fats. Have a little bit of real ice cream instead of a big bowl of the fake stuff. Nibble on a small square of real cheddar cheese rather than a giant slice of the fat-free junk that tastes like plastic. Sauté your broccoli in a bit of butter rather than a pool of margarine. You get the idea.

But don’t close the book on saturated fat yet. I think we’re going to be hearing more about this topic in the near future as researchers study it more closely, so stay tuned as we learn more.