EAT THE FAT! Fat is totally where it’s at! This can be a hard thing to read if you’re still living under the ‘low fat’ rock! But eating fat is healthy!
Oh and did you hear that dietary cholesterol DOES NOT affect blood cholesterol*? Ya-huh. And that the old school food pyramid* was NEVER ever tested properly, it was just a huge big experiment! Serious ‘what the bleep’ moments! It’s about time we wrote about this, since all of our recipes are based on High Fat Low Carb No Sugar!
We know lots of you reading this have already heard/read all about this, so what we want you to do… is share this blog post with someone you love who doesn’t know about it! How about your Mum? Your Dad? Your cousin who still counts calories and restricts their food? Your friends who think you’re crazy when you order pork belly because it’s like soooo high in fat… (very silly friend)!
In the beginning, it’s hard to get our heads around the idea that FAT is not the enemy. We’ve literally been brain washed to think that fat makes us fat because of that bloody food pyramid! And don’t even get us started on the whole low fat fad. There are lots of things to blame… but Dr Ancel Keys had a lot to do with it. He published a study comparing saturated fat intake and the occurrence of heart disease. The study proved that saturated fat = higher heart disease. The only thing that was missing from his report was that it was only based on 7 countries and he chose not to include the other countries because including them would mean that his hypothesis was wrong. Yes, you read that right… he DELETED countries out of his study so his results showed what he wanted them to. Yeah, that’s annoying Ancel. It took a little while for the American Heart Association (AHA) to pass on his recommendations of eating less saturated fats, more carbs and more seed oils BUT they finally did in 1961. Guess who was added to the AHA board around this time? Ancel Keys himself! A teeny bit fishy? We could go on… but we will stop! If you want more info we’ve included reference links below.
Rewind back to little us, breakfast included a choice of at least 5 different brekky cereals (to ensure we had our grain intake… because 7-10 serves of grains a day is good for us… right? Righhht??? Uh, no.). Every morning we’d study the cartoons/games/toys on the cereal packs along with the food pyramid. We were food pyramid experts! Carla even did a project on the food pyramid in grade 5!
Now we totally get why big cereal brands promoted that pyramid… to sell MORE CEREAL!
As we got older and more body conscious (AKA completely obsessed with our weight) we clearly remember we never worried about the ingredients within the ‘food’ we’d eat. It was all about the 99% fat free factor. We ate LOADS of lollies because they said 99% fat free… and the sugar was fine because we could just burn it right off! Right? Healthy, right? More like crazy.
You see we always thought fat was the devil… OH BUT how we were wrong! It was sugar that was/is the devil! With the addition of chemicals, refined processed carbs and a super low fat diet it’s a huge disaster waiting to happen! We pretty much grew up on this total toxic inflammatory diet, while thinking we were pretty healthy!
This way of living has most probably contributed to the epidemic of obesity, diabetes, cancer, skin issues, asthma, auto-immune issues, we could go on but we’ll just say etc etc.
But wait it’s not all doom and gloom… we can all make a change! A change to live healthier, happier and longer (tastier) lives! Can we get a WOOOHOOO! Woohoo!
We now eat more good fats and absolutely NO refined sugar (naturally occurring sugar is a-ok, just not too much). We stopped eating processed sugary and carb loaded ‘food like items’ and now eat NATURAL REAL FOOD. This change in our diet created healthy, happy Emma and Carla. It was like a fog was lifted from our brains and we could finally see the world and all its beauty (sounds corny, right? But we’re not exaggerating). This change in lifestyle lead us to find our bliss: to create The Merrymaker Sisters. How cool is that?
Our goal is to help others do the same… we know you’re here because you’re making positive changes or you WANT to make the changes and to that we say BLOODY AWESOME! So here goes. Through our studies to become Health Coaches and just general interest studies we’ve changed the way we eat. We’ve introduced more good fats and eliminated sugar (again natural occurring is ok, just not too much). We have felt and continue to feel so many benefits of this lifestyle. To simplify things…
The good fats we eat:
- Animal fat, all those fatty cuts are good for you. Yes, saturated fat is good for you and tastes so good (remember though, don’t make the same mistakes we did with portion control!). Yes you can eat chicken skin (when cooked in the right oil)
- Good healthy oils like coconut oil and olive oil, find out why vegetable oil sucks here!
- Grass fed butter and ghee
- If you can tolerate dairy, good quality FULL FAT dairy (organic is best). Em eats a little and Carla eats zilch, read more here.
- Avocados AKA the love of our lives.
- Nuts and seeds, activated of course and not too much of these!
- Coconut… alot of coconut! You’ll want to make THIS cake which is only full of good fats!
Now let’s talk about why we need to eat fat for optimal health. Yes, we should all be feeling OPTIMAL not mediocre, not ‘fine’ but OPTIMAL! AMAZING! FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC!
- It satiates us, we’re satisfied so we won’t be hungry after eating!
- Fat allows our bodies to absorb the good stuff from other food, like vitamins and minerals etc. So when we eat veggies we should always have it with fat! Think green veggies covered in butter. Yes, it’s that good!
- We need fat to maintain hormone levels and function.
- Fat allows us to absorb calcium leading to healthy bones.
- Did you know our brains are mostly made up of fat and cholesterol? They feed off the stuff! We want healthy, functioning brains, yes?
- Eating fat ensures our energy levels stay level, no sugar roller coaster highs and lows.
With all of this info you may ask… “hmmm so what the heck am I gonna eat?” And then we reply with epic enthusiasm…”you’ll be eating the BEST food you’ve ever eaten!” We’re talking HUGE amounts of fresh (organic if possible) veggies and 1-2 serves of fruit a day, yummy organic meats, poultry and fish (portions about the size of your palm), nuts/seeds and delicious grass fed butter/ghee. If you’re not allergic to dairy, add organic milk and cheese! Oh and probably a lot of coconut! Then we’ll add… you can find over 200 free QUICK, EASY and DELISH healthy real food recipes right here on themerrymakersisters.com! It really is our pleasure 😉
Here’s some quotes from other ‘Pro Fat’ people.
Fats in general have had a bad rap for many years. The reality is that eating fat does not make us fat, nor does it encourage the adverse cardiovascular effects associated with it. On the contrary fat is important to encourage proper modulation of inflammation and immune status within the body and is associated with providing optimal hormone levels. Eating a higher proportion of natural fats (especially in preference to sugar and highly refined carbohydrates) actually encourages the body to lose fat and maintain a lower level of body-fat.
This is from the Holistic Performance Nutrition team. We heard Cliff Harvey talk at the recent Thr1ve conference. He’s a naturopath, clinical nutritionist, super smart dude and is all about the high fat low carb diet. His site has great scientific info, let’s be honest you won’t find that kinda info here BUT we’re always happy to point you in the right direction!
You might also be interested to read this by Mark Sisson, from Mark’s Daily Apple.
There’s a good reason so many people (mostly the sugar-burners can’t seem to grasp why a lower carb, primal approach to eating is a better choice for health and fitness: their fundamental paradigm – the core theory that underpins everything else in that belief system – is flawed. They remain slaves to the antiquated notion that glucose is the king of fuels, so they live their lives in a fear of running low. The truth is, fat is the preferred fuel of human metabolism and has been for most of human evolution. Under normal human circumstances, we actually require only minimal amounts of glucose, most or all of which can be supplied by the liver as needed on a daily basis. The simple SAD fact that carbs/glucose are so readily available and cheap today doesn’t mean that we should depend on them as a primary source of fuel or revere them so highly. In fact, it is this blind allegiance to the “Carb Paradigm” that has driven so many of us to experience the vast array of metabolic problems that threaten to overwhelm our health care system.
If you have questions let us know in the comments, we will answer or lead you in the best direction!
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla
*Some other articles:
Why the Food Pyramid Sucks, by 180 Nutrition.
Harvard Health Publication discussing dietary cholesterol (and why we can eat it).
The Definitive Guide to Fat by top bloke Mark Sisson.
We found that Ancel Keys photo on this website, you can print it on a t-shirt… we should do that.