Can fats help you lose weight?  Yes, they can.  Fats do two important things that aid in your journey to a healthier weight.  The most important thing they do is slow down digestion.  Fats take longer to digest and turn into sugar for fuel.  Your body gets the sugar in dribs and drabs instead of in a major dump. That’s important, because your pancreas is then able to produce small, painless amounts of insulin to deal with the arrival of the sugar into the bloodstream.  Remember that insulin is the hormone with the key that lets the sugar into the cell. As it opens the cell “door” it tells it, “Okay, here is your fuel. Use it wisely. Store it up for when you really need it.”

When you eat something high glycemic which digests quickly and is released in the bloodstream in a major dump, your poor pancreas has to work overtime cranking out the insulin. You have lots of insulin giving the “store up the fuel” message.  Since we get way too much sugar and foods that turn into sugar, our bodies have received that message a lot. We are really good at storing up the fuel as fat.

If you eat foods that contain fat, particularly the good fats (see previous posts!) then it keeps your body from getting that message.

This fact explains why the low fat diets don’t work.  All the low fat foods not only are without fat, they are full of sugar and carbs to make them edible so you will buy them.  Those low fat goodies are packing the pounds on you!

The other good thing fats do is fill you up.  They are calorie dense, so you don’t want to overdo, but fats tend to give you a feeling of satiety. You don’t feel hungry and deprived.

The key is choosing the right fats and keeping them in balance.

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown