Eating fat does not make you fat; looking after your liver

Another New Year and another set of “lose weight” resolutions.  A popular choice of diet for many hoping to keep that New Year resolution, will be the one that instructs the dieter to “cut out fat” or “eat less fat”.  People will stock up on “low-fat” items believing that by cutting out “fat” they will lose weight.  There are 2 problems with this thinking:

First: It is impossible to lose fat without eating fat.  Fat does not make you fat. 

Second: Fat is not your enemy.  There are other enemies; chemicals and other harmful substances are a major issue in fat retention.

Many of the foods being sold today are laden with a variety of chemicals and other substances.  Have you read a food label lately?  Many of the ingredients listed are chemical compounds.  Some of the “foods” are completely constructed in a laboratory eg some of the butter substitutes are all chemical.

You may be wondering “What have the chemicals got to do with fat and weight loss?” 

It is all about your liver.  Your liver has 2 functions:

1.   Break down fats

2.   Filter harmful substances

Filtering harmful substances will always take priority because this is about survival.  When you eat foods that have chemical substances it is the liver that jumps into action to extract anything it deems “harmful” and filters them out as quickly as possible.  When these substances are combined together the liver is overwhelmed.  What things combine to overwhelm your liver?

• Any processed foods
• Artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes
• Alcohol keeps the liver very busy
• Preservatives take a lot of filtering
• High fructose corn syrup is prevalent is so many foods and is extremely hard on the workings of your liver

If we are eating foods containing chemicals and other harmful substances every day, then all your liver ever does is filter out these harmful substances.  For example if you have a muffin and a “high energy” mil drink, you liver will be working on all the chemicals in the muffin and the drink.  By the time the liver has treated all the chemicals chances are it is lunch time and you have a “diet” drink and maybe a frozen “low fat” pre-made frozen lunch, or one of those bowls that you just add water. Again your liver will be busy with all the chemicals. After work you might stop off for a glass of wine and maybe some chips/crisps or those other tasty bar treats.  Here is more work for your liver. And then dinner ….

Can you see how your liver is busy all day countering all the chemicals and never getting a chance to break down fats.  And we haven’t even added in the snack chocolate bar or biscuits during the day.

Your liver never gets a chance to get to the main job of breaking down fats.

If you want your liver to break down fats then all you have to do is minimise the amount of harmful substances you consume.  Stop eating the chemicals and give your liver a chance to get onto the main job of breaking down fats.  You need to eat fats to lose fat.

We will look at good fats and bad fats in the next article.  In the mean time have a good look in your pantry and fridge and eliminate as many of the chemical laden foods as possible.  You may even find that just by taking these substances out of your kitchen, and out of your life, you might just lose weight – many others have done just this.