Fat is your friend.
I'm determined to help you rethink what your fat is. It might take some time to wrap your mind around that idea, but the simple truth is that everyone needs fat. Not a diet that's fat-free. Not a diet that's low-fat. Not a diet fueled by the notion of "I'll get fat if I eat fat."
You need good, nutritious, healthful fats in your food. And you need good, firm, resilient brown fat in your body--not the old yellow fat that's basically mush--for not just optimum health but optimum beauty, too. The difference between young fat and old fat is like the difference between a smooth round plum and a wrinkled prune. One is dense, smooth, and rounded, and the other is not.
Furthermore, the recently published studies on deep, functional brown fat provide clear evidence that, ironically, the answer to the obesity epidemic may be more straightforward than formerly thought. For these scientists, the answer lies in the fat cell itself!
So let's take a look at the crucial role of fat--and what you can do about getting rid of old yellow fat and replacing it with new brown fat.
WE'RE OBSESSED WITH FAT--BUT FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS
Too many people in our country are becoming alarmingly obese. Cookbooks and health books and talk shows and magazine articles are constantly bombarding us with images and facts about the fat that causes diseases--and kills. There is, in fact, a particular mindset where it's all too easy to see fat as the enemy without understanding how and why the right kind of fat is so important. And becausemany people do not understand what nutrients the body needs and when to eat them, they end up eating all the wrong things, and put on more weight. Or they become alarmingly thin, somehow thinking that starving themselves of all fat is the only way to achieve that superflat belly and those jutting cheekbones.
MICHELLE OBAMA HAS GREAT FAT; MADONNA DOESN'T
Michelle Obama has an amazing body--not because it's got the most amazing shape, but because she's amazingly average, with exactly the right amount of good brown fat in her face and body.
It's interesting to take a look at her figure, as she's got broad shoulders, a small bust, and a small waist, yet wide hips, an ample butt, and long legs. She's not skinny, and she's not fat--she's firm and toned, with exceptionally well-defined upper arms. She exudes health and vitality. Her posture is perfect and she carries herself with elegance and grace. Most of all, she's a woman comfortable in her own skin.
Compare Michelle's lovely strong curves with Madonna's angular, supermuscled and almost terrifyingly buff body. Although Madonna is only five years Michelle's senior, she looks much older, because she has almost no body fat at all. Unless she's carefully lit in photographs, she can look harsh, haggard, and tired.
In other words, Michelle Obama has got great fat. Madonna doesn't. That doesn't mean I don't admire Madonna for her singing and dancing talent, her staggering discipline, her work ethic, and her seemingly inexhaustible energy and stamina. Personally, I believe that if Madonna stopped her compulsively long workouts (a reported minimum of four hours a day) and gained about fifteen pounds, she would took so spectacular she'd knock your socks off.
But the right fat in the right areas is a good thing. It's an intrinsic part of your body. If you want to feel good and look good, it's essential to have a body where all systems are functioning at optimum levels, both physically and mentally.
Just as important: understanding that eating the right kind of fat will not make you fatter.
That is, you will not get fatter if you eat the kind of fat that's good for your body; eat it at the right times during the day, along with carbohydrates, to keep your metabolism on an even keel; and don't eat so much of it that your body automatically stores it instead of burning it off.
So when did we make the switch from looking at adorable little babies with rolls of fat on their thighs, wanting to blow on their dumpling bellies to make them peal with laughter ... to being afraid to eat properly and obsessing about every calorie we put in our mouths, even as we struggle to maintain a healthy weight or a figure with curves where we want them?
I've spent many hours trying to figure out when fat became a four-letter word. I clearly remember the day when the daughter of a family friend was over, and my wife and I were watching a Marilyn Monroe movie. This teenager had never seen Marilyn in her prime before. Andwhat was the girl's response? That Marilyn was sexy, or beautiful, or vulnerable? I wish! Instead, she said, "Oh my God. She's so fat!"
It was a disheartening moment, I have to say, as Marilyn's glorious curves are certainly not what I'd consider to be "fat." And, as someone who's devoted his life to optimum health, it pains me to look at images of seriously underweight and undernourished Hollywood stars, with their toothpick legs, pin-thin arms, and cheeks that are rounded due not to good brown fat but to the miracles of modern medicine, which has created the kind of substances that can be injected or inserted into them to plump them up. I'm left wondering how these stars can continue to function with such patently unhealthy bodies--and what kind of role models they are for the women of the world.
Frankly, I think thin is bad. You can't be a stick and be healthy. And the older you get, the more aging this gaunt thinness becomes.
I have an intimate knowledge of the danger of thinness, because as a plastic surgeon, I deal with it on a daily basis. From my point of view, what I do for a living is plump up thin faces, and put implants in areas of the body perceived by their owners to be too thin, whether their cheeks or their jaws, their breasts or their butts. Not that any of this is wrong, of course. But what, really, is the heart of the issue?
It's fat, of course!
FAT BASICS
Your body intrinsically knows, within the modulation of its metabolism, how much fat it needs to function. Anything beyond that will be stored for future use, to supply energy when needed.
Your body prefers to store energy as fat, as a direct result of tens of thousands of years of evolution. Early humans had trouble finding food, especially calorie-dense food. Plus they were in constant motion as they went hunting every day. As fat is calorie dense, with nine kilocalories per gram (carbohydrates and protein each have four kilocalories per gram), it became the most efficient way to provide the stored energy our ancestors needed for survival.
Fast-forward to the present, when we're no longer hunter/gatherers and have every conceivable food at our fingertips. While we've evolved enough to create art and music and send a man to the moon, the human body's technology has not evolved at the same pace. It still thinks it's going to have to hunt for its next meal, so it will always hoard all excess calories in the form of fat--if you let it.
WHY YOU NEED FAT
Fat is necessary for several basic bodily functions. Your body needs a certain amount of fat to store the vitamins A, D, E, and K, which are necessary to maintain the health of your cell membranes and its walls, as well as the overall health of skin, bones, and the immune and clotting systems. Bodies must also have fat for the brain and the neuro-system, so nerves can fire properly and communicate with each other. This is why it's so important for babies to have a lot of fat in their diets; without it, their brains won't develop properly.
With only a minimal amount of fat in your body, you won't feel very well and you'll look horrible. Your skin will be dull, your immune system will be compromised, and your energy level will be nonexistent.
I've seen the horrifying effects of a superstrict no-fat diet in the bodybuilders who train at my gym. In the weeks before a competition, these guys starve themselves to make their muscles look more ripped. Not only is this unhealthy, but their faces become so drawn and pale, it's not an exaggeration to say that they look like they're dying. Their brains are so starved for fat and carbohydrates that their synapses aren't firing properly. They tell me they feel like they're out of control. Basically, they are, as they literally can't think straight.
ABOUT INSULIN, GLYCOGEN, AND WHAT CAUSES YELLOW FAT
Since your body will always store excess calories as fat, if you eat too much of any food that is converted into fat, it's converted into the kind of bad yellow fat you don't want.
Think of your food as coal being added to a furnace. If you add too much coal, the fire gets too hot and then burns out. If there's always way too much coal, the bottom of the pile will become powdered and useless, similar to low-quality yellow fat.
Whenever you eat carbohydrates, your body secretes insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar, to maintain an even blood-sugar level. Insulin wants excess sugars out of the blood, so it immediately spikes and then falls to move the excess someplace less harmful--like your fat cells. Your yellow fat cells.
An additional part of the process has to do with glycogen, the name for your body's initial stores of carbohydrates. Most glycogen is stored in the liver and muscles, and released when your body needs it. In other words, glycogen is an energy source that is immediately available so your brain can function well and your muscles can move where you want them to.
If you eat the right amount of food, your body will not need to store any excesscalories, which are always stored as fat...
