Fat in the context of a low carb vs. Standard American Diet

Fat often gets a bad rap when it shouldn't. And while there are different kinds of fat, those with the exception of trans fats are important and are needed by the body in adequate amounts. However, much of the bad rap that even good fat gets should not be directed at fat, but how that fat is metabolized in the context of a diet high in sugars and refined carbs, such as the Standard American Diet (SAD).

The Standard American Diet is a diet high in fat, and often some of the worst kinds coming from inflammatory trans fats and omega-6 polyunsaturated fats that are found in many vegetable oils. Along with being high in fat, the SAD is also very high in carbohydrates, particularly the high-glycemic ones coming from heavily processed and refined sources. Even the good fat a person consumes is metabolized much differently by the body when a person is consuming a large amount of carbohydrate, because that fat is then accumulating in the body and being stored while simultaneously rising blood triglyceride levels. This is what insulin does -- it causes the body to store and accumulate fat. And what causes insulin to draw fat into the cells where it is then stored? Carbohydrate intake.

When a person limits their carbohydrate intake to under 100 grams a day (under 50 in very low carb/ketogenic diets), fat becomes the body's primary energy source, and that fat is rapidly oxidized in the process as opposed to accumulating in the cells and blood. When the body is running on ketones from fat as its primary source of energy, you do not see the storage of fat that occurs when the body is using glucose as its primary energy source, as is the case with 99% of the population.

There is study after study which prove that fat intake has nothing to do with obesity, and it has nothing to do with a person's overall cholesterol. High fat/low carb diets that are three times higher in fat than their low fat/high carb counterparts have corresponded with lower levels of fat in the blood than the latter, and it isn't until carbohydrates are added that blood triglycerides become elevated.

Food for thought.