Healthy Eating for Women

To lose weight and keep it off, you’ll want to focus less on how much you eat and more on what you eat. For most of us, weight on our hips or thighs does not come simply from excess calories. The cause is much more specific, as researchers at a Veterans Administration home in Los Angeles graphically proved. They inserted a tiny needle into the derrieres of a group of volunteers and carefully removed samples of body fat to send to a laboratory. Chemical analysis showed that their body fat did not come from bread, pasta, or potatoes, for the most part. The fat on their bodies mirrored the fats they had been eating. So men who had had plenty of chicken or beef in their diets ended up with remnants of animal fat, almost unchanged, in their own body fat. Those who were keen on olive oil or fried foods had the remains of vegetable fats stored in their behinds. In other words, your body uses the fat you eat to build your own fat layer.

Carbohydrates, whether they are from vegetables, beans, grains, or fruits, actually boost your calorie-burning speed for two to three hours after a meal. They do this by triggering the release of calorieburning hormones that turn some of the food you’ve eaten into body heat instead of body fat. Fat in foods does not have the same effect.

So if fat in foods is the cause of our weight problems, where is it all coming from? Animal products, first of all. Meats are simply mixtures of protein and fat, and even the leanest beef, chicken, or fish has more fat than your body needs. Most dairy products (other than the skim versions) are high in fat as well. And oils that have insinuated themselves into French fries, doughnuts, and sauces add to the problem. The most important key to weight loss is to steer clear of these problem foods.

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