Let me get this straight…I should eat fat?

I am so excited to be writing a book review!  I am a member of the BlogHer Network and I am honored to be a reviewer in their book club.  Check out the discussion about the book on the BlogHer network at:

The book is called Why Women Need Fat: How “Healthy” Food Makes Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Forever by William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J. C. Gaulin, PH.D.  I heard the title and I thought “Awesome!  I get to read about why I need to eat Oreos and cookie dough and chips!”  Women need Fat – that’s an idea I can really get behind!

Well, now that I finished the book, I can tell you that’s not what it’s about.  Apparently, I still should stay away from the Oreos and cookie dough and chips or at least eat them in moderation.  This book is more about getting back to “the way our grandparents ate”.  The authors make the case for real food and they encourage staying away from all of the new diet foods that have been creeping up in America since the 1970’s.  It seems the more we diet, the heavier we become.

They ask the question, why are women in their 40’s today fatter than women in their 40’s were before 1970?  Especially with all the diet foods and low fat items on the grocery store shelves.  Shouldn’t we be skinnier now that we’ve all gone “low fat”?

Not so much.

All the women I know are trying their best.  They want to be healthy and they want their children to eat healthy foods and grow up with a healthy body image.  However, the messages out there are very confusing.  There is so much information sometimes it’s just easier to go to McDonald’s and call it a day.  In essence, a lot of us just give up. 

However, we hold out hope that a new plan will show us the easy way to make healthy eating a reality in our lives.  I’d say by the time women are in their 40’s, they’ve tried enough diets to know they don’t work.  A lifestyle change is in order and this book gives offers some useful tools to make lasting changes.

A lot of the suggestions in the book are things I’ve read before such as “eat fruit for snacks” and “eat less processed food” and “eat smaller portions”.  The difference with this book is that they explain why you shouldn’t eat certain foods.  The first half of the book gives the history of food in America, the food pyramid and why the American diet has changed over the years. The second half of the book is more of the “how to” including lists of what to eat and charts that tell you what your natural weight and natural BMI should be.

I liked the part of the book about “The Oiling of America” in which they differentiate between Omega 6 fats and Omega 3 fats.  I’ve heard I should make sure I have enough Omega 3 but I didn’t know what foods can provide it or what I should be looking for in a supplement.  Lassek and Gaulin answer these questions in the book. 

Much of the book was written in medical language and I found myself wanting to rush through the scientific explanations of how our bodies work and get to the list of what I should eat! Maybe the rushing and having that “yeah, yeah, get to the point” attitude is what has led me to the drive through window. 

It’s like anything else in life.   You need to take the time to understand the Why before you can get to the How.  This book can help you do that.