Book Review: Why Women Need Fat

A few years ago, I had one of those pointless online discussions where everyone’s opinion is already fixed.  It was on the subject of fat, and fat content in our food.  When talking about cooking something (was it carrot soup?  maybe it was thai green curry?) my online sparring partner (it *was not* an exchange of ideas, it *was* one fixed idea meets my cry to read the research) stated that coconut milk would never make it into the household “as it has too much fat”. 

I was shocked.  Didn’t this person know that not all fats were bad?  And why would someone just outright ban a food product from their house?

I suggested that fats were important for neurological function, and that maybe if interested I could lend a copy of my book by Udo Erasmus called “Good Fats Bad Fats” so that we could unpack whether or not coconut milk was actually “bad”.

Let’s just say that I didn’t lend my book out and the conversation ended, and since then I have kind of taken a less vocal stance (maybe, perhaps, I leave that for you to judge) in my online exchanges with people whose ideas are fixed and hard-fast.  But just because I am less “vocal” that doesn’t mean that I have stopped reading and learning more about the body, food, nutrition, and balanced healthy living.  So when I saw a link on a blog for a new book – a research review – on why fats are necessary, I had to get a copy.  I mean, since my nutritionist Vicki Edgson introduced me to good fats and bad fats, and I learned what Omega 3s were, I have tried to eat a balanced diet with plenty of good fats. So why not learn more?

Written by a research anthropologist and a research medical doctor, Why Women Need Fat is a tour of research combined with practical suggestions on how to eat to obtain the body’s natural weight.  Through research we see how the typical American (western) diet has changed over time – and the impact that consuming more processed food has had on our overall body composition and weight.  The authors explore the reasons for the changes in perceptions of what constitutes healthy eating, exploring for example the unproven correlations between a low fat diet and heart healthy diet.  Finally, by undertaking this comprehensive review of research as well as adding in their own analysis and studies, they aim to educate the reader.  The book attempts to help the reader to understand the basis of why our body composition is what it is, and from there to help us to make better choices about food and eating, which in turn will lead to lead to a more natural and stable body weight and composition.

In searching for the original blog post I read, to link back to it, I came across a lot of other reviews for this book.  Some were critical of the focus on women.  Some were critical of how when the authors state that diets don’t work they embrace eating rules.  Some simply quoted the relevant points they wanted to focus on taking away from the book, inviting their readers to comment.

I have struggled with how best to organise my review.  I found the book interesting, scientifically based but easy to read, and with a few good takeaway points that I am more mindful of when I choose foods to eat / prepare at home.  I decided to give to you a summary – of the main sections with some quotes of facts I found interesting, as well as the lists and steps that I found in the book.  With this in mind, please feel free to read on, or to just click away—it’s not exactly my punchiest blog post ever.  I have also peppered the post with some reflections, particularly at the end with regard to the author’s section on establishing natural weight.

I will say that if you are interested in science and research and would like a reference book for how to eat good fats (omega-3s) then this is a great book.  It is written in an accesible manner, and I read it on one long flight (so it is quick reading too).  I find myself returning to it often for information or checking things.  Unlike some other reviews I read, I was not bothered by the focus on women (versus men or people in general) – rather I found it interesting and a great biological explanation of the body in terms that a non-scientist like me could understand.

Sadly I cannot pass along my copy – I bought it in digital format – but if you would like to buy one you can find it here on Amazon.

Section one – Why and how we got fatter: quotes and snippets that interested me, and my thoughts

A 2010 review of the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans still has no good evidence supporting the recommendations.

While the total amount of sugars in our diet has not gone up [over time], the source of our sugar has changed dramatically [from sugar cane to corn syrup]

Could eating less saturated animal fat be linked to recent weight gains?

Without using tons of industrial chemicals, [corn oil and soybean oil] would be inedible. They are not foods; the are artificial chamical products, “food like substances”…

Both corn oil and soybean oil lower our good cholesterol, HDL.

Nearly all of the soybean oil in our diet has been hydrogenated, creating harmful trans fats, which actually increase the risk of heart disease and may also increase the risk of certain cancers.

Food manufacturers transform omega-3 fatty acids (the good fats) into omega-6 fatty acids – omega-6 acids are less prone to turn rancid, thus improving the flavour and colour of processed food.  These transformed fatty acids are the oils labelled as “partially hydrogenated” on our store bought foods.  In the 1960s these oils made up less than a fifth of all the fat in our diet, but today they make up half of all fats we consume.  These are the fats found in potato chips, french fries, onion rings, as well as store bought breads and pastries, cookies, cakes and muffins.

Researchers found that the single dietary factor most strongly related to women’s weight gain was the amount of omega-6 linoleic acid in their diet.  Omega-6 linoleic does not have any function in our bodies, but we convert it into arachidonic, the most important and potent form of omega-6 and a powerful promotor of weight gain.  Signally molecules (eicosanoids) made from arachidonic promote the growth and development of fatty tissue and fat storage.  They make our white blood cells more active and increase inflammation, which may contribute to blood vessel diseases in addition to promoting obesity.  Omega-3 fats produce a different type of ecosanoid that has the opposite effect to those that come from omega-6; it decreases fat storage and opposes inflammation.  Omega-6 fats also make us fatter by increasing our bodies own in-house version of marijuana (the endocannabinoids).  Endocannabinoids stimatulate our appetites.

It is not sugar, carbs or fat in general that is making us heavy. Our weight increase it tied to the unprecedented amount of vegetable oil we are eating and the heavy doeses of omega-6 fats those oils contain.

For me this goes back into the fact that eating any type of food is not “bad” per se – as long as you are eating real, whole foods and not processed foods.  Processed foods tend to use vegetable oils or industrially manufactured ingredients that contain ingredients designed to improve shelf life and stability. 

The amount of omega fats in meat depends on what the animals eat; as Michael Pollan has memorably said, “You are what you eat eats.”

For me this means to pay attention to how our food is raised.  Are we eating grass-fed beef, how cows naturally eat, or are we eating corn fed.  The same litmus test applies to chicken, and to farmed versus wild fish – is the animal you are eating being fed its natural diet, or a farm-fed designer diet?

Americans eat most of their fish fried and breaded or covered with batter, and studies have shown that when fish is eaten with vegetable oils in this way, the omega-3 it contains is no longer available to us.

So fish and chips does not count for consuming fish… Nor do fish fingers…

Section two –  Why women need fat: quotes and snippets that interested me, and my thoughts.

In this section of the book, the authors explore why women store more fat than men do resulting in a higher average body fat composition.  They relate much of this back to the basic female reproductive and child rearing role.

DHA is the most complex of the omega-3 fats. It make sup a third of the fatty membrane that encloses each nerve cell in our brains, helping each cell to grow, send messages to each other, and form thousands of connections that enables us to think.

DHA is stored in fat.  It is shown in studies to improve infant brain development.  It is transmitted from mother to child through breast feeding.

“Women with more DHA from their diet, like those in Japan and Europe, have less need to store such large amounts of fat and, as a result, will tend to be thinner than American women.”

The typical American diet, with so much processed food, has such an overwhelming abundance of omega-6 fats that the female body needs to store more overall fat to have the same level of available DHA omega-3 fat during child rearing years.  The nature of our food is leading to a chemical reaction in our bodies which is increasing the percentage of body fat that we have.

A natural diet leads to a natural amount of stored fat; an unnatural diet leads to excess fat.

Thoughts on the final section of the book: How to Achieve Your Natural Body Weight

In this section the authors seek to systematically unpick preconceived notions or truisms held about weight. 

There are no studies showing that overweight or obese women who lose weight live longer.

Because many Americans are biased against heavier women they are predisposed to believe that any excess weight must be very bad for health and that heavier women must die earlier.

A majority of women who are obese today would not have been obese were they still eating the American diet of the 1960s, before the flood of omega-6s. They are obese only because of the unnatural diet they are eating.

Since dieting doesn’t work, the most important step we can take to return to our naturally lower weights is to stop dieting and take steps to reverse the changes in our diets that have led us to consume too much omega-6 fat and too little omega-3.

This – THIS is the crux of the book.  The authors advocate a return to eating whole foods – to buying non-industrial ingredients and making meals plentiful in omega-3 fats.  They advocate that through this approach that we can return to our natural weight, our “set point”.

If you are eating the right foods and getting a reasonable amount of exercise, your weight should find its natural level.

But what are the “right foods”?  The authors provide some tips – but I can see how a trained nutritionist or dietitician would be beneficial in helping people with this point.

1.  Reduce the amount of commercially fried food in your diet (especially foods fried in corn or soybean oils).
2.  Cook with boiling, roasting, steaming, stewing, broiling, or grilling.
3.  If you crave fried foods, instead sautee, stir-fry or braise in a low omega-6 oil such as canola, olive oil, or butter.
4.  Check your food labels – and if it says “may contain soubean oil or corn oil” assume that it does.
5.  Minimise omega-6s in our diet – corn-fed meats, supermarket typical chicken and turkey, fried fish, regular eggs, deli meats, breakfast meats, sausages.
6.  Increase omega-3s in our diet – canola oil, dairy foods, vegetables, fruits, flax seeds, grass-fed meats, salmon, trout, light tuna, pollock, sardines, herring, perch, citrus fruits
7.  Eat anti-oxidant rich foods – fruits and vegetables that are strongly coloured – dark green, orange, red, yellow, purple. Carrots, greens, chard, kale, peppers, olives, spinach, mango, apricots, cantaloupe, papaya, persimmon, tangerines.
8.  Eat high fibre vegetables – kidney beans, black beans, lima beans, peas, lentils, brussel sprouts, potatoes in their skins, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, eggplant, spinach.
9.  Avoid commercially baked goods – they tend to use shortening which is high in omega-6 fat.
10.  Avoid most commercially made salad dressing, standard supermarket meats and poultry (non-organic factory farmed), most fast food and pre-packaged foods, fried foods.

The book is peppered with examples of good and bad fats – high omega-3 foods, and omega-6 foods to stay away from.  Although some people may say it is a bit repetitive, I *liked* the constant reminders.  I am not a trained nutritionist, so I am not familiar with the ins and outs of food composition.  So for me, reading the information more than once helped me to learn and embed ideas.

Corn-fed supermarket beef has seven times more omega-6 than omega-3, while in grass-fed beef omega-6 and omega-3 are almost equal.

Checkens that eat grass outdoors have twice as much omega-3 in their meat as grain-fed chickens, and a ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 that is twice as high, and higher levels of benefitical omega-3 EPA and DHA.

Higher amounts of vitamin C in American women’s blood are strongly linked with lower weights.

Food makers can say “zero” trans fat on the label if a “serving” contains less than one half gram. So a label for cookies that each contain a half gram of trans fat can state “zero trans fat” as long as the serving size listed is one cookie.

It may be best to eat sugar with other foods, for example, in desserts at the end of a meal, rather than in snacks or beverages between meals.

Always choose a canola oil that lists its omega-3 alpha linolenic content on the label; it should have approximately 1300 milligrams per tablespoon (about 9 percent).

Margarine is made from vegetable oil, usually corn or soybean, it is about one-fifth lineoleic.  “Soft” margarine like spreads are more popular and have even more omega-6. Liquid margarines are the worst, at one-third linoleic.

The authors also share some common sense tips to losing weight and getting back to our body’s natural weight.

1.  Eat only until you are satisfied then stop.
2.  Reduce daily calories by a small amount, so as not to trigger a weight protecting mechanism in the brain.
3.  Eat Breakfast, and avoid snacks after dinner.
4.  Try to have smaller portions.
5.  Choose nuts and fruit for snacks.
6.  Limit commercial beverages.
7.  Get regular exercise.
8.  Reduce the amount of processed food in your diet

Now I am not personally seeking to achieve weight loss, but I do find the tips full of common sense.  I suspect implementing these small changes could be hard. One of the suggestions to do the small changes is to just cut out coffee in sugar to generate a 50 calorie a day deficit, which over a year could lead to 5 pounds of weight loss.  But, how do you know if only cutting out sugar in coffee is going to achieve this result?  Everything else you ate would have to be perfect, and even then the result will not be instant, it may be frustrating, it may not appear.  I suspect to do this type of natural eating change a lot of people would first need to learn *how* to eat – learn about appropriate portion sizes, learn about how to menu plan, learn to cook…  But for someone like me, who cooks a lot and who is diligent about the choices I make around food, this type of “intuitive” plan could work.  And intuitively eating like these has meant that my weight has stayed pretty constant over the past few years.

I have to admit, I like this “natural common sense” approach a lot better than the regimented extremes that I read about.  It just seems to me that success is easier if we don’t view our goals as hard to attain but achievable through diligence and balance.  That just makes sense to me.

Of course, even though I am not interested in losing weight at the moment, I do know that I could lose about 2-3 kilograms (4-7 pounds) and still look and feel healthy.  With this in mind, I was curious about the author’s approach to finding natural body weight and type.  The book ends with a methodology for measuring and assessing “natural weight”. 

One of the steps to estimate natural weight is to look to your parents for an indication of what your natural weight would be.  My mother’s weight – until she had cancer and went on a regime of drug-based therapies which clearly disturbed her body – always weighed around 118-120 pounds.  I know this because she was proud that she had stayed consistent with her weight despite the rigours of shift work.  I am about two inches taller than she was, so I figure that my natural weight could be about 120-122 pounds (54-55 kilograms).  This just happened to be in line with the generic estimation tables provided by the authors.

I know that weight is not the only measure that matters when it comes to body health and fitness – for me, it is about how I look and feel.  And I know that weight is not the whole story – it is as much about body composition as it is about a sheer numerical piece of information.  But I was curious about the estimation.  Could this be refined?

The authors provide a table of measurements to take to calculate and estimate natural body weight.  I did some rough measurements (not precise by any means) and with the calculations the measurements I took show that I could lose up to 20 pounds and still be at a normal weight.  I found this number too dramatic, too low for me.  To put it in perspective, this would have me weighing the same as I weighed at age 22.  I was not nearly as healthy and active then as I am now.  That type of weight seems too low to me – 9 kilos less than I weight, down to 51.4 kilos (113 pounds). I suspect, with a very precise understanding of portion and eating, and if I adopted a relentless focus on healthy fats and healthy eating, I *could* drop this weight over time and without too much difficulty.  But I just don’t feel the need.  But it *was* interesting to see that the calculated natural weight really is just my weight of 20 years ago. A pound a year of weight.  Not unrealistic (I guess) if viewed with that point of reference.

My key takeaway

Clearly, education on what to eat helps to inform healthier eating.  So too does knowing how to cook.  With a clean diet full of wholesome, natural, organic foods – foods that we cook and prepare ourselves rather than buying ready-made – we set ourselves up for maximum health.  And by eating this way we don’t have to avoid treats and indulgences.  We just need to be aware and understand the choices that we make in the context of our overall health.

Intuitive.  Deceptively simple.  But a method that seems natural, and that I am striving toward in my everyday eating.

PS: In doing this review I also finally got around to joining Goodreads, to share my thoughts and an abridged version of this review in a wider forum.  You can find me there at http://www.goodreads.com/donna_de