The verdict is in.
Fat is the new protein.
With all the hype about protein shakes, bars, and Paleo meats these past few years, people are obsessed with the idea that protein means muscle-building and weight loss. As it turns out, vegetables have always been in in some way or another, with some folks eating nothing but plants in hopes of achieving optimal health, myself included.
But you know what’s been verbally abused, ridiculed, and absent from these conversations?
Fat.
Good, healthy fat.
Back in the 80’s, it was slammed down our throats that fats were bad for us and that they literally equated to fat on our hips, thighs, and rear end. Out came the low fat diets, low fat marketing, and low fat phenomenon.
My journey is one to speak to this issue. Let me give you a little background.
I grew up with a father who had a dream of owning a farm one day, so 4-H became a part of my life from early on. We had around 14 Herefords on our little farm, and it was my responsibility to raise one in its entirety so as to show it off to people in a ring after fluffing its tail with cow hair spray. At least, that’s the way I saw it at the time. In the winters, I had to trek over the hill from our house to the barn, plug in the bucket heater so as to unfreeze the water pails, throw grain in the troughs and literally sit on the grain bin and talk to my steer. I’m not joking. My Dad made it a requirement that I get friendly with my animal so as to get him used to my voice. And so I would sit, talking to Red Eye or Hershey, about what was happening at school and how much I would’ve rather my brother been the one to feed him today.
I vividly remember one night in high school, when I sat down at the dinner table to a usual meal… T-bone steaks, baked potato, corn, and a green vegetable. I rolled my eyes, to which my Dad reacted.
“What’s the matter?”
“I hate eating meat every single day!” I told him, my adolescence doing most of the talking.
My family was silent. I sat down, covered the steak with a napkin, and went about eating the rest of my plate. Within a matter of seconds, my Dad sent me to my room.
“You think you want to be a vegetarian, huh?”
“Yes!” I said adamantly.
“Go to your room.”
Later I’d be told how I’d hurt my Dad’s feelings. He’d always wanted to raise cattle and my dislike of meat came as an insult to him. I didn’t give up meat, at least not yet.
Fast forward to 2010. When looking for a “cure” for my chronic headaches, my husband and I decided to do the Beachbody Ultimate Reset, which is a 21 day clean eating detox program that slowly brings you into a fully vegan diet. We did it, and boy were there some rough meals. Lentils? Gross. Miso paste? Yuck. These were things we’d never heard of, and sure didn’t taste like the Hamburger Helper we were used to eating. But we did it. And we discovered something: we felt better eating these foods.
Unfortunately, in retrospect, we thought that what made us feel so good was eating a plant-based whole food diet sans red meat and dairy. We’ve continued this diet for the last few years, feeling amazing! Until we didn’t anymore. Until we felt exhausted and hungry all the time, wondering why we never felt fully satiated despite the 5 meals per day we were consuming.
What could we be doing wrong? We were eating by the book! Lean meats, lots of green vegetables, and fresh fruits in the summer. Not to mention our muscles were showing, we looked great, and we’d shed the 30 lbs. each to get here. But we didn’t feel good! Maybe it was just mental? Maybe it was something we were imagining?
As I’ve always said, people and things enter your life at different times for different reasons, and I believe Dave Asprey, the writer of The Bulletproof Diet and the voice behind Bulletproof Radio, came into my life on a podcast one day for a reason. Dave is a big advocate of a high-in-healthy-fats (primarily grass-fed butter) diet. Sure, he’s in favor of protein and green veggies, but he’s an even bigger proponent of good ol’ FATS:
Grass-fed butter
Coconut oil
MCT/XCT oil
And more.
He introduced the idea to add butter and coconut oil to my coffee, so I tried it. Within 3 days, I noticed a considerable difference in my energy, my focus, and my lack of feeling starved. My body was a sponge, absorbing every drop of that butter like it needed it for survival. I’d been depleting my body of the fats it needed for so long. So, I took Dave’s advice and added butter to my veggies and cooked my meats in coconut oil. Within a week, my body felt the way it should’ve been feeling all along: balanced, satiated, and strong.
It’s my opinion that over the last several years, Americans have been purely marketed to about the benefits of a low-fat diet for weight loss. After doing the research myself and becoming a faithful Bulletproof follower, I’m finding the opposite is true: Likely, the reason you’re NOT losing weight (or, for those of you in a similar role as a fitness instructor who can’t seem to stay full), is because your body is deprived of fats.
I remain dairy-free entirely, aside from grass-fed butter. I have an extreme dairy sensitivity, though butter doesn’t bother me due to the fact that it doesn’t contain several proteins included in other forms of dairy, including casein (also linked to cancer). Dave explains that this butter is full of saturated fats needed by your body that is extremely difficult if not impossible to find otherwise. Oh, and for the record, saturated fats actually improve the blood lipid profile. Butter also contains high amounts of K2, which keeps calcium out of your arteries, along with butyrate, an anti-inflammatory fatty acid. My point? If you think eating butter means having a heart attack, you couldn’t be further from the truth. I highly encourage reading about it! It could be precisely what you’re missing.
Healthy fats balance your hormones. They keep you heart healthy. They keep you satiated longer. They keep your brain functioning at high octane. They are the missing piece.
I’m a firm believer in a whole foods, plant-based diet. But as Dave says in the book, consuming animals who consume whole foods still fits into the category of a whole-foods, plant-based diet. As I head into 2015 feeling the best I’ve felt in a long time, I know it’s because I was going overboard on lean foods, thinking it was the way to live long-term. Doing so for a short time so as to cleanse is one thing; depriving your body of the fats it needs is another completely. Especially delicious, grass-fed butter.
Throw out the crappy fatty foods in your pantry and even that tub of Country Crock butter out of your fridge. That’s not real butter. Instead, go for Kerrygold unsalted blocks of butter from your local grocer, stick to 100% grass-fed meats, and remind yourself that fats are the new protein.
So Thanks, Dad. You always did know best.
Oh, and more guacamole, please.