A study conducted in the Netherlands found some obese individuals to not be at increased risk for heart disease due to their weight. I’m going to share what they learned because I don’t want you to start seeing headlines saying you can be fat and still be fit and start thinking it’s okay to remain a couch potato.
The Study
Dutch researchers identified a subset of 1,325 obese individuals, between the ages of 28 to 75 years-old, from the 8,356 participants in the Dutch Prevention of Renal and Vascular Endstage Disease study. Out of the 1,325 obese individuals only 90 were determined to be “metabolically healthy”.
Metabolically healthy means the participants did not have risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, or the use of cholesterol lowering medication. The Dutch study found only 6.8 percent of obese individuals in a larger population are metabolically healthy.
The Results
Here’s a guest post from Eva Alexander providing answers to some frequently asked questions about the Mediterranean diet.
Most people say the Mediterranean diet is high in fat. Can people still lose or maintain weight on a Mediterranean diet?
The Mediterranean diet is high in fats. But these consist of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These are healthy fats needed by your body. In contrast, the typical American diet is rich in saturated fats. It should be noted also that fat content in your diet does not determine weight loss. It is your calorie consumption that will generally influence weight loss and optimum weight management. Mediterranean diet provides lots of healthy benefits but it is still essential to lower your calorie consumption to achieve better results.
What’s the major difference of American and Mediterranean diets?
So, what diet is right? Do you need to stick with a low carb intake to lower cholesterol? Do you need to go high protein to lower blood pressure?
What’s the best way for you to achieve optimal heart health?
Later this month, Rosanne Rust will provide a step by step guide on what you can do right now to balance calories, carbs, and fat to achieve your health goals.
Here’s a little of what she’ll be covering . . .
You know you should be reading food labels, but what’s the point if you don’t know what you’re looking for? Let me give you a few guidelines you can follow to make food labels work for you.
Continue readingIf you are trying to sort out everything regarding cholesterol and make an informed treatment decision that’s best for your health, you may be feeling overwhelmed. I’ve already given steps to raise HDL and lower triglycerides, now I’d like to more into VLDL versus LDL.
Let’s start at the beginning. You eat a food and it provides more energy (calories) than you immediately need. The liver breaks down some the carbohydrates and protein and forms triglycerides (fat) and cholesterol. The liver is the major fat producing organ, while our adipose tissue (fat cells) stores the fat made by the liver.
Continue readingWhen it’s time to lose weight, many of us are trained to think “cut back on fat”. In a previous post – What’s the right amount of fat? – I discussed fat soluble vitamins, how much fat you should include in your daily diet, and some healthy fat sources. Now I want to cover one other important contribution fat makes when it comes to losing weight.
One of the beauties of fat is that it helps us to feel full. Fat is often referred to as the “satiety nutrient.” Have you ever eaten a meal that has been non fat or extremely low in fat? If so, then you might know what I mean. That meal typically doesn’t keep you satisfied for very long which leads to eating more food to get satisfaction. This can result in an overall higher calorie intake!
So for your weight loss efforts, it’s important to curb your appetite by including adequate fat sources with your meals and some snacks! Sixty grams of fat per day can add up quickly so you’ll want to make sure you’re making mindful choices.
Being careful you do not restrict your fat intake too low and include healthy fat sources in your diet everyday is just one of many factors that affect weight loss. To drastically increase your success with losing weight and keeping it off you must wade through all the weight loss information available and sort out what works from what doesn’t. Many methods used to lose weight are ineffective and some may even sabotage your weight loss efforts. Sign up for the FREE teleclass The 5 Biggest Dieting Myths Revealed to learn which weight loss strategies really work. Visit https://www.lisanelsonrd.com/newu/call.html to learn more today.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
5 Biggest Dieting Myths Revealed