A Nutritional Paradox: Can Eating Olive Oil Stop You Getting Fat?

For a long time fats have been the nutritional “bad guy”, blamed for everything including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. We talked about this in an earlier blog (Go Easy On Fats!). The food industry picked up on our fear of fats and created a vast array of low fat foods to tempt us. Their marketing departments were also busy with campaigns and slogans like “99% fat free”, “lite”, “no trans fats”, “cholesterol free” and “skimmer”. The not-so-subtle message being the “low fat” food is better for you and will keep you slim. Yet the very same marketing departments were also telling us fats were good for us! We were encouraged to eat certain relatively fatty foods like fish (salmon, herring, and mackerel may have more than 10% fat), avocadoes (10% or more), nuts (more than 50%) and that we needed to take fish or krill oils as fat supplements. With all the mixed messages, no wonder the consumer was confused! Read the rest of this entry »