Remember in 1990's? It was an era of "fat is BAD!" Ummm....did that do much of anything to reduce the obesity epidemic in America? No!! Instead, people avoided healthy fats to their detriment and adopted the low-fat, no-fat chemical s**tstorms that are out their now.
Lemme say this once and for all, so listen carefully: GOOD FATS (in healthful moderation) WILL NOT MAKE YOU FAT!! And healthful moderation may be more than you think.
So, please, stop thinking you're doing yourself a dietary and healthy lifestyle favor by eating fat free yogurts. Especially the flavored ones. Learn to love plain whole milk yogurt and load it up with fruit, turn it into a veggie dip (with real herbs, not some chemical-laden packet of mix), add nuts, unsweetened coconut, honey, maple syrup, etc and enjoy the filling goodness.
Listen, we need fats. Fats help absorb vitamins. Fats keep our body going. Fats help us feel full so we don't gorge ourselves on empty calories. Embrace the avocado, the almond, whole milk (preferable raw), butter, olive oil, coconut oil, salmon, EGG YOLKS....but toss those nasty vegetable oils (canola, corn, shortening, PAM).
And please, enough with this egg white stuff. Eat the yolk! I'm begging you! The yolk is full of goodness and good cholesterol. You NEED good cholesterol for a healthy brain. People on low/no fat diets and low/no cholesterol diets are more likely to get dementia! But don't just buy any conventional egg. And avoid those "vegetarian fed" eggs. Sorry, but anyone living on a genetically modified corn and soy diet isn't going to produce much of anything healthful...find a local farmer who lets their chickens peck the ground for bugs and seeds and such and buy their eggs, then eat the whole darned thing!
Here are some great resources on the info I've presented here:
The Five Fats You MUST Have
How Vegetable Oils Make Us Fat
Get Your Fats Straight
Why Skim Milk Will Make You Fat
Health Benefits of Egg Yolks
You need to feed your body and feed it well for it to run properly and grow good muscle and cells and such. You can't have that if you are feeding your body with processed chemicals and not giving it the building blocks it needs (good fats and cholesterols).
After my first baby was born, I could not budge the last bit of baby weight. I exercised regularly and ate a low-fat diet. Why wasn't my weight budging? After reading research on fats, I took a leap of faith and switched to a full-fat diet and eliminated almost all processed foods. You know what happened? I didn't blow up like a balloon. I dropped not only the last 5 lbs of baby weight, but I dropped nearly 10 lbs! I had muscle tone and strength and wellness like I never had before!
I've had 4 babies and I still eat a full-fat diet and I weigh less now than I did before I got pregnant with my first!
One caveat....all bodies are different and we have different ways of metabolizing foods. So, while you should eat good fats every day and not shun them, your body may not be able to handle as much as mine. Or you may not like the more "robust" look that comes with a traditional full-fat diet. Our world's view is very slender and toned. On a woman, the full-fat diet usually presents a more Marilyn Monroe look than Jillian Michaels. See what works for you. Experiment and be mindful of your body, but please PLEASE do not shun good fats and egg yolks. Our bodies need them!
