Sara Ost Brilliantly Refutes Fat-Phobia

Fat is bad. Fat is so bad. Eating fat is so very, very, very bad for you.

Or so goes the song and dance that we've been led to believe for decades by the perpetrators of the low-fat lie. Fat-phobia in 2007 is in full force and groups like the American Heart Association are only adding gasoline to that raging fire with their absurd ad campaign against saturated fat.

Although all the latest scientific evidence has shown that a high-fat diet is only unhealthy in tandem with a high-carb diet, the prevailing line of reasoning is to blame the dietary fat rather than the dietary carbohydrate as the culprit in obesity and related diseases. Can't somebody get this message across in clear and concise language that expresses this point?

Ask and you shall receive!

The awesome and amazing Sara Ost from Mark's Daily Apple has written a brilliant column for CalorieLab called "The lipid-phobe’s guide to dietary fat: 11 ways fat can help you (and 4 ways it can’t hurt you)."

Written specifically for women who need to "lose the fear of fat," Sara talks about a recent conversation she had with her best friend over the role of dietary fat in a healthy diet. Going against the grain of modern thinking towards fat, Sara patiently explained how she used to be afraid of fat, too, until she educated herself about the detrimental role of excessive carbohydrate in her diet. More importantly, she talked about how she eats now that her fear of fat has finally fizzled.

"I began living on a deliciously greasy menu of green vegetables, salads and fish—greasy because these vittles were smothered in all the eggs, butter, cream, nuts, and cheese I could possibly want. After working out, I drank half-and-half from the carton. I soaked my veggies in walnut oil. I dunked figs in mascarpone and ate criminal amounts of avocados."

Mmm, that sounds so yummy (while I'm sure Dr. Dean Ornish is having a cardiac arrest somewhere thinking about all that fat Sara is stuffing in her mouth! LOL!) and is extremely healthy when she simultaneously removed the refined carbs from her diet. Not surprisingly, Sara said she "began to feel wonderful."

She lost weight, her acne cleared, she was buying new clothes, her body fat dropped dramatically, her personality improved, trips to the bathroom were normal again (EWW!), and so much more than she could have ever imagined eating this way!

"I was so revitalized and healthy, it created a happy ripple effect."

Sara's unbelievable health turnaround started rubbing off on her circle of friends who ended their fat-phobia and started watching their carbs, too. Same results as Sara. WOO HOO!

The bottom line, Sara says, is "women need fat."

"Fat is nutritious and essential. There are cultures that subsist on 40, 50 and 60 percent fat and enjoy slim figures and great health. The story you’ve been told—that fat gives you heart disease and makes you fat—is baloney. Low-fat baloney."

Oh, I love this girl! She's a fat-loving health freak who knows from whence she speaks. CLICK HERE to see Sara's list of what things fat does for you and doesn't do for you based on all the evidence and facts we know about it scientifically-speaking.

Sara Ost is a regular reader at my blog and I'm happy to know there are people like her in this world promoting the truth about diet and health. You keep tellin' it to 'em straight, girl! There's nothing more comforting than having facts on your side.

Say it with me now: Fat is good. Fat is so good. Eating fat is so very, very, very good for you! :D

CalorieLab Highlights Two Low-Carb Bloggers

There are all sorts of web sites on the Internet today that are centered around the subject of diet and health. If you've ever done a Google search on those terms, then you know what I'm talking about. But I want to tell you about a web site you will DEFINITELY want to become more familiar with if you like to track the nutritional info about the foods you are eating (and if you don't like to do this, then now's the time to START!).

It's called CalorieLab and features various news and information about calories to educate people who are interested in both the calories consumed and the calories burned.

In fact, here's a search box for you to use to find the nutritional information about any food product you are interested in. Go ahead, give it a try for yourself and see what you find:

CALORIE COUNTER BY CALORIELAB

That's a pretty neat little gizmo, eh? I thought it was and could literally spend hours typing in all kinds of foods to see not just the calories, but the other important nutritional info including carbohydrates. :D

In their News section this week, I noticed an article they posted at CalorieLab entitled "Low-carb blogging is contagious" which obviously piqued my interest since I am a low-carb blogger. Well, lo and behold, it was an article about ME and MY BLOG as well as my friend Low-Carb Dave and his popular low-carb blog. This was a TOTAL surprise because they didn't let me know they were doing this.

Here's how they opened the story they wrote:

"Low-carb living is popular but controversial. The bloggers showcased today have found success, motivation, and passion through living a low-carb lifestyle. In turn, they use that passion to help motivate others while attempting to dispel myths about the low-carb diet.

Then they write a very flattering feature about my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog and my book as well.

"People looking for low-carb information will find a bountiful supply of facts and figures, along with information on fellow low-carb bloggers."

When they talked about Low-Carb Dave, they discuss his 100-pound weight loss success following the low-carb lifestyle and that he uses his blog to track his journey to try to reach "the hearts and minds of fellow bloggers and dieters by describing success on the Atkins-style diet."

CalorieLab added that low-carb blogging "seems contagious" and notes that Dave was inspired by my blog. What an AWESOME story and I'm thrilled to see the continuing impact that my weight loss and blog have made on so many people. Many of those blogs you see listed among my "Blog Friends" to the right are from people who have started livin' la vida low-carb and using the blogging format to help keep them accountable.

What a joy it is to blog about something as incredible and lifechanging as the low-carb lifestyle! So many of you have been inspired to start losing weight and even blogging about it because of my current "30-In-30" Low-Carb Weight Loss Challenge. Way to go and keep up the great work with your weight loss and frequent blog updates. We will continue to show them that low-carb is here to stay forever and ever, baby!

Special thanks again to CalorieLab for their fantastic feature story. Click here to leave a comment at their blog on behalf of me and Dave for their mention of our blogs. THANKS!