The idea here—supported by a new report from Switzerland— is that North Americans have been on the wrong diet for 50 years. We’ve been avoiding natural, healthy fats—such as those found in red meat, butter and eggs—to disastrous effect.
Though generally condemned, many natural fats found in food have positive impacts on your body, including increased energy, lower rates of diabetes, and weight loss. Read on to discover the full-fat foods that help you lose from the waist by adding to the plate. Your diet will never be the same.
- Grass-Fed Butter An excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids, grass-fed butter helps keep energy levels stable by slowing down the absorption of carbohydrates and sugar.
- Heavy Cream in your Coffee Unlike milk, heavy cream is a healthy fat that keeps blood sugars stable, helping to maintain energy and brainpower. It also has the added effect of neutralizing any negative consequences of caffeine consumption, like the jitters.
- Whole Milk Although whole milk technically has more calories than its skim counterparts, it is much more filling and may actually crank up your body’s calorie burning centers. In fact, studies have proven that those who drink whole milk are less likely to be obese than other milk drinkers.
- Bacon A paleo hit, grab a few slices of full fat pork bacon to up your energy. Packed with protein and heart healthy monounsaturated fats, real bacon can actually be better for you in the long run than its low-cal competitors.
- Salad Dressing Skip the raw veggies and add a little dip! Studies show eating a moderate amount of fat with your vegetables helps your body absorb important nutrients like lycopene and beta-carotene, which can help fight cancer and improve heart health.
- Avocado A power food, avocados pack protein, fiber, monounsaturated fats, and oleic acid, which stops you from feeling hungry. Be sure to limit yourself to a quarter or half of an avocado for proper portion control.
- Avocado Oil Good in any format, try avocado oil in your cooking to benefit from those same heart healthy monounsaturated fats!
- 4% Yogurt Loaded with protein, calcium, and probiotics, full fat yogurt is one of the best foods for health and weight loss. An added bonus, yogurts with higher fat content tend to have more protein and less sugar than their leaner versions!
- Regular Ice Cream Besides having extreme levels of sugar, low fat ice creams can sometimes contain propylene glycol, better known as antifreeze. To avoid this toxic mess, choose a small bowl of regular ice cream to satisfy cravings in a natural way.
- Grass-Fed Beef Grass-fed beef is proven to contain higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids and less calories, making it the tastier, and healthier, steak dinner option.
- Regular Mayo Use a little bit of regular mayo to spice up your sandwiches and avoid the added sugars, vegetable oils, and artificial preservatives that get substituted into its low-fat alternatives.
- Natural Peanut Butter Natural peanut butter is heavy in healthy monosaturated fats, and tends to have lower sodium and sugar content than non-natural spreads. Stick to the natural, full fat jars to prevent trading good fats for bad sugars.
- Coconut The high levels of saturated fat in coconuts are mainly caused by lauric acid, a unique lipid that actually battles bacteria and lowers cholesterol. Studies have found that diets high in lauric acid can even help remove stubborn abdominal fat!
- Olive Oil Not only is olive oil rich in cancer fighting polyphenols and monounsaturated fats, but it also helps increase levels of adiponectin, a hormone responsible for breaking down body fat.
- Whole Eggs Eggs are the number one source of Choline, a nutrient found in lean meats and greens, which helps fight the gene mechanism that stores fat around your liver. Eating full eggs, yolk and all, can thus keep you looking slim and trim, inside and out.
- Dark Chocolate Dark chocolate contains pure cocoa butter, which is a source of digestion slowing stearic acid. As a result, eating just a few ounces of dark chocolate before a meal can actually help reduce your caloric intake by up to 17%!
- Walnuts While saturated fats like those found in baking cause weight gain, polyunsaturated fats reduce fat storage and improve insulin metabolism. With 13 grams of polyunsaturated fat per one ounce serving, walnuts are one of the best natural sources of these healthy fats.
- Walnut Oil Besides the obvious benefits listed above, a diet filled with walnuts and walnut oil can also help the body respond better to stress and keep diastolic blood pressure down.
- Salmon Everyone knows that salmon is loaded with heart healthy omega-3s. But did you know that just two servings of salmon a week can get you the total amount of omega-3s recommended by the American Heart Association?
- Tuna Tuna is an excellent source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), two fatty acids that are proven to regulate fat genes in the abdomen and keep fat cells from expanding. To lower your risks of ingesting mercury, go for smaller species of tuna like those found in light canned options, which are safe to eat throughout the week!
[More at Yahoo Health]