If you stuff enough cold, hard cash down your gullet, your belly will probably stick out like an overfed oil exec. Same with fat. Fat keeps us full, and healthy fats like those found in seafood and many plants help protect against heart disease. But most of us are eating way, way too much of the wrong kinds—and getting fatter in return.
Yeah, I know it's hard to keep it all straight: good fats, bad fats, indifferent fats, fats that just got out of rehab . . . nutrition is confusing. One day we're told to eat margarine, the next we're told to eat butter. Well, let's simplify it: Here are the only three rules of fat you need to know:
1. If it's a trans fat (look for "partially hydrogenated oil" on the label), then don't eat it. Period. This manmade substance has been linked to a variety of health issues, in particular heart disease.
2. If it comes from the ocean or from open fields (fish, game, free-range animals, or plants), it's good for you. From tuna to avocado to nuts to venison, this is unsaturated fat—the heart-healthy stuff.
3. Everything else—dairy fat and most of the meat we encounter—is just about a wash. In other words, in limited amounts these fats (saturated fats) won't hurt you, but there are healthier things to eat. Don't overdo it. (Opt for low-fat and lean varieties when possible.)
The problem comes when food manufacturers start adding copious quantities of corpulence to foods that ought to be relatively good for us. Fat has 9 calories per gram—versus just 4 per gram for protein and carbohydrates. That means fat grams do more than double the dietary damage.
Here, I'm calling out some of the biggest fat offenders in the restaurant industry, compliments of the forthcoming new Eat This, Not That! 2012. Every meal on this page contains more than 100 grams of fat. That's a minimum of 900 calories of fat in one meal. To be clear, there's nothing remotely healthy here. Stay extra vigilant with these fatty offenders and you'll keep yourself on the smart path to a slim belly.
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