On the Low-Fat Principle

Sometime way back when, someone came up with the idea that fats in food are what make people fat.  It may have been a child.  I remember thinking that horseradish was made of horses so why shouldn't fat make you fat?  In response, food makers everywhere offer "low-fat" versions of their products to society at large.  "LOW FAT!" is even plastered on the packages to attract you to them.  Now you can go all day eating low-fat foods and lose weight...right?
Considering that fats are important in vitamin absorption, cell structure integrity, hormone regulation, and other tasks, a diet low in fats can actually be harmful to overall health.

Foods marked as low-fat are often not low in sugar.  The sugar is added because removing the fat also removes the taste.  If a food originals has 10 grams of fat (90 calories) and 10 grams of sugar (40 calories), a low-fat version might look something like  3 grams of fat (18 calories) and 30 grams of sugar (120 calories).  The original choice comes to 130 calories (not counting other nutrients) and the low fat version comes to 138 calories.  Now this isn't always the case of course, but I can say that it's typical.

Insulin resistance, which can lead to type II diabetes, is often produced when the body is overloaded with sugars (broken down carbohydrates) over a period of time.  There's just too much to handle and the signal for insulin to do its job is weakened allowing sugar to run rampant in the blood stream.  Now there's much more science to this than a paragraph of abstract, but you get the idea. 

Fat isn't necessarily the enemy.  Like all other nutrients, it has its place and should remain the diet in moderation with other nutrients.

Meijer Low-Fat Vanilla Yogurt

Meijer No-Fat Vanilla Yogurt