Fat vs. Carbohydrates

So, did this picture catch your interest... or maybe made you hungry! Well, this is a picture from an article on whether calories from fat or calories from carbohydrates are worse for you. It is a very interesting article & outlines how the different forms of fat are what you really should be concerned about. Specifically, it discusses trans fats and how bad they are versus the unsaturated fats and the benefits of them. One section of the article reads as such:

"We've now looked at over 250,000 men and women for up to 30 years, and we [also] haven't seen that the percentage of calories from fat or from carbohydrates in your diet makes any difference in relation to heart attacks, various cancers, or stroke. Having said that, the type of fat is very important, and so is the type of carbohydrate. So we find that trans fats, again, are particularly harmful with regard to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. On the other hand, unsaturated fats are actually beneficial in terms of reducing the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It's the same with carbohydrates. The total amount is not important. But high intake of refined starch and sugar is related to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, whereas high-fiber whole-grain carbohydrates are related to a lower risk. That's not too surprising, as we know that high intakes of sugar and refined starch have an adverse effect on blood glucose levels."

It is a very good article so I highly recommend you clicking on either one of these links:

Time.com
or
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080715/hl_time/arefatcaloriesmorefatteningthancarbs

Both links are the same article and they discuss how the quality of the diet is very important, but just looking at fat versus carbohydrate does not tell all.

Again, I would like to point out that my personal view is that you have to have a food program that you can stick with for life but it does not hurt to work in this advice on limiting those trans fats. They are really BAD! Try to reduce them & also if you are not eating the healthy unsaturated fats, get those in there. I used to really limit all my fat intake & I am much better off now that I added some fat into my diet & the majority of it is the healthy fats.