Posted by Savneet Singh on Oct.29, 2010

©iStockphoto.com - pidjoe

I am here with a story of my friend, Nicole, who is my next door neighbor. This friend of mine had a perception that she is out of shape. During her routine check up, her physician told her that she has got just the perfect weight and BMI and she is good. But, the numbers on the scale never matched her expectations so she decided to cut back the fat from her diet altogether. The result was that within a few days she ended up having depression and a few other problems related to vitamin deficiencies.

Yes that’s true! Having a diet too low in fat can have a negative effect on your overall health. Consumption of less that 20% of the calories from fat from your food intake for a long a time can lead to some serious health issues. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend 20% to 35% of your daily calories should come from fat if you are a healthy adult. It is always a good idea to keep a check on the fat intake so as to mange weight and reduce the risk of heart disease but you should make sure that you are taking the minimum amount of healthy fat from food sources like almonds, avocado, tuna, salmon, flax seeds, olive oil, canola oil.

What happened with Nicole was that as she cut back the fat intake, altogether, thus, gradually her body stopped absorbing vitamins like A,D,E and K because these are fat soluble vitamins. These are absorbed in the fat that you eat in day to day diet and absence of fat makes body excrete these vitamins without absorption. In such case she acquired the diseases related to the deficiencies of these vitamins. Moreover, the omega-3 and omega-6 those are driven from the fat, regulate our mood and behavior. Absence of these can lead to depression. Omega-3s and Omega-6s help in regulation of hormones those are very much essential for normal brain functioning and diet low in fats can lead to bipolar disorder, eating disorder and ADHD.

I actually felt some change in the Nicole’s behavior when I visited her place 2-3 times. She was much a happy and out going person, always shopping and meeting people. But she stopped dropping at my place and was not much seen around as well for a week or so. It was her father, who came to help her in this situation, told me the whole story.

The doctor also said that if Nicole continues to do so she may be posed to a high risk of having cancer of breast and colon because our body needs essential fatty acids. In addition to this if the diet is too low in fats it may decrease the level of HDL- the good cholesterol and increase LDL-the bad one. The result is- you are at a risk because you must have high level of HDL so as to protect your heart.

Moreover, the diet containing too much carbohydrates may create another problem- Type 2 Diabetes! The diet having much of carbs inflate the appetite and on the other hand if you are taking too much protein your kidney and liver is at stake and you may have osteoporosis.

Now there is a surprising thing- after doing all this, Nicole didn’t loose weight!! The reason is that she chose fat-free food brought from the local grocery store, which is processed and already high in sugar to enhance the taste. These kind of products have almost the same number of calories of the original fat products. She relied totally on these products and overate them! The fats brings the taste, fullness and satisfaction to our food and absence of this results in overeating.

Nicole is advised to include the good fat sources in her diet and some supplements so as to combat the vitamin deficiencies. She is on rest now a days and has decided that she would focus on a good exercise regime rather that cutting back the fats.

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Posted under Fitness For Body & Mind, Food Facts, Health & Fitness, Health Alerts.