It's Hard Being Fat
No, I don't mean being overweight... what I mean is that fat, the actual substance, has such a bad wrap. We fear and despise it, but love to love it at the same time! It's stereotyped, stigmatized, and mis-labeled (more on that in a minute). It's in our favorite foods and just feels oh so good on our taste buds. Just the very mention of fat sends shivers down most people's spines because of its reputation for being unhealthy and packing on unwanted pounds. Poor fat, it gets so much flack for just doing what it was created to do. Despite the unfair reputation fat has earned, it's an amazing supplier of nutrients which protect nerves and organs. Not only that, it's our trusty energy reserve and always there when we need it.
Did you know that several vitamins can only be absorbed through fat? They include vitamins A, D, E, and K. Despite the good it does for us, it's downfall is the amount of calories per gram compared to other foods. For example, protein and carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram whereas at 9 calories per gram, fat has more than twice the calories. So while a pile of mashed potatoes looks really calorie dense, we pack on more unneeded calories in the fat laced junk food we graze on all day. Though fat itself isn't bad in itself, the sedentary lifestyle that most Americans live enhance the negative effects of fat on our bodies. If we all worked as bike couriers (bike riding is one of the best workout routines for men & women by the way), the fat content in our food wouldn't be as big of a problem. But since many Americans work deskjobs (and rarely workout), the excess calories sit on our bodies as fat.
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