Smart Fat Quotes

“Cardamom, an ancient spice that you’ll find in Indian cooking, is often used as a digestive aid and a breath freshener. But it also stimulates the flow of bile, which enhances liver health and fat metabolism. Cinnamon contains phytochemicals that increase glucose metabolism in cells (and when glucose is metabolized, it doesn’t get stored as fat). It also can help to lower blood sugar, decrease blood pressure, and reduce triglyceride levels and “bad” (low-density lipoprotein [LDL]) cholesterol. Ginger helps control nausea, but it also decreases the stickiness of blood, which helps to prevent blood clots, and decreases inflammation. In animal studies, it lowered cholesterol and slowed the development of atherosclerosis. Turmeric contains curcumin, one of the most powerful compounds in the plant kingdom. Curcumin has been used at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in cancer trials. It’s being studied in memory loss research at Columbia University Medical Center (it was shown to slow memory loss in laboratory animals) and at the University of California. It’s extremely healthy for the liver, which is “ground zero” for detoxification. Curcumin has also been shown to improve arthritis symptoms, not surprising in view of its enormous anti-inflammatory firepower. (Both of us take curcumin in supplement form; see more on supplements in Chapter 8.)”
― Steven Masley, Smart Fat: Eat More Fat. Lose More Weight. Get Healthy Now.

“SMART FAT FACT: THERE ARE NO VEGGIES IN “VEGETABLE” OIL Vegetable oils don’t come from vegetables, so the name is misleading. They are processed from grains such as corn or from other plants such as soybeans. To distinguish these fats from animal fats, manufacturers have long referred to them as “vegetable” oil, and that’s how most consumers refer to them as well. But the name is flat-out wrong. More accurately, they are plant-based oils derived from grains and seeds. We use “vegetable oil” in this book because it is common usage, but we want to point out—and we want you to understand—the inaccuracy of that term.   Here’s the solution: For omega-3s to counteract inflammation most effectively, they must be eaten in the correct ratio to omega-6s—ideally, about 1:1. But that’s not what we’re doing. Research indicates that our current consumption of omega-6 fats is about sixteen times greater than our consumption of omega-3s, or roughly a ratio of 16:1. That means we’re giving 1,600 percent more “fuel” to our body’s inflammatory army than to its anti-inflammatory army. As you’ll see, getting this ratio right is vital. Our health depends on it—as do our very lives. While the ratio of 1:1 is the ideal, we believe that you can do just fine with a ratio of anywhere between 1:1 and 4:1. But 16:1? Not so much! Once your ratio is calibrated, smart fats can go to work in your body and bust the cycle of inflammation to help you lose weight, fight disease, and stop accelerated aging.”
― Steven Masley, Smart Fat: Eat More Fat. Lose More Weight. Get Healthy Now.

“Like high blood pressure and diabetes, chronic inflammation has no visible symptoms (though it can be measured by a lab test known as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs CRP]). But it damages the vascular system, the organs, the brain, and body tissues. It slowly erodes your health, gradually overwhelming the body’s anti-inflammatory defenses. It causes heart disease. It causes cognitive decline and memory loss. Even obesity and diabetes are linked to inflammation because fat cells are veritable factories for inflammatory chemicals. In fact, it’s likely that inflammation is the key link between obesity and all the diseases obesity puts you at risk for developing. When your joints are chronically inflamed, degenerative diseases like arthritis are right around the corner. Inflamed lungs cause asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Inflammation in the brain is linked to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions, including brain fog and everyday memory lapses that we write off as normal aging—except those memory lapses are not an inevitable consequence of aging at all. They are, however, an inevitable consequence of inflammation, because inflammation sets your brain on fire. Those “I forgot where I parked the car” moments start happening more frequently, and occurring prematurely. Inflamed arteries can signal the onset of heart disease. Chronic inflammation has also been linked to various forms of cancer; it triggers harmful changes on a molecular level that result in the growth of cancer cells. Inflammation is so central to the process of aging and breakdown at the cellular level that some health pundits have begun referring to the phenomena as “inflam-aging.” That’s because inflammation accelerates aging, including the visible signs of aging we all see in the skin. In addition to making us sick, chronic inflammation can make permanent weight loss fiendishly difficult. The fat cells keep churning out inflammatory proteins called cytokines, promoting even more inflammation. That inflammation in turn prevents the energy-making structures in the cells, called mitochondria, from doing their jobs efficiently, much like a heat wave would affect the output of a factory that lacks air-conditioning—productivity declines under extreme conditions. One of the duties of the mitochondria is burning fat; inflammation interferes with the job of the mitochondria, making fat burning more difficult and fat loss nearly impossible. While someone trying to lose weight may initially be successful, after a while, the number on the scale gets stuck. The much-discussed weight-loss “plateau” is often a result of this cycle of inflammation and fat storage. And here’s even more bad news: Adding more exercise or eating fewer calories in an attempt to break through the plateau will have some effect on weight loss, but not much. And continuing to lose weight becomes much harder to accomplish. Why? Because inflammation decreases our normal ability to burn calories. (We’ll tell you more about other factors that contribute to the plateau—and how the Smart Fat Solution can help you to move beyond them—in Part 2 of this book.)”
― Steven Masley, Smart Fat: Eat More Fat. Lose More Weight. Get Healthy Now.

“In addition to making us sick, chronic inflammation can make permanent weight loss fiendishly difficult. The fat cells keep churning out inflammatory proteins called cytokines, promoting even more inflammation. That inflammation in turn prevents the energy-making structures in the cells, called mitochondria, from doing their jobs efficiently, much like a heat wave would affect the output of a factory that lacks air-conditioning—productivity declines under extreme conditions. One of the duties of the mitochondria is burning fat; inflammation interferes with the job of the mitochondria, making fat burning more difficult and fat loss nearly impossible. While someone trying to lose weight”
― Steven Masley, Smart Fat: Eat More Fat. Lose More Weight. Get Healthy Now.