When you see the “low fat” or “fat free” label on something, it should raise a major red flag. When food manufacturers want to make something low or fat free, they have to put other ingredients in that product to make it taste good. Those ingredients tend to be things like sugar, flour, and salt. Those ingredients can also be chemicals. For example, there are 15 different chemicals known as emulsifiers that are commonly used in processed foods in the US. Emulsifiers are typically used to make ice cream smooth and to keep mayonnaise from separating. The FDA has stated that emulsifiers are “regarded as safe” and have also gone on to say that emulsifiers do not cause cancer and have no toxic effects in animals.
But when immunologist Andrew Gewirtz at Georgia State University in Atlanta and his colleagues fed common emulsifiers carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80 to mice, they found evidence that the chemicals affected the animals’ health. Although their diet was not otherwise changed, healthy mice whose water contained the chemicals became obese and developed metabolic problems such as glucose intolerance. Read the full article here.
The other issue with eating low fat or fat free foods is that they tend to be less satisfying so you will tend to eat more of them, which can, of course, add calories.
The easiest way to eat clean is to get your fat from real food, not manufactured food products. Skip the items with the “low fat” and “fat free” labels. Chances are if something has one of those labels, it’s a processed food and you shouldn’t be eating it. Real food is the best food!
Read more about the dangers of chemicals in food here.