This leads me to compare three separate pieces of dietary information that I have encountered recently.
1. the High fat low carb diet I have been researching and experimenting with for the last few months;
2. a school newsletter article that came home yesterday stating current NSW Health and Heart Foundation dietary recommendations, and
3. An article from 1999 in a mothers' magazine that talks specifically about children's dietary needs of fat and the recommendations from the then Australian Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescence.
High Carb Low Fat
1. Low Carb, High fat flies directly in the face of current guidelines. By reducing carbohydrates, specifically starchy and highly refined carbs we lose weight. Sugars from all sources increase our blood sugar and trigger an insulin response. Insulin's job is to process this excess blood sugar and shunt it off into the fat cells. Carbohydrates are digested more quickly than fats and proteins so don't provide satiety and lead to peaks and troughs in blood sugar levels and the resulting insulin responses. This is fueling obesity and other chronic conditions as many of us are developing a condition called insulin resistance by eating this way. By increasing fat and protein content of our diet we are satisfied for longer so tend to eat less frequently. The fats are essential for satiety and for nutrients and actually assist with weight loss because they keep insulin in check.2014 NSW Health and Heart Foundation recommendations
2. The school newsletter articles that came home from school yesterday are really interesting and encapsulate the current thinking. The accompanying flyer states a few "facts" that I will list here:Did you know?
* National surveys found that the combined level of overweight and obese children in Australia has more than doubled in recent years.
* A major study revealed that the number of overweight and obese children in NSW rose from 1 in 10 in 1985 to 1 in 4 in 2004.
* Healthy snacks help kids and teens meet their daily nutritional needs. Snacks based on fruit, vegies, reduced fat dairy products and whole grains are the healthiest choices. Limit snacks that are high in sugar or saturated fats - such as chips, cakes and chocolate- which can cause children to put on excess weight.
* Reduced fat milk for children over 2 years of age is a nutritious drink and great source of calcium.
And here is a recipe to make for your child's breakfast:
Ingredients
2 eggs
1 tablespoon honey
2 1/2 cups of low fat milk
3 ripe bananas, sliced
2 cups of self raising flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tsp margarine
3 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated.
Method
In a large bowl beat eggs, margarine and milk. In a separate bowl mix flour and sugar, add grated apple and stir into the wet mixture until smooth.
Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Add 2-3 tablespoons of mixture. Flip when bubbles appear and cook until golden. Serve with banana and drizzled honey.
Makes ten.
The picture shows a serve as a stack of three with thick sliced bananas between each layer and a sizeable amount of honey drizzled over the whole thing.
Is it a coincidence that children are eating more often and are getting fatter? At my child's Primary school there is a breakfast club where the kids can get a feed of cereal and milk or toast and a glass of juice before school. Around an hour or so later the kids are encouraged to have 'fruit break' to maintain their energy and concentration levels. Then another hour or so later at ten past eleven they have lunch. Lunch has been pushed to earlier in the day and been swapped with recess because it was decided that the children's energy was flagging and they needed a nutritious lunch earlier in the day so that they could make it through the next session. They then have a recess break, for another snack at 1.15pm. That is a lot of the day focussed on feeding the kids so as to keep them mentally alert. Sounds like the peaks and troughs of a high carbohydrate diet to me.
Then we wonder why they are getting fat and now need to increase physical activity to counteract all the eating. I wonder what would happen if we fed the kids something substantial like sausages and eggs for breakfast. How many of them would be needing fruit break or even that early lunch? They'd be able to spend more time playing in their breaks rather than eating too.
A substantial lunch - at lunch time - and they wouldn't be rushing home from school absolutely ravenous and prepared to eat any junk that they could find. Maybe just a small snack and then they'd be right until dinner.
Now number three, the dietary guidelines I found from 1999.
This article is in response to a mother asking how much fat she should include in her child's diet. The article is from Nursing Mothers' Newsletter summer 1999 and quotes the then current Australian Dietary guidelines for children and adolescents.
The association between high fat intakes and diseases in adulthood has led to important public health messages urging Australian adults to eat less fat. It is important to remember that children are not simply little adults and they have special nutrient needs related to their growth and development.
Fat is important for growth because it is a concentrated source of energy. Although children's growth rate slows down during toddlerhood and school years they still require a higher energy intake per kilogram of body weight than adults. A moderate amount of fat in the diet is important to meet those needs.
Fat not only provides energy but also other important components for growth, such as essential fatty acids for cell structure and central nervous system development and precursors for the synthesis of eicosanoids ( such as prostaglandins). Fat is also a vehicle for dietary sources of fat soluble vitamins. For these reasons low fat diets are not suitable for children under five years......
So in the intervening years 1999 to the present low fat diets have become appropriate for the under fives. We never hear about the positives to our nutrition of consuming fat. Fat is labeled as just fat and hence bad for us. No wonder people get confused about what to eat. Our health authorities are not exactly being very honest with us. I also don't believe that all of those attributes of fat as an essential nutrient for our bodies cuts out at age five, either.
I am glad that I ignored the low fat advice for my children. I always believed that their growing brains needed fat ( I had never really considered all the other reasons they may have needed fat) and unless they showed definite signs of obesity I would not ever have thought to make them switch to low fat. My children are 18, 16 and 12 and are slim. They have never had or needed a low fat diet. I am glad that I am more informed about fat now and just wish I hadn't spent years trying to adhere to a low fat diet for myself. My skinniest child is now 6 foot 3 and still a bean pole. He loves his meat and fat. If anyone is proof that a high fat diet doesn't make you fat, he is. His example is probably the reason why I thought that there may be something in this new way of eating and thus I decided to give it a try myself.
It's now more than two weeks since I have started eating low carb high fat again. The transition has been much easier than when I first started in February. This time round the sugar cravings (so far) are less and my sweet tooth is greatly diminished, but like any good addict I'm sure it wouldn't take much to push me back to a life of debauchery. Already I have greatly increased energy, I feel lighter and have lost some centimetres around my middle. I haven't weighed or measured myself, but my clothes feel looser.
Finally, I will end this blog post with some words of wisdom from Dr Seuss. He has a quote for everything doesn't he? Ellie, my one year old loves the Dr Seuss' ABC book and every time I read this page I think of David Gillespie's Sweet Poison.....
