Especially when training hard, I've always warned our fighters about
cutting back to much on your fat intake.

LOW-FAT DEAD

The American public has been told to reduce dietary fat for the
last 30 years with the justification that it would lead to better
weight loss, lower plasma cholesterol and reduced heart disease and
cancer risk. An enormous amount of effort has been put forth to
subsequently test that hypothesis.

In fact, the biggest study ever to test the
effects of reducing fat cost an estimated $415 million dollars and the
results of that study were just published in a series of studies in
the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study involved
just under 20,000 women who were instructed to reduce fat and increase
intake of vegetables, fruits, and grains. The control group included
nearly 30,000 women who maintained their normal diet. After a mean
follow up of 8.1 years, the intervention group successfully reduced
fat by 8% and this resulted in a decrease in blood cholesterol levels.
However, there were absolutely no differences in the incidence of any
heart disease. Other studies published from this database indicated
little effect on weight loss and no effect on risk of getting cancer.


These findings provide compelling evidence to reconsider the premise
that reducing dietary fat is the healthiest dietary approach. The link
between dietary fat restriction, cholesterol reduction and heart
disease has always been tenuous at best. It is too bad we spent 415
million to try and prove a faulty hypothesis. A significant amount of
research has shown benefits of lower carbohydrate diets that are
higher in protein and healthy fats.

Notes: Howard BV, Van Horn L, Hsia J, Manson JE, Stefanick ML,
Wassertheil-Smoller S, Kuller LH, LaCroix AZ, Langer RD, Lasser NL,
Lewis CE, Limacher MC, Margolis KL, Mysiw WJ, Ockene JK, Parker LM,
Perri MG, Phillips L, Prentice RL, Robbins J, Rossouw JE, Sarto GE,
Schatz IJ, Snetselaar LG, Stevens VJ, Tinker LF, Trevisan M, Vitolins
MZ, Anderson GL, Assaf AR, Bassford T, Beresford SA, Black HR, Brunner
RL, Brzyski RG, Caan B, Chlebowski RT, Gass M, Granek I, Greenland P,
Hays J, Heber D, Heiss G, Hendrix SL, Hubbell FA, Johnson KC, Kotchen
JM. Low-fat dietary pattern and risk of cardiovascular disease: the
Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification
Trial. JAMA. 2006 Feb 8;295(6):655-66.