“Can I eat cheese and nuts and still lose weight? How about fried chicken if I just eat the white meat?”
Hidden fats are everywhere. There are good fats and bad fats and then some fats that are just too difficult to figure out.
So let’s keep it simple.
Cheeses have other nutrients that are extremely important to proper body function. They are loaded with calcium (for our bones), vitamin D (which is an important nutrient needed in the process of digesting and assimilating calcium) and protein. Let’s also not forget that cheese is just plain tasty and makes a great snack! The problem with cheese is that few of us can actually be happy with a single serving (usually one or two ounces depending on the cheese).
How many of us can have one piece of cheese, the size of a Ritz cracker and stop? Chances are, you’ll have four or five servings before you stop.
When you are snacking on cheese, are you eating it solo or are you putting it on the aforementioned Ritz cracker? If you’re like most of us, you’re packing some buttery flavored starchy carbohydrates in with those several servings of cheese.
The fat in a single serving of cheese really isn’t something that should stress you out if you are exercising regularly and only having one serving. What should concern you is eating eight ounces of cheese and a box of Ritz at a single sitting instead of exercising.
Cheese is fine – in moderation.
Nuts are fantastic little treats. Kudos to Mother Nature for making them! They’re loaded with good fats, fiber and protein. That is both good and bad. The good thing about it is that they are tasty and we need those good fats, fiber and protein. The bad thing is that they are so tasty and those fats aren’t calorie free. The average serving size of nuts like walnuts, peanuts or cashews is 1/4 cup. Serving sizes for crunchy joys like almonds and macadamia nuts are even smaller. How many of us can actually stop at 1/4 cup? Or five macadamia nuts? Seriously now.
Nuts are fine – in moderation.
Chicken is great! Fried chicken isn’t.
The white meat (breast meat) from a chicken is some of the lowest fat meat you can find. It is an excellent source of low fat protein and can be dressed up for many different tastes. Deep frying chicken in fat brings a couple of unwanted guests to dinner. First, you have all the fat that you cooked the meat in. (No, it doesn’t just stop at the skin or coating. It permeates the whole thing.) Second, you have the skin and/or breading that you fried it in. The skin adds a whole layer of fat and the breading provides you with a load of empty calories, drenched in fat.
So, cheese & nuts in moderation are fine. Fried chicken is never fine.