Not All Fat Is Equal: Why Demonizing Fat Is Keeping Us Sick

For decades, the word “fat” has been dragged through the mud. Entire diets, industries, and marketing campaigns have told us to fear fat, avoid it, and blame it for everything from heart attacks to belly rolls. The supermarket shelves filled up with “low-fat,” “fat-free,” and “diet” foods, all promising health and slim waistlines.

And yet, what happened?
We didn’t get healthier. We got sicker. Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease didn’t disappear—they skyrocketed.

Here’s the truth no cereal commercial will tell you: not all fat is equal. In fact, some fats are essential for your survival. Some fats make your brain sharper, your skin glow, and your hormones balanced. Others, though—industrial, fake, processed fats—are more like toxic glue clogging up your body.

 Over the last 12 years, since started my ketogenic, low carb lifestyle. I’m sick and tired of hearing people telling me to fear fat. I recently had a conversation with a family member who told her teen son, who was seriously overweight and started low carb lifestyle, that he can’t have eggs for dinner because he already had eggs for breakfast and eggs have lots of fat.

So, let’s sit down and have an honest conversation about fat. Because when you throw all fats into the same “bad” basket, you’re not only misunderstanding your body—you’re falling for a marketing trap that makes food companies billions while keeping you sick and tired.

Fat Isn’t the Villain—It’s a Cast of Characters

Think of fats like characters in a story. Some are heroes, some are neutral villagers, and some are straight-up villains. If you just label everyone “bad,” ( much like most people do)  you’ll miss out on your heroes—and leave the villains to run the show.

Let’s meet the main characters.

1. Visceral Fat: The Hidden Troublemaker

Visceral fat is the sneaky kind that hides deep inside your belly, wrapping itself around your organs like cling wrap. You can’t always see it, but it’s there, whispering inflammation into your system and raising your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and even dementia.  Very skinny people can have visceral fat. We call them TOFI people ( Thin outside, fat inside). Without any warning, they create chaos.

It’s like having a roommate who throws wild parties at 3 a.m.—you don’t always catch them in the act, but the chaos affects your whole house.

The good news? Visceral fat responds quickly when you change how you eat and move. Whole food, lower carb eating and stress management are powerful keys to shrinking this “invisible fat.”

2. Essential Fat: The Brain’s Best Friend

Did you know your brain is nearly 60% fat? Without fat, you couldn’t think, remember, or feel emotions properly. Fats are part of every single cell membrane in your body.

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish, flaxseed, walnuts, and chia seeds are like high-quality oil for your brain engine. Without them, the gears grind, and mood, focus, and memory can suffer.

So, when someone says, “All fat is bad,” it’s like saying, “All water is bad” because floods are dangerous. It’s ignorant and misleading. We need water! We need fat!

3. Storage Fat: The Energy Bank Account

Our bodies evolved to store fat as energy. It’s like a savings account: when food is limited, fat can be withdrawn and burned to keep us alive.
We have to have fat storages much like our ancestors who didn’t have food available 24|7.

The problem isn’t storing fat—it’s when the account is always overflowing because we keep depositing sugar and processed carbs we never burn off.  We were supposed to burn the fat for energy and the “leftover” to store for emergency but when we can’t burn it for energy and only store it, this is when the savings account turns into a debt trap.

4. Processed Fats: The Villains in Disguise

Now, here’s where the real danger lies industrial seed oils and margarine.

• Canola, soybean, corn, sunflower, and other seed oils are highly refined, heated, bleached, and deodorized before they land on your shelf. By the time you pour them into your pan, they’re already oxidized and inflammatory and are toxins to your body.
• Margarine was once marketed as a “healthy butter alternative.” But it’s essentially plastic for your body—hydrogenated oils that the body doesn’t recognize, causing damage to cells and arteries. I remember cutting margarine form out diet 36 years ago. Sadly, I can still see Margarine on the shelves of the supermarket. Someone is still buying this poison.

These fats don’t just sit quietly. They spark chronic inflammation, harm blood vessels, and confuse hormones. They’re like fake money in your circulation: they look like money notes but have none of the real value, you can’t buy anything with them and they come with huge interest.  The processed fat  look like  fat,  but they give you zero nutrient and are damaging every cell of your body.  

5. Healthy Fats: The Forgotten Heroes

This is where nature shines. Real, unprocessed fats from whole foods are your body’s allies:

• Olive oil – a Mediterranean treasure, rich in polyphenols that protect your heart.
• Avocados – creamy packages of monounsaturated fats, potassium, and fibre.
• Nuts and seeds – natural bundles of fat, protein, and minerals.
• Coconut oil – medium-chain triglycerides that the body can quickly turn into energy.
• Grass-fed butter & ghee – natural sources of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, and K2.
• Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel) – omega-3 powerhouses for brain and heart.

These fats don’t make you sick; they help you thrive. They keep hormones balanced, fuel your cells, and stabilize your energy. I have changed my mother’s Alzheimer condition by adding healthy fats into her diet.

The Big Lie: “Fat Makes You Fat”

Let’s bust the biggest myth of all: eating fat doesn’t make you fat. ( I have a joke that this means that eating chicken breast, make you grow big breast. Honestly, in the past they did think that! )

It’s carbohydrates—especially refined, processed ones—that drive fat storage.

When you eat processed food like bread, pasta, cereal, cookies, and sugar, your blood sugar spikes. Your body releases insulin, the “storage hormone,” to deal with the sugar flood.  Nothing is broken. It is the Insulin’s job, to push that sugar into your cells for energy. But when the tank is full, insulin converts the excess into—you guessed it—fat.

The more processed carbs you eat, the more insulin is present, and the more your body is stuck in “store” mode instead of “burn” mode.

 Read it again, yes, when you have so many carbs in your system, the more insulin is present to keep it out of your blood stream and your body moves into “storage” state rather than “ burn energy” state. This is how fat accumulates—not because you added avocado to your salad.

It’s like blaming your bank savings account for depositing money you worked so hard to earn while ignoring the nonstop stream of junk mail bills piling up.

Why the Food Industry Wants You Confused

 Most people I share my 17 kg weight loss by eating butter, stakes, camembert and cream with,  don’t believe me.

Here’s the thing : keeping you ignorant about fat is big business.

If you’re scared of fat, you’ll buy “low-fat” yogurts (loaded with sugar), “fat-free” crackers (filled with starch), and “light” salad dressings (pumped with seed oils and additives). These products are highly profitable—and highly unhealthy.

The myth that “all fat is bad” fuels a cycle:

1. You avoid fat.
2. You eat more carbs and processed foods.
3. You gain weight, feel tired, get inflamed.
4. You buy more diet products, medications, and quick fixes.

It’s a brilliant marketing strategy, but a disaster for your health.

The Toolbox of Fats

Imagine fats as a toolbox. Each type of fat is a different tool.

• Healthy fats are like hammers, screwdrivers, and wrenches—useful, reliable, necessary for building.
• Essential fats are the specialty tools you can’t live without—like a power drill.
• Storage fat is your backup toolbox in the garage—handy when needed, but a problem if the whole garage is jammed with extra tools and you are out of working space.
• Processed fats are cheap knock-off tools that snap in your hand the second you hold them and ruin the job.

Would you throw away the whole toolbox because some tools are faulty? Of course not. You’d toss the bad ones and keep the good ones. That’s exactly how we should treat fat in our diet.

10 Tips to Rethink Fat

1. Stop saying “all fat is bad.” Fat is not the enemy. Begin separating good fats from harmful ones in your mind.
2. Read labels carefully. If you see soybean oil, corn oil, or hydrogenated fats—put it back.
3. Switch your cooking oils. Use olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil instead of seed oils.
4. Bring back real butter. Grass-fed butter or ghee beats margarine every time. Simply cut Margarine out of your diet.
5. Add brain food daily. Walnuts, chia, flax, or fatty fish for omega-3s. don’t count calories, count healthy fats.
6. Pair fat with veggies. Healthy fats help your body absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K. you can stir fry food and top it up with butter or any other oil. This is why oil in your salad is healthy for you. It helps you absorb the nutrients of your vegetables.
7. Don’t fear avocados or nuts. They’re nutrient-rich and satisfying. Stop thinking calories, think nutrient.
8. Cut processed carbs, not fat. This is the real secret to weight and health. Limit your carb intake and minimize your processed carb.
9. Embrace whole food fats. The less processed, the better. If it comes from nature, trust it. Your body will use it for energy.
10. Educate others gently. When friends say, “Fat is bad,” share what you’ve learned. If it doesn’t’ work, just let them be! It took you a while to learn it, give them their time.

Listening Beyond the Marketing Noise

Your body doesn’t run on supermarket slogans. It runs on biology. And biology is clear: fats are not one thing. They are many things—some vital, some harmful.

The more we lump all fats together, the more we empower industries that profit from our confusion. But the moment we reclaim the truth; we reclaim our health.

So next time you see “fat-free” flashing on a package, ask yourself: What did they replace the fat with? Chances are, it ia sugar, starch, or processed oils—the real criminal behind modern illness.

Fat is not your enemy. Ignorance is.
Learn to love the right fats, avoid the wrong ones, and watch how your body thanks you—with energy, clarity, balance, and health.

If you want to learn more about your body, check our website https://wholefoodrevolution.com.au/book/

Hugs
Ronit