Day 26 of My Top 30 for 30:
There are a number of issues that can affect the long-term success of people when they limit their fat intake too much. The first issue has to do with getting an adequate number of calories as discussed previously. Fruits and vegetables are high in water, high in fiber, and low in fat. This makes them very low in calorie density which means large quantities of food don’t contain very many calories.
This is great in that one can eat lots of food and get good and full without excess calories. When taken too far however, it can become difficult to get enough calories. Many people have jobs and kids and school and schedules that don’t allow enough time during the day to dedicate to eating such huge quantities of food. Additionally, most of us don’t have the patience or willingness to be that full all of the time. Remember also that fruit is 3-4 times more calorie dense than vegetables, so when fat is so low, fruit is often preferred over vegetables, which means we are missing appropriate quantities of key minerals that are abundant in vegetables but found in smaller amounts in fruit.
Getting to fat itself, if we were to start with a base of fruits and vegetables, then add a reasonable quantity of nuts or seeds to our diets to bring the percentage of calories from fat up to maybe 15% or more of total calories, this increases the calorie density enough so consuming all of the calories needed becomes easier. You don’t have to eat as great of a volume of food, which means you have more room for vegetables and can therefore take advantage of all their nutritional benefits such as mineral content. Additionally, many nuts and seeds are much better sources of key minerals than fruit as well. Certain nuts and seeds like chia, walnut, and hemp can contribute to the omega 3 content of our diet. Dr. Rick has a whole video series on omega 3 conversion on his YouTube channel.
The bottom line here is that by adding mineral rich fat sources to our diets, not only do we get the minerals directly from those foods, we also decrease the quantity of food we have to eat to obtain enough calories, which leaves more room to consume more vegetables from which we get even more minerals. In this common example, when implemented appropriately, more fat means greater nutrient density. You can read more about fat sources in our free eBook Our Top 12 Strategies for Long Term Success on a Raw Plant-Based Diet which you can receive by signing up for our email list by using the sign-up form located in the right margin of this webpage.