The Fat Burn Fix by Dr. Cate Shanahan
Charlie’s Book Score – 8.2/10
Rating explanation: Simple and yet extremely complex. Dr. Cate is masterful. She is able to break down complex medical language into a nutrition plan for life. Follow what this book says and you might live to be 100+.
One sentence summary:
Vegetable oils will make you body toxic over time and therefore force you to be a sugar addict for energy (because your body won’t be able to burn body fat for fuel, which will bring a lifelong battle with disease (probably diabetes) and surprise, you will ultimately lose. Yikes.
Longer summary, which are my words, not Dr. Cate’s…
Have you heard of the term “hangary” or have you ever been “hangary”? If so, this is your body screaking from the mountain tops “Hey! You! We are in serious trouble here!” Why is your body telling you trouble is looming? Because we should not need to eat for energy. We are actually supposed to be kind of tired after we eat and then not be hungry for hours. And instead of being hungry (or hangry) all the time, we should be able to burn body fat for energy. But that doesn’t happen when 80% of our fats we consume as from polyunsaturated vegetable oils – the “Hateful 8” as Cate call them, corn, cottonseed, canola, soy, safflower, sunflower, rice bran, grapeseed – because these hateful 8 oils turn our body fat toxic and force us to burn sugar for energy, which doesn’t last very long. And then you become “hangry” because the sugar stores are gone. Time for another hit.
Sounds like an addict needing another hit, no?
A little background… Around 1980ish we swapped traditional fats for new fats, termed vegetable oils, which sounds harmless and actually good, right? Aren’t vegetable good for us? Ah marketing, it is amazing. Sadly, most people have no idea in what foods vegetable oils hide. I think we all know junk foods aren’t good for us, but do most people know that vegetable oils are the fats used in most (like close to 100%) of restaurant foods? Well, now you do. You’re welcome. So if you eat at a restaurant, you consume vegetable oils. Sorry for the bad news?
This is going to be hard for you to comprehend… Sit down… Ok, ready?
Everything you have been taught about naturally occurring saturated fat causing heart attacks is wrong.Â
Naturally occurring saturated fat is fantastic and healthy. Natural fats are butter, lard, tallow, bacon grease and butter. Wait, I said butter already. Butter is worth saying twice… Unnatural saturated fat, created by hydrogenated vegetable oils is toxic. Don’t believe me (or Dr. Cate really, I am summarizing her book after all)? Email her yourself, work with her for 1 year and then say thank you to her for helping you get your health back – Dr. Cate website.
Fun fact, remember a paragraph ago when I said that vegetable oils make our body fat toxic? Well the super high level chemical explanation is this: vegetable oil makes us addicted to carbs (sugar) at the cellular level because the body can’t use vegetable oil for fuel. It is toxic. Therefore we become addicted to sugar. Fun. If you want the longer scientific explanation, click here to buy the book.
Toxic body fat is exactly why someone who is exercising their heart out and eating salad every meal is probably still failing to lose weight. First, the salad dressing 99% has soybean oil as the first ingredient. Second, most foods have vegetable oil as an ingredient and people have no idea. Third, the person is snaking more than they realize. And fourth, their body can’t use body fat for fuel and therefore you (the person trying to lose weight) can’t lose weight because you’re eating small meals and constantly fueling with sugar. We can only store sugar in our livers, about 50g. Which means if our livers are full (which almost always for most peoiple), we force our body to covert the sugar to fat. And this is why people get fat, gain weight, and can’t lose weight. Simple, huh?
Dr. Cate says we should be focused on energy, not weight loss. And she is right! Weight will come off over time. Everyone with weight problems developed their condition due in large part to disruption to cellular energy supply that causing widespread metabolic damage. Meaning metabolic damage is the cause of weight gain, not the symptom. Start noticing your energy levels throughout the day.
Dr. Cate claims that sugar was never supposed to be the main source of fuel. You are never supposed to be hangry, if you are, your metabolism is in bad place. It means you are at a severe energy deficient and are more than likely addicted to sugar and unable to use body fat due to being metabolically “off†due to your body fat being compromised of toxic veg oils.
Most people have no idea how much they are eating in a day or how much they are snacking and Cate suggests a food diary as step one. (Side note, year ago I used My Fitness Pal and was shocked at how much I actually snacked!)
How do we fix our Fat Burn? Dr. Cate says we need to fix our 4 fat burn systems:
- Mitochondria
- Hormones
- Body fat
- Brain appetite control function
And how do we fix them? Treating vegetable oils like they are cockroaches. Which if you are anything like my wife, that means you scream, run, and do anything to kill it. And then call the bug company to do anything and everything to keep the cockroaches away. Just treat vegetable oils like they are cockroaches and you’ll fix your fat burn systems over time.
There are 5 Rules to Fix your Fat Burn:
- Avoid Vegetable Oils (remember, cockroaches).
- Use Slow Digesting Carbs (sprouted grain breads, nuts/seeds, sweet potatoes w butter)
- Seek Salt
- Drink Water (no soda or any other BS)
- Supplement properly (Vitamins, Minerals, CB Supplements collagen)
Want a longer summary? Check out Matt Tillotson summary here.
Dr. Cate’s “Fat Burn Fix” is jam packed with knowledge. There is no way I can do any justice in my summary. It is like a medical textbook intertwined with a diet and nutrition book with a little history of big food lobby mixed in there.