Devlin Brown at the water cooler | Full-fat foods increase satiety, which may lead to weight loss

Would switching to diet foods and drinks help me get over the weight loss line ahead of December? I’ve been doing my exercise but I feel there’s not enough change.This question opens little portals to memories dotting my life. Not because I have a rich history of choosing diet food over my favourite brands, but because this type of question is infused deep into our collective psyche.If you’ve spent any amount of time on YouTube, you’ll be aware of the popularity of conspiracy theory podcasts that go viral, which then results in compressed versions popping up all over Tiktok and Instagram.The Water Cooler does not live in that dark world, but compressing a long, true and complex history — which has resulted in the shift of many billions of dollars and the public cancelling of contemporary scientists and nutritionists — risks exposing our toes to the world of conspiracy.Read this truth with a dose of open-mindedness and a sprinkle of adulthood, and resist the pressure of the zealots on either side of the great nutritional truth divide: the unshaking belief that full-fat foods make you fat stems from 1950s research blaming fat as the cause for heart disease. Nothing wrong there, right? We know it’s one, not the only cause. We all believe this. Except fat’s heart health status isn’t the only variable. It’s also calorie-dense, making it an easy scapegoat. Along comes the sugar industry and its huge lobby, which funded research to push an existing scientific debate in their favour. If that’s difficult to swallow, take it with a teaspoon of sugar.The US government turned this ideology into official policy and eventually the Food Pyramid. The picture encourages people to replace fats with carbohydrates. There’s a problem though. When you extract fat from food it feels and tastes like cardboard and so to make it taste good, companies need to add huge amounts of sugar and maize syrup to the products.Like any conspiracy thriller, or a typical day on TikTok, this all came together to result in the “diet food” boom. Shelves were filled with diet products that you and I eagerly bought, mistakenly believing that avoiding fat would cause weight loss, ignoring the weight-gaining effects of hidden sugar.That’s how you take 70 years of nuance and destroy it in three paragraphs. Reread them to rest assured I am not a fat denialist, nor a disciple of the low-fat or no-fat mainstream slop. Research was conflated, egos were deflated and economies were saturated.Bodybuilders become ripped to the bone after cutting out all fat. But their hormones tanked. Causation? Banters often lose a third of themselves when switching to ketosis but most cardiologists can’t even read their blood panels without flinching. A train wreck in slow motion or the enlightened minority?How does one navigate this minefield? With a balanced reading of facts, trial and error, and an acknowledgment that none of us get it perfectly right.I eat full-fat yoghurt and cheese, but when I feel like a sparkling cold drink I choose Coke Zero or Pepsi Max over the flagship variants. I enjoy marbled ribeye but cut excess fat from cuts of meat.Cutting out “soda” and sugar in my coffee were the two easiest alterations to my waistline. Understanding that a shot of whiskey or vodka packs 61 calories, while a standard can of beer averages about 140 calories and a no-alcohol version can hold just 25, or that a gin and tonic is about 180 calories while an alcohol-free gin and “sugar free” tonic is about eight calories, has resulted in the most dramatic shifts in many a waistline.Where does this leave you? Hormonal shifts aside (which is a near-impossible thing to claim), fat gain tracks surplus calories, not the word “fat” on the pack, or not sugar or carbs because they are sugar or carbs. You must make your own educated decisions, these are mine:Swaps that move the scale for me include ditching sugary drinks for zero sugar or water, switching to alcohol-free options and reading the back of the condiments’ label.When browsing the diet option aisle, read the ingredients and if the calories are unchanged (through macronutrient swaps), stick to the original, and remember that protein and fat make you feel fuller for longer than sugar.Business Day