Sunday, March 11, 2018

Holy Mackerel! BMI = 28.8

I recently found out that I haven’t been eating enough fat. It began with cravings for junk food – something I’ve not craved in a year. I wondered if my diet was leaving me short in some way. A quick audit of what I was eating confirmed that I was getting all my veggies, whole grains, milk, and meat. I recently started replacing meat, on occasion, with beans or lentils. In doing so, I forgot about my two servings of fish per week in place of meat.

The Canada Food Guide recommends including a small amount of unsaturated fat in your diet. In particular, Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats are considered ‘essential’ to good health. Canned mackerel happens to be a great source of these essential fats, is low in mercury, and is one of our most sustainable fisheries.

I found it hard to believe that my diet had actually gotten too low in fat. As I considered how I had been eating, however, I realized that I had almost no added fat in my diet and had been swapping out several of my servings of meat with beans or lentils. I still plan to go for legumes occasionally, but I’ll also be helping myself to small portions of canned mackerel from time to time. I’ll let you know if the junk food cravings subside.

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