OK, so I’m sure you’ve been tempted to try something, or buy something because it was ___X___ amount % ‘fat free’.  For example, down on the main street in my suburb, there are a ton of gelato shops.  They all advertise as being, “97% fat free!”.  Sounds not half bad, right?  WRONG!  ’Low fat’ diets are a crock of shit.  Seriously.  Don’t know any other nice way of saying this, but steer far away from low fat diets.  The % of ‘fat free’ actually means nothing, other than some genius way of marketing to people through smoking mirrors.

For example, if you saw a chocolate bar that was 97% fat free, would sound not-so-bad., right?  WRONG AGAIN!  The point is, the percentage fat free, is calculated by weight, not calories.  It’s the calories that count.

Let’s work it out the proper calorie way.

97% fat free means 3% fat.

If the bar is 100g (3 and a half ounces) it will have 3% fat i.e. 3g of fat or 0.1 of an ounce, which is 27 calories of fat. So, all of a freakin sudden your 150 calorie bar is made up of 27 calories of fat. Which is 18% FAT by calories, instead of by weight!! If you think about a pint – half water and half oil, it would weigh about 50:50 so you could say it was 50% fat free but 100% of the calories would be fat right?

And ANOTHER thing. Even fat free isn’t all that good. ‘Cos you know what they substitute the fat with? Yep that’s right SUGAR!!! Which turns to fat – dependent on your GI and your insulin levels. But one thing is for sure if you lived on a pre-prepared fat free diet you’d be taking in a huge amount of sugar which would turn to fat.  Just some food for thought…..