Hey guys! This is Heather from HealthyEatingstartsHere.com. Alright! I have a good question for you today, which is more fattening? Fat or Sugar? I got this question recently and I thought it deserve a more indebt look than just a simple quick answer because there are a lot of factors that go into play here. The first thing I wanna say is that before you look at which one is more fattening, you have to look at the type of fat and the type of sugar that you’re looking at. So there are bad sugars, those are the refined ones like white sugar, brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, all that bad stuff and then there are good sugars that come from fruits and complex carbohydrates, they get turn in – broken down into sugars in your body so they are not – wouldn’t always call them sugar. But things like brown rice, lentils, those are carbohydrates. And so there’s a difference there. There’s a difference between the different types of fats so refine again are the bad ones where you have really refine oils and the Trans-fat created in the processed food those are bad fats and then when you’re looking at good fats you’re looking at whole foods. Nut seeds, avocados and the little bit of fat that are in pretty much every single food. You’ll also want to look at the balance of fat in terms of its ratio for fat versus protein versus carbohydrates because the right balance is what’s going to make sure that your metabolism is efficient. If anyone of those macronutrients is out of balance then your metabolism isn’t gonna be as efficient. And so either one can cause weight gain or be fattening. So, ok! Once we get that stuff out of the way, let’s take a look right down on the fat versus sugar question. On the most basic level, fats have nine calories per gram whereas carbohydrates have four calories per gram so for the same volume of calorie. Sorry! For the same volume of fat or carbohydrate, you’re gonna get more calorie if you’re eating fat. So that makes it look like fat has more fattening potential. The other thing to is that fat foods tend to be the most calorie dense food. Now just because they have the fat calories but they are also dense in carbohydrates and protein. So if you look at a handful of almonds versus apple, you’re looking at the same number of calories but the apple has a lot of water, has a lot of fiber and has more volume than the almonds so it fills up your stomach more. And that’s basically what calorie density comes down to is whatever fills your stomach up the most is the least calorie dense and it can be really really easy to over eat on things like nut because you don’t realize how many calories they actually have. And it’s partially because of the fat and partially also because of this calorie density. Things aren’t as simple as that though, if we look at sugar it has an effect on the insulin level in your body so if you eat too much sugar, not only does it throw your metabolism out if you have the wrong balance but it can also cause your body to produce too much insulin especially if you eat the wrong type of sugar, the refined sugars. Your body is gonna produce insulin like crazy and then it’s going to actually cause your blood sugar level to dip because its gonna produces and produces and produces insulin and then all of the sudden the sugars gonna run out but it takes a little longer for the insulin production to slow down. So you’ll get a sugar crash which I’m sure you all have it, I have it, many times and what happens there is you feel tired, you feel weak, you feel hungry, you wanna eat so eating too much sugar can actually create a desire to eat more and it can feed into cravings for more sugar which is repeats the whole cycle over again. So indirectly sugar can be fattening because it cause you to eat more than you normally would and drives you to eat more cravings. On the other hand fat actually suppresses your appetite a little bit and certain fats in particular like pine nuts are actually an appetite suppressant. They have found certain things in them that reduces your appetite. And fats in general, I’m sure you also notice this that if you eat a little bit of fat in the meal, it helps that meal keep you full for a longer period of time. So there are a lot of factors to think of here and my verdict basically is that both fat and carbohydrate or sugar can be part of healthy weight loss and they both should be included in the proper balance. And both fat and sugar can be fattening in certain ways especially if you eat the wrong types and if you eat them in the wrong balance. So, split decision I suppose but I’m allowed to do that right. There are good and bad sides to both and when its whole healthy foods that balance is especially important but for the most part get rid of the bad ones and then when you get to the good ones just keep it in balance. So if you want more info of course head over to my website, HealthyEatingStartsHere.com. Lots of info about health and nutrition and weight loss posted up there. And I wanna hear your thoughts, what you think about fats versus sugars? Whether you have experiences with the sugar crash with the eating too many nuts! These are all pretty common, so let me know what you think and I will see you guys next time.