Salads with some fat are healthier

(8/18/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- Here's some diet advice you don't hear every day -- the next time you prepare a fresh, healthy salad, be sure to throw in some fattening food.

Far from being a dieter's worst enemy, scientists are discovering that a little fat can actually do a lot of good. The scientists aren't saying fry your salad in bacon grease! But they say don't cut all fat out of your diet either. Why? It takes some fat to help your body absorb the cancer fighting nutrients in your vegetables.

Jennifer Jarvis has always tried to stick to a light, healthy diet. But when she volunteered for a food study recently, she learned something that was a little hard to swallow -- that cutting fat completely out of her diet, was actually robbing her body of nutrients.

"It was really surprising when I first joined the group -- I was like, 'oh, fat is not a terrible thing,'" said Jarvis.

On the contrary, a scientific experiment asked two groups of volunteers to eat light, healthy meals. Both ate plenty of tomatoes, lettuce and carrots and both got plenty of nutrients from them.

But one group added avocados, which are high in fat to their diets and something happened. Suddenly, the nutrients in the good foods called Carotenoids were even more powerful.

"Confirming that it is absolutely essential to incorporate fat in the diet to efficiently absorb these Carotenoid compounds," said cancer researcher Dr. Steven Schwartz.

That's important because Carotenoids have been shown to help prevent chronic diseases like cancer. There are a lot of them in tomatoes and that's why eating them has been shown to cut the risk of everything from stomach to prostate cancer. Eating them with some fat is even better.

"What we found was quite interesting. About 3 to 5 times more Carotenoids were absorbed when we co-consumed the salad with the avocados," said Dr. Schwartz.

Adding things like meat or salad dressings with fat can offer the same benefits -- and offer a little more flavor as well.

It's a two step process. The scientists say eat the most brightly colored fruits and vegetables like red tomatoes, orange carrots and green lettuce and then combine them with fat.

So by fat, do they mean anything with fat in it? They recommend natural fats which are found in nuts, oils and meats. So you could have something like a chicken salad with almonds, or an oil & vinegar dressing.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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