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Trans fats are fats mostly created by food scientists and have been discovered in recent years to be quite harmful. While trans fats occur naturally through bacteria in our intestines, and those are considered safe, artificial trans fats were added to many foods for a long time. But in 2018 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned them for having a reasonable link to heart disease and negative effects on cardiovascular health in general. By itself, fat can be very difficult to overeat—just consider eating a stick of butter and how unpleasant that would be. The problem is that fat is very energy-dense and is often consumed in the presence of other macronutrients, particularly carbs. Chips are fat-dense foods that are easy to overeat because of how they’re presented. Carbohydrates, like fats, are easy to overeat because of how the brain reacts to them. In nature, fats and carbohydrates don’t often exist in the same foods, except for nuts and seeds. Our brains are primed to want as much energy as we can get, and since carbs and fats are both delicious, combining them creates a state of easy consumption. Overeating fat can have some negative effects apart from the added calories and potential weight gain. In order to be digested, fat requires bile, which is secreted from your gall bladder and liver. When you eat too much fat, it can cause discomfort stemming from your gall bladder, and too much bile in the colon can have a laxative effect. Carbohydrates Rounding out the macronutrients are carbohydrates, with roughly the same energy profile as protein—4 calories per gram. Carbs come from many different food sources, from dairy to plants, but, ultimately, most can be broken down into sugars. Lactose comes from dairy; glucose comes from bread, pasta, and other such foods; and fructose comes from fruit, honey, agave, and other similar sources.

Chapter 1: Food, Energy, and Your Body

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