On Avocados and Nuts and Oils

The cardiologists who were part of Forks Over Knives stress a lot that your arteries don't give a damn whether the fat you consume comes from plants or animals, and there is no such thing as "good fat" or "healthy oil", and that those who say otherwise are selling you a bill of goods.   No added processed oils is a big part of this diet .    They acknowledge that yes, you need some level of fat/oil for survival, but an overweight person is not in danger of being short on these for quite some time, and that when you get that point, there is more than enough in nuts and avocados to meet the amount your body's needs.  (Reminder:  they're only talking about the whole foods with fiber and nutrients intact -- a handful of raw nuts or an actual avocado -- not nut oils or avocado oil.)

That said, what about nuts and avocados when you're trying to lose weight?

The official line is that they should be omitted if weight loss is your goal and then added back in with moderation once you get there.  They are plants and thus OK as part of the life-time plan, but they should generally be eaten sparingly.

What I think:  I think that scientifically, they are correct.   And absolutely, I will lose more rapidly if you omit nuts and avocados entirely.    However, I also think that when you can sabotage yourself by going for too much perfection.   Yes, if I have no common sense and convince myself that avocados are OK so I'm going to eat 20 of them a day (ew), then I'm not going to be a whole lot better off than when I was eating cheeseburgers.  However, if having avocado toast for breakfast now and then stops me from putting butter on the toast -- or from getting a sausage Mcmuffin, then I think I'm still headed in the right direction.

In general, a nice thing about this diet is that if you follow the rules, you don't really have to do math and count calories, because you can have just about as much as you want of anything (except, well, the avocados and nuts).   However, for those who like to know the math:

I used a cup of raw cashews in my vegan Alfredo sauce, which is approx 12 grams of fat and 157 calories.    The finished product after blending in water, lemon juice, garlic, onion, and spices -- was far more like a pint of sauce -- but all other ingredients were practically fat/calorie free, so I could eat the whole pint and still max out at 12f/157c.   And it's probably the only actual fat I ate in the whole day (except for the day when I ate the peanut butter).   Whereas one cup-only of regular Alfredo sauce containing butter and cheese is about 28 grams of fat and 320 calories.

Booya.