Healthy Fats: Why is Fat Good for You?

“A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips” are phrases we have all heard before. However, somewhere along the line we tipped the scales, grabbed the life jackets and headed for a sinking boat, despite our best efforts to stay thin and be healthy. healty fats Fats are a great source of energy and because they don’t store water, they can be used to store almost twice the amount of energy compared to protein or carbohydrate. Fats have huge benefits. So there’s nothing to be afraid of, or send you running to the treadmill. Take a deep yoga breath and relax knowing that the best news of all is: fats make us full; they help us to be satisfied so we don’t over eat. Genius. • Our hormones are made of cholesterol – especially our sex hormones. • The fat we have circulating in our system is saturated (saturated or monounsaturated fat) since we are essentially animals and this is a vital life ingredient that we make ourselves or get from our food (but not necessarily from saturated fat). • Eggs are good fats. But know this: free-range eggs/organic eggs contain 50% more omega oils than battery range eggs. Throw away the old notion that too many eggs are bad for you. Since we can regularly eat eggs, it seems there isn’t necessarily ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol, but rather just cholesterol. To cut a very long story short, the types of food we eat will contribute to the levels of cholesterol present in the body. The higher amount of cholesterol present, the more danger it poses to your health. But remember, we do need some cholesterol in our bodies – at least enough to make our hormones. Saturated and trans fats influence cholesterol the most. What research has now found is that a diet low in fat can potentially scoot your cholesterol levels through the roof. We have to eat more of the good stuff if you want to get shredded, but just how much, which type and when? To maintain great health and good nutrition, we need a rough mix of all three – protein, low GI carbohydrates and therapeutic fats. Roughly 20-30% of this should be made up of these therapeutic fats. However, the mix of fats that you eat, rather than the total amount in your diet, is what matters most when it comes to your cholesterol and health. The key is to eat more good fats and less bad fats. Isn’t it great that we are now including cholesterol in this list? First up, make sure you know which fats, so here we go! Types of Fats The type of fat you eat can mean the difference between fuel-up and blow-out. Eating healthily no longer has to be boring. Eat food that is guilt free and has maximum taste and full of nutrition. An active lifestyle, coupled with eating good fats, can actually keep you thin. Here’s the ‘low-down’ on low-fat. The new ‘black’ is ‘high-fat’. Low fat is a thing of the past. High fat is actually how we are designed to eat. Quality therapeutic fats will never make us fat. Sugar does. If low-fat worked, we'd all be thin and we're not. It's a myth we were 'fed' in the 80's. Furthermore, low-fat food is full of sugar! Saturated Fats Butter, lard, cream, other dairy, meat, poultry with skin on, cheese, fried foods. These foods also contain dietary cholesterol. Many baked goods and fried foods can contain high levels of saturated fats. Some plant foods, such as palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil also contain primarily saturated fats, but do not contain cholesterol. Saturated fats fall into two categories: 1. Those that are high in saturated fatty acids (and therefore lower in unsaturated fatty acids) and 2. Those that are lower in saturated fatty acids (but higher in unsaturated fatty acids). The latter is much better for you and eat meals that contain plant foods that offer saturated fats, like coconut oil. Foods high in the saturated kind have been linked to cardiovascular disease and cancer, and for this reason, it’s important to be mindful of how much of this type of fat you are consuming, specifically saturated fats from meats, dairy and poultry. But fats from plants are an entirely different story. The benefits of the saturated fats from plants are vast. Coconut oil gets the seal of approval. Some oils become carcinogenic (cancer-causing) when heated at high temperatures, but not coconut oil. Look for cold-pressed organic coconut oil, which is exactly that – cold-pressed when it’s extracted from the coconut. Coconut ouil The EFA's; essential fatty acids are just that: essential. As part of healthy fats, they have a key role in maximising health. Consuming them means you can have fewer cravings and greater satisfaction because you feel fuller, and they help you burn more calories by increasing energy and metabolism – all just by eating healthy fats! Polyunsaturated Fats Vegetable oils, including soybean oil, corn oil and safflower oil, as well as fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring and trout. Other sources include some nuts and seeds such as walnuts and sunflower seeds. Omega 3 and Omega 6 are found in many foods high in polyunsaturated fats (think oily fish, nuts and seeds), and are your friends for cardiovascular health. These are key fats to include in your diet. It’s awesome brain food! Monounsaturated Fats Vegetable oils such as olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil and sesame oil. Other sources include avocados, peanut butter, and many nuts and seeds. Related to these three main types of fat are trans fats. Trans fats are unsaturated fats (mostly from plants) that have been hydrogenated, which means they have had hydrogen added to them. This process usually happens in food processing, particularly in the production of hard margarines. In fact, margarine is so processed that it is actually black in colour when first produced then a yellow dye is added to it to make it look pretty. Scary? Even more shocking news is that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. Stick it outside in direct sunshine and it fails to melt. And we eat this? Even more shocking is the notion that eating specific margarines is the means to lower cholesterol. But it’s not all bad news when it comes to monosaturated fats. Avocados (which also contain polyunsaturated fat) are an amazing source and provide an outstanding nutritional advantage, especially when it comes to weight loss and hormone function.Get these into your system any way you can. Trans Fats Trans fats can be found in many foods like margarine, but especially in fried foods like fries and doughnuts, and baked goods including pastries, pie crusts, biscuits, pizza dough, cookies, crackers, and stick margarines and shortenings. You can determine the amount of trans fats in a particular packaged food by looking at the nutritional panel on the side of the package. DITCH trans fats. Trans fats have been chemically altered and because of this, they offer very little nutritional benefit. Basically, anything that is too produced or altered from its natural state is not really ‘food’ anymore. Try to eat things that are as close to nature as possible. Trans fats are much more harmful to body function than saturated fats, and therefore should be avoided. Canola oil is best avoided as it is genetically engineered and doesn’t tick any ‘health favour’ boxes for this reason. Enjoy your good fats! Written by Andi Lew from www.eatfatbethin.com.au