Chewing the Fat |
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Dietary fats usually get a bad rap, most likely due to the fact that no one really likes the word fat to begin with. While it is acknowledged that many fats are harmful, there are actually good fats that are necessary for your diet. Instead of completely cutting out all fat from your diet, you may actually be able to reap many health benefits by focusing on these good fats and making sure that you get enough in your diet.
The human body is made so that it needs certain fats to function. These fats can actually help you stay healthier and can increase nerve function as well as helping your cells keep their integrity. These fats are known as Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. When you hear someone talk about good fats these are the two fats to which they are referring. Let’s take a look at both of them to see what you can gain by making sure you get enough of them in your diet.
Monounsaturated fats will actually help lower your overall cholesterol and reduce bad cholesterol according to many doctors. In addition to these benefits they can also raise your good cholesterol levels. Some of the best sources of monounsaturated fats are actually quite tasty. They include foods such as almonds, avocados, and peanuts. You can also find many different oils that contain monounsaturated fats such as olive oil.
Polyunsaturated fats performed much of the same benefits that monounsaturated fats do. These fats are typically found in fish and the popular Omega-3 fatty acid is actually a member of this group. Certain vegetable oils such as corn, and sunflower oils have high levels of polyunsaturated fats and can be very good for you.
It is important to remember however that some fats are bad. Saturated fats are probably the most well known. These are the fats will impact your blood cholesterol levels badly. Unfortunately, saturated fats are the most common fats and the majority of us may not even know just how harmful they could be. You can find saturated fats in many meat products as well as dairy. However there are a few vegetable oils you may also want to avoid such as coconut oil and palm oil.
Last but not least, we have trans fats and these are actually created through a process called hydrogenation. You’ve probably seen the term hydrogenated oil on food labels before but you may not understand how this process works. In order to get hydrogenated oil you have to take regular oil and force hydrogen through it. This does provide benefits such as making the oil lasts longer without spoiling, but it unfortunately it is not very good for you. Trans fats are usually found in fried food, but may also appear in foods such as margarine,
Now that you know which fats are good and bad don’t forget to read your food labels to make sure that what you are eating is actually good for you.
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This post deals with:almonds, avocados, blood cholesterol levels, cholesterol, good fats, monounsaturated fats, olive oil, omega 3 fatty acid, polyunsaturated fats
... and focuses on:Nutrition
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October 7th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Thank you for this timely article. My husband just had a heart attack a couple of weeks back and we are going through a course of cardio rehab which includes a dietitian.
I was always anti-fats but i’m coming around!!
The one thing that surprised us was that hubby’s intake of fats is actually too low. He needs to get more of the good ones
October 8th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Nice primer on fats and how they impact our health - reviewed for StumbleUpon