The skinny on fats!

»Fat makes you fat« phrase has been debunked, but for some odd reason, some people still believe and are genuinely afraid of fats in their diets. Just take a look at the shelves in your local supermarket. Whatever you take in your hand, you are bound to have its low fat counterpart sitting right next to it.

Let’s talk about the good, the bad and the plain ol dirty fats in our diets.

Good fats come in two main varieties mono and poly unsaturated fats. They lower your total blood cholesterol, lower inflammation, stabilize the rhythm of the heart, help with insulin resistance and have many more beneficial roles. They are mainly found in plants like olive or sunflower oil. The easiest way to know if you have a unsaturated fat in front of you is quite simple. Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. Ever heard of omega 3 fats? Well, they are poly unsaturated fats and offer great benefits to your health. You should get around 20% of your total daily energy from these fats.

Bad fats

Saturated fats and cholesterol.

Saturated fats are solid at room temperature (butter, bacon…) and have had a bad reputation for a couple of years. Due to some recent studies that suggest, that saturated fat is not as bad as once believed, people started to think that they can eat it as much as they want. Unfortunately, saturated fat is usually found in animal sources and can have a lot of cholesterol (or even trans fat, if we are talking about processed meats). It is recommended that saturated fats should not make up more than 7% of your daily calorie needs.

Cholesterol comes in two varieties: HDL, the good one and LDL, the bad one. HDL transports cholesterol from the bloodstream to the liver, while LDL does just the opposite. You should think about lowering your LDL and rising your HDL. Dietary guidelines recommend getting no more than 300mg of cholesterol per day.

And now, the dirty fats

Trans fats

They are made in the process of hydrogenation, where the vegetable oils are heated in the presence of hydrogen gas. Due to this process the partially hydrogenated oils now become solid. The main reason for this process is to improve shelf life of prepared “foods” in the supermarket. Getting more just 1% of your daily energy needs from trans fats greatly increases your risk for coronary disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer! Let me make this clear... These fats are toxic!!! Avoid them at all cost.

Until next time, stay strong and be kind!