Healthy Fat - True or Myth?
March 29th, 2008 | by fat |
Aga asked:
Weight loss is becoming the most popular subject in our community. Almost everyone wants to lose weight or knows someone who does. So how is that possible that there such a huge lack of basic knowledge in that area? People do horrible things to their bodies applying crazy diets. And nobody seems to raise their hands and say STOP. Let’s imagine a typical scenario.
Im fat and I want to start a diet. So what is a first thing I change in my meals? I turn to low fat foods or take the fat of my menu completely - right? - Completely wrong. We don’t get fat because we eat fat. We eat wrong fat. The healthy fat is a crucial part of any diet. Our body desperately needs fat to function properly.
1. Our brain needs fat to function properly as 60% of it is built of fat.
2. Our heart is using fat to beat steady - over half of its energy is created from burning fat.
3. All of our nerves transmitters are isolated but fat.
4. Our internal organs are protected by fat - it’s their cushion.
5. Fat is digested at much slower rate keeping you full for much longer and satisfies hunger much faster so we actually eat less.
6. Fat works as an insulation in our body letting it maintained the right temperature properly.
7. Without fat several fat soluble vitamins will not get absorbed by the body.
Taking the fat out of our menu is asking for trouble. We need fat - no questions asked but we need a healthy fat.
So when we compose our perfect diet we need to remember that min 25% of our calories intake has to come from fats.
Healthy fat choices:
Monounsaturated fats like olive or canola oil. You can find them in some nuts like pecans and almond or fruits like avocado.
Polyunsaturated fats like sunflower or corn oil, found also in walnuts, soy beans and fish. This fat group includes Omega-3 fatty acids crucial to our body.
The rest of the fats are unhealthy and bad for us. All the saturated fats are a no-no for us - not only because we trying to lose weight but because they damage our cardiovascular system. This type of fat comes mainly from red meat, whole milk dairy products and unfortunately from coconuts.
The worse however for our body are Trans fats. Those are processed fats for extending their shelf life. The most popular sources are vegetable shortenings, most of margarines, fatty snacks like chips, cookies, crackers and baked or fried food. Those are not only building up in our body, but affect the levels of good cholesterol.
All the diets are about good balance, we have to use common sense when putting one together and include all group of foods in - proteins, carbohydrates and fat. Going shopping we can read the packaging and don’t fall anymore for “low fat” food. We need to know which fat is really inside. That being said there is a healthy fat - we just need to learn how to recognize it.
This is just a start. We have to learn more about our bodies and digestive system to understand the mechanism of gaining or losing weight.
ERNEST
Weight loss is becoming the most popular subject in our community. Almost everyone wants to lose weight or knows someone who does. So how is that possible that there such a huge lack of basic knowledge in that area? People do horrible things to their bodies applying crazy diets. And nobody seems to raise their hands and say STOP. Let’s imagine a typical scenario.
Im fat and I want to start a diet. So what is a first thing I change in my meals? I turn to low fat foods or take the fat of my menu completely - right? - Completely wrong. We don’t get fat because we eat fat. We eat wrong fat. The healthy fat is a crucial part of any diet. Our body desperately needs fat to function properly.
1. Our brain needs fat to function properly as 60% of it is built of fat.
2. Our heart is using fat to beat steady - over half of its energy is created from burning fat.
3. All of our nerves transmitters are isolated but fat.
4. Our internal organs are protected by fat - it’s their cushion.
5. Fat is digested at much slower rate keeping you full for much longer and satisfies hunger much faster so we actually eat less.
6. Fat works as an insulation in our body letting it maintained the right temperature properly.
7. Without fat several fat soluble vitamins will not get absorbed by the body.
Taking the fat out of our menu is asking for trouble. We need fat - no questions asked but we need a healthy fat.
So when we compose our perfect diet we need to remember that min 25% of our calories intake has to come from fats.
Healthy fat choices:
Monounsaturated fats like olive or canola oil. You can find them in some nuts like pecans and almond or fruits like avocado.
Polyunsaturated fats like sunflower or corn oil, found also in walnuts, soy beans and fish. This fat group includes Omega-3 fatty acids crucial to our body.
The rest of the fats are unhealthy and bad for us. All the saturated fats are a no-no for us - not only because we trying to lose weight but because they damage our cardiovascular system. This type of fat comes mainly from red meat, whole milk dairy products and unfortunately from coconuts.
The worse however for our body are Trans fats. Those are processed fats for extending their shelf life. The most popular sources are vegetable shortenings, most of margarines, fatty snacks like chips, cookies, crackers and baked or fried food. Those are not only building up in our body, but affect the levels of good cholesterol.
All the diets are about good balance, we have to use common sense when putting one together and include all group of foods in - proteins, carbohydrates and fat. Going shopping we can read the packaging and don’t fall anymore for “low fat” food. We need to know which fat is really inside. That being said there is a healthy fat - we just need to learn how to recognize it.
This is just a start. We have to learn more about our bodies and digestive system to understand the mechanism of gaining or losing weight.
ERNEST
