There’s a lot of conflicting information and confusion around fat, with health warnings on the one hand and health benefits on the other. This post will give you some background into this large topic to give you a basic understanding of what’s what.
What is fat?
Otherwise known as lipids, fats are made up of saturated and unsaturated fats. All fats are actually a combination of these, just in greater or lesser concentrations.
Why do we need fat?
Fat is essential for our health and well-being. Here are some of the main reasons:
- We need them for our bodies to be able to absorb and use essential fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K
- They provide essential fatty acids (EFAs). A bit about these later on
- Help make hormones
- They form our cells’ membrane (think of it as our skin). Without this, our cells cannot function optimally, ensuring that essential nutrients move in and waste moves out of the cell. This is fundamental for every aspect of our health
- Our brains are our fat richest organ at about 60% fat
- They provide an energy source for our body (not the primary one, that’s provided by carbohydrates)
- It provides essential protection in the form of ‘cushioning’ for our body. Everybody needs a little padding to protect our skeleton and organs and help to keep us warm
- Required for growth and development
- Contribute to satiety levels (feeling of fullness after eating)
What are Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)
These are essential because they cannot be made in the body so must be obtained from our diet. The ideal ratio of omega 6:omega 3 is 2:1 but out modern diets have tipped to an imbalance of up to 20:1. Omega-6 is a pro-inflammatory whereas omega-3 reduces inflammation.
Omega-6 is found in vegetable oils (sunflower, safflower, corn, canola, soybean) as well as animal fat, nuts, soy, commercially baked and processed goods.
Omega-3 is present mainly in oily fish (salmon, herring, sardines, mackrel), fish oil (as a supplement), walnuts and flaxseeds (canola oils is high in omega-3 but also contains a high amount of omega-6 which does not make it a suitable source of omega 3).
We need both omega 6 and 3 for health, but you can see from the above food groups how modern diets greatly favour omega-6, leading to imbalance and inflammation in the body and a host of illnesses such as depression, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, ulcerative colitis, stroke, cardiovascular diseases (inflammation is the route cause of all disease in one way or another).
The health virtues of vegetable oils may have been heralded in the not so distant past, but this is certainly an example of getting ‘too much of a good thing’. As with everything all in life, health is a question of balance and it is essential to:
- supplement with omega-3 oils and food sources
- reduce your consumption of omega-6 fats and oils
Trans fats
When it comes to the good, the bad, these are the downright ugly of the fat family. Trans fats are what is, among nutritionistas, known as a ‘franken-food’. The practice of hydrogenating liquid oils began so that they could have a longer shelf life and withstand food production processes. Trans fatty acids are the result of this hydrogenation and are found in many packaged, processed foods and snacks such as margerine, microwave popcorn, fried foods, industrially baked goods (think: doughnut etc). You definitely want to stay away from transfats which are linked to heart disease, diabetes and other degenerative diseases. Research shows that consuming them may reduce fertility by at least 73% and stunt the growth of fetuses in the womb. As well as being the first country to impose a fat-tax, Denmark was also the first country to ban transfats in 2004 and has since reported a 30% reduction in cardiovascular disease.
Why ‘diet’ replacements are no good
Low fat diet options may have a reduced fat content but they have also been stripped of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, instead supplemented with artificial replacements which your body does not recognise. This makes it harder for your body to break them down and put them back together again in a form that it might be able to use.
What’s the deal with cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a type of fat that is found in animal products (eggs, meat, dairy, fish) and it is also made in our liver (a clear sign that our bodies need some fat – our own physiological nature does not work against us). We actually need cholesterol to make hormones, vitamin D and bile which helps our bodies to metabolise dietary fat.
There is ‘good’ cholesterol and ‘bad’ cholesterol. HDL is the good guy, LDL is not. A healthy level of HDL in the blood helps to protect us against heart disease whereas high levels of LDL increase this risk.
As well as dietary (omega-3 helps to lower LDL cholesterol) and hereditary factors, exercise is important in helping to maintain healthy cholesterol levels in our blood. So get off the sofa, get your groove on or go for a jog!
Find out about which fats and oils to use in cooking here .
There’s a lot of conflicting information and confusion around fat, with health warnings on the one hand and health benefits on the other. This post will give you some background into this large topic to give you a basic understanding of what’s what.
What is fat?
Otherwise known as lipids, fats are made up of saturated and unsaturated fats. All fats are actually a combination of these, just in greater or lesser concentrations.
Why do we need fat?
Fat is essential for our health and well-being. Here are some of the main reasons:
What are Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)
These are essential because they cannot be made in the body so must be obtained from our diet. The ideal ratio of omega 6:omega 3 is 2:1 but out modern diets have tipped to an imbalance of up to 20:1. Omega-6 is a pro-inflammatory whereas omega-3 reduces inflammation.
Omega-6 is found in vegetable oils (sunflower, safflower, corn, canola, soybean) as well as animal fat, nuts, soy, commercially baked and processed goods.
Omega-3 is present mainly in oily fish (salmon, herring, sardines, mackrel), fish oil (as a supplement), walnuts and flaxseeds (canola oils is high in omega-3 but also contains a high amount of omega-6 which does not make it a suitable source of omega 3).
We need both omega 6 and 3 for health, but you can see from the above food groups how modern diets greatly favour omega-6, leading to imbalance and inflammation in the body and a host of illnesses such as depression, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, ulcerative colitis, stroke, cardiovascular diseases (inflammation is the route cause of all disease in one way or another).
The health virtues of vegetable oils may have been heralded in the not so distant past, but this is certainly an example of getting ‘too much of a good thing’. As with everything all in life, health is a question of balance and it is essential to:
Trans fats
When it comes to the good, the bad, these are the downright ugly of the fat family. Trans fats are what is, among nutritionistas, known as a ‘franken-food’. The practice of hydrogenating liquid oils began so that they could have a longer shelf life and withstand food production processes. Trans fatty acids are the result of this hydrogenation and are found in many packaged, processed foods and snacks such as margerine, microwave popcorn, fried foods, industrially baked goods (think: doughnut etc). You definitely want to stay away from transfats which are linked to heart disease, diabetes and other degenerative diseases. Research shows that consuming them may reduce fertility by at least 73% and stunt the growth of fetuses in the womb. As well as being the first country to impose a fat-tax, Denmark was also the first country to ban transfats in 2004 and has since reported a 30% reduction in cardiovascular disease.
Why ‘diet’ replacements are no good
Low fat diet options may have a reduced fat content but they have also been stripped of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, instead supplemented with artificial replacements which your body does not recognise. This makes it harder for your body to break them down and put them back together again in a form that it might be able to use.
What’s the deal with cholesterol?
Find out about which fats and oils to use in cooking here .Cholesterol is a type of fat that is found in animal products (eggs, meat, dairy, fish) and it is also made in our liver (a clear sign that our bodies need some fat – our own physiological nature does not work against us). We actually need cholesterol to make hormones, vitamin D and bile which helps our bodies to metabolise dietary fat.
There is ‘good’ cholesterol and ‘bad’ cholesterol. HDL is the good guy, LDL is not. A healthy level of HDL in the blood helps to protect us against heart disease whereas high levels of LDL increase this risk.
As well as dietary (omega-3 helps to lower LDL cholesterol) and hereditary factors, exercise is important in helping to maintain healthy cholesterol levels in our blood. So get off the sofa, get your groove on or go for a jog!