When it comes to fats sometimes we can tend to get a bit confused, about what we actually need to eat and the recommended daily amount of fat we need in our diets in order to stay healthy.
Some people go to extremes and hardly eat any fat at all in their diets. But this isn’t necessarily the best route to go as we do need some fat in our diets in order to remain healthy. When you’re looking at a particular food product, to see how much fat it contains it is very easy to get to confused because fat can seem like there is a lot, when in fact they may be very low saturated fat which isn’t so bad.
According to what the food standards agency has said is most of us are eating more than the required 20 grams of saturated fat for women and 30 grams for men. Do you have toast for your breakfast ? if so then you could be quite easily eating your daily requirement of saturated fat if you have three slices for your breakfast, and bear in mind that you could eat more throughout the day without even realising it.
The biggest offenders when it comes to saturated fat are things like red meat, biscuits, chocolate, full fat cheese, pies etc. Eating too many of these foods will raise your LDL cholesterol which is the bad cholesterol this is the type that tends to stick to your arteries that form plaques narrow your arteries.
The big problem with this is a lot of us don’t realise how much we are consuming, when we buy other foods that are labelled. We tend to have what is called a weekend culture in the United Kingdom which revolves around having take-aways instead of cooking a meal at home, this doesn’t mean to say that you should tree yourself every once in a while to a take-away but just make sure it doesn’t become a regular habit.
And make sure you don’t eat them throughout the week because the way we live these days, it is very easy to get into that type of food mentality. Just in case you are not aware here are the amounts of saturated fat that you need to be aware of on food labels a high amount per hundred grams of saturated fat is considered to be five grams and I really do wonder at times how money people do actually know that. And a low amount of saturated fat is considered as 1.5 grams per hundred so anything below that is perfectly ok and safe to eat.
There are quite a few myths around saturated fats so let’s take a look at those and see which are and aren’t.
Certain types of foods contain saturated fat
The types of food that we tend to eat can have two different types of fat these are known as saturates and unsaturates, the thing that you have to take into consideration is the type of fat contained within the food, there are saturates, polyunsaturates, and monounsaturates polyunsaturates and monounsaturates aren’t that bad but saturated fat is this is the most important thing to remember regarding this.
If you are eating a lot of hard cheese then you are probably eating a lot of saturated fat. It’s so easy to buy a block of cheese and cut one piece of the end and eat it whole. Eating that a may well over five grams of saturated fat without you even realising it.
Is saturated fat the worst type of fat
You probably may think so but this isn’t necessarily the case, trans are far worse than saturated fats is, these tend to be added to products like biscuits and now manufacturers are beginning to use them less.
Because of the mere fact of how much they increase the amount ofLDL cholesterol in your blood if you have too much of it. The reason trans fats tend to be used is they have a lot longer shelf life and also are cheaper than other fats.
Do some fats contain more calories than others
No they don’t is a simple answer fat as a whole contains minor calories per gram, which is why it’s so easy to put on weight when you eat a lot of it. The only difference between the different fat is how they affect your health.
Is saturated fat that bad for you
Not necessarily we do need some saturated fat in our bodies to help with the uptake of vitamins and minerals, but when you start to take in excess amounts that you don’t necessarily need that is when problems will like weight gain, but it is good to have a balance another problem with too much saturated fat is it can cause the onset of diabetes because it upsets the insulin balance within your body.
Another thing to remember is we can actually survive without saturated fat, our bodies are able to create our own essential fatty acids. Without actually eating saturated fat in our food. The important thing to remember is balance your eating habits with what you eat and eat more of the good fats and cut down on the bad fats or eat them in very small moderation.
Source http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk
Related articles by Zemanta
No tag for this post.
Some people go to extremes and hardly eat any fat at all in their diets. But this isn’t necessarily the best route to go as we do need some fat in our diets in order to remain healthy. When you’re looking at a particular food product, to see how much fat it contains it is very easy to get to confused because fat can seem like there is a lot, when in fact they may be very low saturated fat which isn’t so bad.
According to what the food standards agency has said is most of us are eating more than the required 20 grams of saturated fat for women and 30 grams for men. Do you have toast for your breakfast ? if so then you could be quite easily eating your daily requirement of saturated fat if you have three slices for your breakfast, and bear in mind that you could eat more throughout the day without even realising it.
The biggest offenders when it comes to saturated fat are things like red meat, biscuits, chocolate, full fat cheese, pies etc. Eating too many of these foods will raise your LDL cholesterol which is the bad cholesterol this is the type that tends to stick to your arteries that form plaques narrow your arteries.
The big problem with this is a lot of us don’t realise how much we are consuming, when we buy other foods that are labelled. We tend to have what is called a weekend culture in the United Kingdom which revolves around having take-aways instead of cooking a meal at home, this doesn’t mean to say that you should tree yourself every once in a while to a take-away but just make sure it doesn’t become a regular habit.
And make sure you don’t eat them throughout the week because the way we live these days, it is very easy to get into that type of food mentality. Just in case you are not aware here are the amounts of saturated fat that you need to be aware of on food labels a high amount per hundred grams of saturated fat is considered to be five grams and I really do wonder at times how money people do actually know that. And a low amount of saturated fat is considered as 1.5 grams per hundred so anything below that is perfectly ok and safe to eat.
There are quite a few myths around saturated fats so let’s take a look at those and see which are and aren’t.
Certain types of foods contain saturated fat
The types of food that we tend to eat can have two different types of fat these are known as saturates and unsaturates, the thing that you have to take into consideration is the type of fat contained within the food, there are saturates, polyunsaturates, and monounsaturates polyunsaturates and monounsaturates aren’t that bad but saturated fat is this is the most important thing to remember regarding this.
If you are eating a lot of hard cheese then you are probably eating a lot of saturated fat. It’s so easy to buy a block of cheese and cut one piece of the end and eat it whole. Eating that a may well over five grams of saturated fat without you even realising it.
Is saturated fat the worst type of fat
You probably may think so but this isn’t necessarily the case, trans are far worse than saturated fats is, these tend to be added to products like biscuits and now manufacturers are beginning to use them less.
Because of the mere fact of how much they increase the amount ofLDL cholesterol in your blood if you have too much of it. The reason trans fats tend to be used is they have a lot longer shelf life and also are cheaper than other fats.
Do some fats contain more calories than others
No they don’t is a simple answer fat as a whole contains minor calories per gram, which is why it’s so easy to put on weight when you eat a lot of it. The only difference between the different fat is how they affect your health.
Is saturated fat that bad for you
Not necessarily we do need some saturated fat in our bodies to help with the uptake of vitamins and minerals, but when you start to take in excess amounts that you don’t necessarily need that is when problems will like weight gain, but it is good to have a balance another problem with too much saturated fat is it can cause the onset of diabetes because it upsets the insulin balance within your body.
Another thing to remember is we can actually survive without saturated fat, our bodies are able to create our own essential fatty acids. Without actually eating saturated fat in our food. The important thing to remember is balance your eating habits with what you eat and eat more of the good fats and cut down on the bad fats or eat them in very small moderation.
Source http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk
Related articles by Zemanta