Back again today to talk about fats! Lets start. There are many kinds of fats but like carbohydrates, we split them into good fats and bad fats. Bad fats are the ones that increase your cholesterol and increases your risk of certain diseases. Good fats does the opposite, it protects the heart and support overall health. I will split up this blog post by explaining what good fats are and what bad fats are (and what they do):
Good Fats:
Good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats because they help with heart health and help manage cholesterol and overall health. The best source of healthy fats are from omega-3’s from fatty fishes.
Good fats helps the body by lowering the total bad cholesterol (LDL) and increases good cholesterol (HDL). LDL is the cholesterol that is more associated with heart diseases and strokes. HDL is actually good for the body and help against diseases.
Some benefits of omega-3’s includes:
- Reduce symptoms of depression
- Protects against memory loss
- Lowers the risk of heart diseases, stroke, and cancer
- Help with arthritis, joint pain, and inflammatory skin conditions
Keep in mind that the human body cannot produce Omega 3’s so it is important for us to consume it. Lets look at some sources where we can get the following fats (check out website at the end of post to see source):
| M0nounsaturated Fat | Polyunsaturated Fat |
| Olive Oil | Soybean oil |
| Canola Oil | Corn Oil |
| Sunflower oil | Safflower Oil |
| Peanut Oil | Walnuts |
| Sesame Oil | Sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds flaxseeds |
| Avocados | Fatty fishes (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines) |
| Olives | Soymilk |
| Nuts (Almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews) | Tofu |
| (Natural) Peanut butter |
Bad Fats:
Bad fats are saturated and trans fats. The general guideline is to (obviously) eliminate bad fats from your diet, especially trans fats.
Both saturated fats and trans fats raises your blood cholesterol. But trans fats in particular are worse because they raise your bad cholesterol (LDL), but lowers the good cholesterol (HDL).
Make sure you start reading labels, and just because the box says there is no trans fat, make sure to read the ingredients. Anything under hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils are trans fats. Just because there are a small amount in the serving size (under 5 grams), they do not have to post it up in the nutrient label. This means that if there is 3 grams in each serving, if you eat 5 servings, you will have eaten 15 grams of trans fats!
Of course, we need to know where they are from to avoid them, lets look:
| Saturated Fats | Trans Fats |
| High-fat cuts of meat (beef, lamb, pork) | Commercially-baked pastries, cookies, doughnuts, muffins, cakes, pizza dough |
| Chicken with the skin | Packaged snack foods (crackers, microwave popcorn, chips) |
| Whole-fat dairy products (milk and cream) | Stick margarine |
| Butter | Vegetable Shortenings |
| Cheese | Fried foods (french fries, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, breaded fish) |
| Ice Cream | Candy Bars |
| Palm and coconut oil | |
| Lard |
Changing Takes Time:
If your still having hard time eliminating bad fats from your diet, just try substituting bad fats with good fats. For example, start cooking with olive oil rather than butter. Try to consume more nuts as healthy snacks and mix in some olives. Switch from whole milk to 1% or skim milk. The list goes on for what you can do to lower your fat intake. There are many small changes you can make in your daily schedule that will ultimately help you with your dietary change.
Please check out this website for more information
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