All about Fats!

as promised, today's post is all about FAT! Not the fat on your body, but the fats you put in your mouth! I bet you think if you are trying to lose weight you shouldn't eat any, but that is a myth. Read on....

For over thirty years, it seems "low-fat" has been the trend in dieting. In fact, everywhere you look, processed food is labeled "Low Fat!" So, you'd think people would be getting skinny from eating all this low fat food.......think again,or just look around you. Resulting “low fat” foods and diets haven’t resulted in most people controlling their weight or becoming healthier. In fact, the opposite is true.

Ironically, as the low-fat revolution became a trend in dieting, people were getting fatter, not thinner!

The obesity rates for Americans have doubled in the last 20 years, coinciding with the advent of the low-fat revolution.

In the 1960s, Americans ate 45% of their calories from fat – and only 13% of us were obese. Now, while most of us get only about 33% of our calories from fat, 34% of us qualify as obese

But cutting fat out of our diets seems to have the opposite effect: while Americans have been eating less fat, we’ve been getting fatter. In place of fats, many people turn to foods full of easily digested carbohydrates, or to fat-free products that replace healthful fats with sugar and high-calorie, refined carbohydrates.

You need to cut calories to lose weight - fats are more filling, and curbing hunger can stop you from indulging in additional calories.

The 2006 Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial showed that women on low-fat diets didn't lose any more weight than women who followed their usual diets.

The solution to losing weight and being healthy isn't in these low-fat labeled processed foods
.....the solution is......eat more fats!

But, make sure it's the right kind of fat

Healthy fats are essential to good health

It’s the type of fat that matters in addition to how much you consume. Reducing your intake of some types of fats reduces the risk of several chronic diseases, but other types of fats are absolutely essential to our health and well-being.

• Brain – Fats compose 60% of the brain and are essential to brain function, including learning abilities, memory retention and moods. Fats are especially important for pregnant women, since they are integral to fetal brain development.
• Cells – Fatty acids help your cells stay moveable and flexible, as well as being responsible for building cell membranes.
• Heart – 60% of our heart’s energy comes from burning fats. Specific fats are also used to help keep the heart beating in a regular rhythm.
• Nerves – Fats compose the material that insulates and protects the nerves, isolating electrical impulses and speeding their transmission.
• Lungs – Lung surfactant, which requires a high concentration of saturated fats, enables the lungs to work and keeps them from collapsing.
• Eyes – Fats are essential to eye function.
• Digestion – Fats in a meal slow down the digestion process so the body has more time to absorb nutrients, and help provide a constant level of energy and keeps the body satiated for longer periods of time. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) can only be absorbed if fat is present.
• Organs – Fats cushion and protect your internal organs.
• Immune System – Fats ease inflammation, helping your metabolism and immune system stay healthy and functioning

To understand good and bad fats, you need to know the names of the players and some information about them:

The "Essential" Fatty Acids:

Omega-3 and omega-6 are types of essential fatty acids – meaning we cannot make them on our own and have to obtain them from our diet.

Omega-6 fatty acids are a type of fat essential for our bodies to function. However, in general we get plenty of this type of fat in our bodies – in fact, most people are getting too much of the omega-6 type of fats as opposed to the omega-3 fatty acids. This tends to cause increased inflammation in the body. Experts looking at the dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids suggest that in early human history the ratio was about 1:1, however the typical American's ratio is around 20:1 to 50:1! Generally our diet contains far too much omega 6 fats. For most of us, this means greatly reducing the omega-6 fatty acids we consume and increasing the amount of omega-3 fatty acids

Examples of omega-6 fats: Corn oil, sunflower seeds, margarine, soybean oil, and cottonseed oil, as well as mayonnaise and salad dressings made with those oils, and any foods made with or fried in those oils.

Types of fats:

Monounsaturated fats

• Are liquid at room temperature and turn cloudy when kept in refrigerator.
• Primary sources are plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil. Other good sources are avocados; nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans; and seeds such as pumpkin and sesame seeds.
• People following traditional Mediterranean diets, which are very high in foods containing monounsaturated fats like olive oil, tend to have lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Polyunsaturated fats

• Are liquid at room temperatures as well as at cold temperatures
• Primary sources are sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils, and also foods such as walnuts, flax seeds, and fish.
• This fat family includes the Omega-3 group of fatty acids which your body can’t make and are found in very few foods.
• Since most of us don't eat enough of omega-3 foods,, I supplement with daily fish oil capsules( no, they don't taste like fish). One great side affect is that since I've been taking them, I haven't had one zit breakout on my face!

Saturated fat-- you should limit these

• Are usually solid at room temperature and have a high melting point
• Primary sources are animal sources including red meat and whole milk dairy products. Other sources are tropical vegetable oils such as coconut oil, palm oil and foods made with these oils. Poultry and fish contain saturated fat, but less than red meat.
• Saturated fat raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad") cholesterol that increases your risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

Trans Fats-- run from these evil fats!

• Trans fats are created by heating liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogen gas, a process called hydrogenation. Partially hydrogenating vegetable oils makes them more stable and less likely to spoil, which is very good for food manufacturers – and very bad for you.
• Primary sources of trans fat are vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
• Trans fat raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad") cholesterol that increases your risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), as well as lowering HDL, or good cholesterol.

Tip of the Day

Okay, so you realize you need to avoid saturated fat and trans fat… but how do you get the healthy monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and omega-3 fats everyone keeps talking about?

• Take a daily fish oil supplement
  
• Dress your own salad. Commercial salad dressings are often high in saturated fat,unhealthy chemicals, and made with inferior, overly-processed, damaged oils. Create your own dressings with high-quality, cold-pressed olive oil, flaxseed oil or sesame oil and your favorite herbs.
• What’s better: butter or margarine? Both have good and bad points. With margarine, choose the soft-tub versions, and make sure the product has zero grams trans fats and no partially hydrogenated oils. Regardless of whether you choose butter or margarine, use it in moderation and avoid adding it to other foods. Olive oil is a healthier substitute.
• The meat of the matter. Beef, pork, lamb, and dairy products are high in saturated fat. Choose low-fat milk and lower-fat cheeses like mozzarella whenever possible; enjoy full-fat dairy in moderation. Go for lean cuts of meat, and stick to white meat, which has less saturated fat.
• Don’t go no-fat, go good fat. If you are concerned about your weight or heart health, rather than avoiding fat in your diet, try replacing all the bad fats with good fats. This might mean replacing some of the meat you eat with beans and legumes, and using vegetable oils rather than tropical oils, which tend to contain more saturated fats.
• Ask what type of oil your food is cooked in. When eating out, ask your server or counter person what type of oil they use in their cooking. If it’s partially-hydrogenated oil, run the other way. Otherwise, see if you can request your food to be prepared using olive oil, which most restaurants have in stock.

Recipe of the Day

It is incredibly easy to make your own salad dressing. ....and you won't get all that sugar and chemicals in the bottled kind. And, it just tastes better!

You need:

• Oil ( I use extra virgin olive oil)
  
• Vinegar or lemon juice
• Salt and Pepper
• Optional: Herbs, spices, fruit, other flavorings, mustard (mustard actually helps hold it together so it doesn't separate as easily.)

The ratio of oil to vinegar should be about 3 to 1. Shake it all together in a jar or whisk in a bowl. That's all there is to it.

Here is a link to lots of Healthy Salad dressing recipes

If you made it through to the bottom of the page, good for you! Now you have all the info you need about choosing healthy fats! Now, go to the pantry and read the labels on your processed foods......and chuck that "low-fat" stuff.