The Fats of Life
September 7, 2010 No CommentsYou take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have, the FATS of life. That’s right! There are good fats and bad fats. There are even Essential Fats Acids, or EFAs, but how do you know which ones are which. I’m not a nutritionist but I am one hell of a googler so I’m here to break this down for y’all. I’m just a girl on a mission and if I can put this stuff in Layman’s terms for the masses to understand then I have done my job!! I’ll keep this short and sweet and not bore you with the blah blah blah’s of it all.
What is an Essential Fatty acid? it is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a fat that your body requires in order to function properly. It is literally essential for survival must be ingested for good health because the body requires them but can’t make them from other food components. There are only two EFAs: alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid, and linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid…let’s just refer to them as Omega 3 and omega 6 and forget the sciency terms. If the science interests you, check out the wikipedia page on this subject.
So that’s great. We know the names of the essential fatty acids but it’s easier if we just talk about the sources of these types of fatty acids so you know what to eat to get these EFA’s. So here is a short list of foods that contain EFA’s
Flaxseed oil
flaxseeds
flaxseed meal,
hempseed oil
hempseeds
grapeseed oil
pumpkin seeds
pine nuts
pistachio nuts
sunflower seeds (raw)
olive oil
olives
borage oil
evening primrose oil
black currant seed oil
chestnut oil
chicken
most fish
shrimp (o3)
clams (03)
light chunk tuna (03)
catfish (o3)
cod (03)
spinach (o3)
corn (o6)
safflower (06)
sunflower (06)
soybean (06)
cottonseed oil (06)
Okay so that should simplify things for the Essential Fatty Acids ( EFAs). Now we are going to discuss the good Fats. Anything not included in the list of good fats is gonna be a bad fat…let’s keep things very simple…more so for me than for anyone else…cause like I said, I’m not nutritionist nor do I claim to be one.
So…..good fats, ….sounds like an oxymoron to me but let’s talk about these. These fats are considered “good’ because they support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. The Science folk call these the MONOUNSATURATED fats named so because Mono ( or ONE) unsaturated fatty acids contain one double bond. These types of fats help lower the bad cholesterol ( or LDL) and are found in foods such as avocados, nuts, and olive, peanut and canola oils. That’s pretty easy to remember right?
Then there are polyunsaturated fatty acids. Where are many double bonded fats.. and include foods like nuts, cheese, seeds, fish, algae, leafy greens, and krill…all you need to remember is any of the unsaturated fats are pretty much “good”.
Saturated Fats are the BAD fats! These are the ones we want to stay away from. Some examples of foods that contain Saturated fats include lard, butter, whole milk, cream, eggs, red meat, chocolate, and solid shortenings. Excess intake of saturated fat can raise one’s blood cholesterol and increase the risk of developing coronary artery disease. The saturated fats are more likely to turn into the lumpy nasty cellulite if taken in excess as well.
So what are TRANS fats? you see this name all over the place. All the food companies advertise that they do not have these trans fats. You see it on the front of the label ususally; “no trans fats”. But what the heck is the difference between trans fats and saturated fats? Trans fats can be natural or artificial. Small amounts of trans fat occur naturally in beef and dairy foods. Artificial trans fats are made when hydrogen gas reacts with oil. Artifical trans fats can be found in cookies, crackers, icing, potato chips, margarine and microwave popcorn, just to name a few. Many manufacturers started including trans fats in their processed foods about 20 years ago to prolong their products’ shelf life, but public health experts warn that these kinds of fats clog arteries and cause obesity.
I hope this has been helpful to some of you. I think I learned a little thing or two while doing the research on these types of fats. I got most of my information from the follow sites so if you’d like to do your own research to learn more, or if you would like a more elaborate explanation then please visit these sites
http://goodfats.pamrotella.com/
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=23820
http://www.umm.edu/features/transfats.htm
My next dietary blog will explain the correlation between carbs and sugars and how much of each you should be taking in each day. Stay tuned folks.
Xoxoxo
A
Diet
