Fats-What, Why and How: One of the Essential Nutrients for Good Health (#3 in series)
You need 7 nutrients in your diet to prevent disease and maintain good health. They are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber, vitamins, minerals and water.
Carbohydrates, Proteins, fats and fiber are to referred as macronutrients. Macro means large and you need these nutrients in large quantities. Vitamins and mineral are known as your micronutrients and you these in small quantities.
Last week you learned about carbohydrates. This week you discover what are carbohydrates, why you need them and how to chooses the right ones.
Fats:
Dietary Fats are essential in your diet. They support cell growth. They provide you with your essential fatty acids. They act as a carrier for fat soluble vitamins. They help you absorb some nutrients and produce important hormones, too.
Why should you be concerned about fat? For starters eating too much will make you fat. Fat has 9 calories per a gram more than double the amount of calories found in carbohydrates and proteins, which both have 4 calories per a gram. Too much of certain fats can cause health problems. The main health concern is the effect certain fats has on cholesterol.
Your body makes cholesterol in the liver. Low density lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol to your blood and high density lipoproteins (HDL) help carry cholesterol away from blood back to the liver. If your level of LDL gets too high, it will begin to collect in the walls of your blood. It beings to form plaques and can lead to heart disease. Different types of dietary fats affect your HDL and LDL levels in different ways.
Dietary fat comes primarily in the form of triglycerides. These are large molecules, consisting of a molecule glycerol, to which three different fatty acid chains are attached. It’s the chemical identities of the fatty acids that determine the type of fat.
There are four types of dietary fat: saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and trans fat. Most foods contain varying levels of each type of fat.
For example, butter contains unsaturated fats, but a large percentage of the total fat is saturated fat. And canola oil has a high percentage of monounsaturated fat but also contains smaller amounts of polyunsaturated and saturated fat.
Saturated Fats:
You will find saturated fats mainly in animal products like all meats and dairy. Coconut and palm oil are examples of plant based sources that are high saturated fats. Saturated fats are typically solid at room temperature.
You should not get more than 10% of your total calories form saturated fat, because they increase LDL (bad) cholesterol in the blood which can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. Many foods high in saturated fats are also high in calories.
Chemically, saturated fats contain no double bonds between carbon atoms.
Monounsaturated Fats:
You will find these fats in plant based oils, like olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, safflower oil and sesame oil. Other sources include avocados, peanut butter, and many nuts and seeds. Monounsaturated fats are typically liquid at room temperature.
Monounsaturated fats can help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol in your blood which may lower your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Chemically, monounsaturated contain one double bond between carbon atoms.
Polyunsaturated Fats:
Foods rich in polyunsaturated fats provide essential fatty acids that your body needs but can’t make. Your essential fatty acids are omega-3 and omega-6. Both are important to cell membranes and help regulate blood pressure and inflammatory responses.
Your omega-3 fatty acids are found in oils like soybean, corn oil and sunflower. Your omega-6 fatty acids are found in fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, herring and trout.
Polyunsaturated fats can also help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol in your blood which can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Chemically, polyunsaturated contain more than one double bond between carbon atoms. This makes them flexible in the body and less likely to stack against the walls of your arties.
Trans Fats:
In November 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils are no longer Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) in human food.
Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland bravely decided nearly to ban trans fats through regulation, while other European countries have decided to use self-regulatory mechanisms.
Trans fats can be found in many foods – including fried foods like doughnuts, and baked goods including cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, frozen pizza, cookies, crackers, and stick margarines and other spreads. Many restaurants and fast-food outlets use trans fats to deep-fry foods because oils with trans fats can be used many times in commercial fryers.
Trans fats raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and lower your HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Eating trans fats increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke. It’s also associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and several cancers.
You want to check ingredient labels for “partially hydrogenated oils". Manufactures can list “0 grams of trans fats” on the food label if the product contains 0 grams to less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.
Obviously, if you have countries outlawing it and the FDA stating it is unsafe, you should avoid it.
Chemically, trans fat has one double bond, but is present in a trans formation and not a cis. That trans formation allows trans fats to easily accumulate in the walls of your arteries.
Next week you will learn about Vitamins.
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