Dietary Fats

Dietary fats are the fats that we eat.  Although we have been taught by media and diet fads that fats are bad and should be avoided, that is not entirely true.  Some fats should be avoided, but others are necessary.

Remember that there are three macronutrients.  Carbohydrates, protein, and fat.  Each provide energy, among other things, for the body.  On the energy scale, carbohydrates and proteins are tied at 4 calories per gram.  Fat more than doubles the energy it has at 9 calories per gram.  Keep this in mind when you are eating your fats.  An equal portion size of fat has twice as many calories as protein or carbs.  Therefore, they should be used sparingly if your aim is weight loss or weight control.

Eating fat is not the only way you get adipose tissue on your body.  Your body also makes its own fat from excess calories to store energy for later.

Fat is an essential nutrient.  Therefore, any diet that eliminates all fat from your intake is not healthy.  Fat lubricates joints, insulates nerves, supports a healthy immune system, forms the cell membrane of every cell in your body, and is necessary for absorbing and storing fat soluble vitamins.  The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E, and K.  These vitamins need some fat in your diet to be absorbed, and they are stored in the fatty tissue of your body.

Just a side note, be careful not to megadose on these vitamins.  Unlike water soluble vitamins which are washed out of the body and need to be constantly replaced, the fat soluble vitamins can accumulate to a toxic level in your body.  This is not a concern if you get your vitamins from a healthy diet, but if you supplement with vitamin pills, it is something to watch out for.

There are two bad fats that you should strive to exclude from or limit in your diet.  On food labels, you will see a category for "Total Fat."  Under that you will see listed "Saturated Fat" and "Trans Fat."  These are the two fats you want to limit in your diet.

Trans fat is considered the worst of the fats.  It is a fat that is found sparingly in nature.  Mostly, it exists through man made processes call partial hydrogenation.  It's a chemical change that I'll leave up to you to google if you want to know more.  What is important for you to know now is that this fat increases LDL cholesterol and decreases HDL cholesterol.  As a refresher, LDL is the bad stuff.  Think of the first L as lousy.  HDL is the good stuff.  Think of the H as healthy.  This is the fat that you should avoid like the plague.  Read your food labels and shun any food products that list any trans fat.  In the ingredient list you can also look for the keyword "hydrogenated."  It will indicate a trans fat in the product.  Trans fats can be found in ANY processed food, so check them all.  Food processors like them because they are inexpensive and last a long time.

Saturated Fat is the next bad fat.  It does not need to be avoided, but should be limited.  Saturated fat comes mainly from animals.  It's the marbling in your rib eye, the 7 of your 93/7 ground beef, and what makes your bacon sizzle.  This fat raises LDL levels and increases risk of type 2 diabetes.  Apart from animal products, it is also found in coconut oil, peanut oil, and palm kernel oil

Saturated fats and trans fats are usually solid at room temperature(with the exception of the oils listed).  Use this rule of thumb to help you identify a fat on the fly if you're not sure what type it is.  Solid fats are typically bad fats and should be avoided or limited.

Now, when you read that food label, you might see that total fat is listed at 5 grams, trans fat at .5 grams, and saturated at 3 grams.  3 grams + .5 grams = 3.5 grams.  So if total fat is listed at 5 grams, where are the missing 1.5 grams?  It's there, but in my opinion this is a shortfall of the food labeling system.  Of course, I understand there are space limits on food packaging so some things will have to be left off.

The missing fat is a combination of our two healthier fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.

Monounsaturated fat is found in nuts, avocados, canola oil and olive oil.  It helps to lower LDL and increase HDL cholesterols.  So here we finally have a fat that actually can help you with your cholesterol.  But these fats still have 9 calories per gram, so we should be careful not to go overboard with them.

Polyunsaturated fat is found in fatty fish like salmon, vegetable oil and corn oil, walnuts, and sunflower seeds.  This fat also improves blood cholesterol levels, and includes the group of Omega 3 fatty acids.  Omega 3s are proving themselves to be very beneficial to your heart.

These two fats are usually found in a liquid form at room temperature.  As a rule then, at room temperature, liquid fats are typically healthy, solid fats are typically not.

In my daughters' school, they have a system of teaching nutrition by dividing foods in to "go" foods, "slow" foods, and "no" foods.  Using this method, I would break the fats down like this:  Trans fat is a no food, saturated fat is a slow food, and mono and poly unsaturated fats are go foods.

Take some time while shopping and make sure that your food products have the fats you need, and avoid the fats you don't.  A diet that is low in fats will be lower in calories.  It will also be healthier for your heart as long as you are careful to choose which fats you eat as part of your necessary macronutrient.