June 10, 2017
We have the good but misunderstood, the bad and the in-between. The love-hate relationship we have with fats. Yet can we live without them? Does banishing fats from our diets whenever possible and switching to low-fat foods make us healthier? Clearly not. This shift has not made us healthier, probably because we cut back on healthy fats together with the harmful ones. In fact, shunning all fats from your diet can be dangerous, since your body needs to consume at least some omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. How then to sift out the victims from the culprits? Start by being a label reader to make better choices in the supermarket.
Fats misunderstood
Dietary fat does not always translate to body fat and eating fat isn’t what makes you fat, just like eating cholesterol isn’t likely to increase your cholesterol levels. You can get fat eating carbs and protein, even if you eat little dietary fat. This is because our body makes its own fat when we take in excess calories. Excess calories from ANY source is the cause for weight gain, not fat per se. If your intake stay in a caloric surplus, a low-fat diet won’t make you lose weight, especially for the guys, since it can decrease testosterone production.
Our body prefers some fats over the others
When the right one comes along, it is received by fit by receptors in our bodies to build cell membranes and the sheaths surrounding the nerves. The right fats will also be employed for other important processes like blood clotting, muscle-movement and to combat inflammation.
The fats that are not selected by the body for use, because the body does not recognize them, are those that will be circulating the body, wreaking havoc and even damaging the receptors that are recognizing the fats they are used to. The body can deal with a certain load of these hostile fats, by metabolizing them as energy sources or being thrown out by certain parts of the body like the brain and the placenta of mothers with child. However, there’s only this much the body can manage, any excesses of these bad fats, especially over a period of time, are going to hurt the body.
The ones that hurt
Trans fats and Hydrogenated fats
The worst kind of dietary fats is trans fat. In efforts to decrease costs and increase the shelf-lives of their food products, manufacturers turned to hydrogenation, a food processing method which is used to turn healthier liquid vegetable oils into solid fats of little nutritional benefit, thus preventing them from breaking down and becoming rancid. That’s how trans fats came along. On food labels, it is usually listed as “partially hydrogenated oil”.
The damage:
Take home message:
Avoid it when you can. Trans fat is the only kind of fat that has been shown to be unilaterally detrimental to health.
Sources
Solid margarine, vegetable shortening, certain cookies and pastries baked with such, fried foods.
Bear in mind that a product whose label boasts it is “trans fat free” can have actually up to 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving, and these can add up quickly.
Saturated fats
Saturated fats are solids at room temperature. This is the type of fat that comes mainly from animal sources of food, such as red meat, poultry and full-fat dairy products. Butter, which for the longest time, has gotten a bad rap because of its saturated fats, has been mistakenly replaced by margarine, which we now know, is worse news for the body.
The damage:
However, a handful of studies have muddled this link of saturated fats and heart disease and some report that it can also raise good cholesterol levels. A safer bet will be polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
Take home message:
A lesser evil than trans fats but still ugly. Too much saturated fats won’t give you a heart attack, but too much trans fats may. The safest bet will be to replace saturated fats as much as possible with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
Sources
Beef, pork and poultry fat, dairy products, coconut and palm oils
Side-note:
It’s better to like your peanut butter old-fashioned. The layer of oil that floats in the jars of old-fashioned peanut butter is better than the delicious, homogenous looking ones. This is because the homogenous ones have been hydrogenated to improve the consistency, but not the healthiness, of peanut butter.
The ones our bodies prefer
Polyunsaturated fats
Polyunsaturated fats are essential fats, meaning they are required for normal functions of the body but your body can’t make them and must be acquired from food. They are used to build cell membranes and the covering of nerves and are also required for blood clotting, muscle movement and anti-inflammation. There are 2 main types of polyunsaturated fats – Omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids.
The benefits:
Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines. They are immediate sources of EPA and DHA which your body can utilize.
Plant sources of omega-3 include flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts and leafy greens.
Side-note:
Omega-3 from plants contain ALA which is dependent on the body to be converted to EPA and DHA, a process which the body is highly inefficient in doing. Typically, only less than 1% of ALA is converted to the beneficial DHA and about 5% of ALA is converted to EPA. Therefore, most of the ALA you eat will simply be used for energy.
Monounsaturated fats
The discovery that monounsaturated fats are healthful to the body came from the Seven Countries Study during the 1960s. It revealed that people in Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean region had a low rate of heart disease despite a high-fat diet. The main fat in their diet was not the saturated fats found in animals but olive oil and thus gave rise to the popular “Mediterranean diet”.
Studies show that eating foods rich in monounsaturated fats improve blood cholesterol levels, benefit insulin levels and blood sugar control.
Good sources of monounsaturated fats are olive oil (not the tub olive oil spreads as they are hydrogenated fats), peanut oil, canola oil, avocados, most nuts and sunflower oil.
So for fats, both quantities and qualities counts. Trans fats, hydrogenated fats and saturated fats are everywhere on the shelves, it may seem impossible to eliminate them completely from your diet. However, you may start eliminating one at a time. Food preservation and hydrogenated oils go hand-in-hand making your heart work a lot harder. So, the next time you stand in queue at the cashier for a box of all-seasoned, ready-in-five-minutes meal, you may want to remember another choice that your body will be thankful for.
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