Good & Bad Fats in Your Diet

Just like there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol, there are good and bad fats. Some fats you need to eat to keep your body healthy, and others should be avoided. Again, it would not be wise to eliminate all fats from your diet as fats are one of the body’s main source of fuel. In a healthy balanced diet, fats should contribute about 25-35% of the calories consumed. Here is the ‘skinny’ on fats:

• Saturated Fats

These are the fats that you need to be careful of. They have a tendency to raise your LDL levels when consumed in excess. Saturated fats become solid at room temperature, although there are some exceptions. They come mainly from animal sources and include butter, lard and suet. Cream is one of those exceptions mentioned—it contains saturated fat but because it also contains milk it remains liquid.

Two sources of saturated fats that come from plants are coconut oil (this is from a plant, but it still hardens and becomes solid at room temperature, and palm oil. Palm oil is widely used in the making of pastries, candies, cakes and biscuits.

• Monounsaturated Fats

These are the healthier choice in fats. They are derived from plants.They are not known to contribute to a bad cholesterol level. In fact, tests carried out in Mediterranean countries where monounsaturated fats are commonly used indicate that these fats actually may reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood and the increased HDL’s are able to clean excess cholesterol from the blood vessels.

Commonly used monounsaturated fats are avocado oil, canola oil, peanut oil and olive oil.

• Polyunsaturated Fats

These are also part of the healthier fats and are also derived from plant materials. These fats are found in most nut, seed and vegetable oils and include safflower oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, cottonseed oil and corn oil.

Polyunsaturated fats were traditionally used in combination with dairy foods to make many margarines and cooking oils, thinking that this would be a healthier alternative to butter or other saturated fat products. Recent findings, however, show that the process used to make the margarines (beating the oil) actually saturates it.

• Trans-Fats

These are not considered healthy fats and should be avoided in your diet. Trans-fats may raise your bad LDL cholesterol levels and lower your good HDL cholesterol levels.

Trans-fats are created when healthy vegetable oil is chemically altered with the addition of extra hydrogen molecules to increase a product’s shelf life and to keep them hard at room temperature.

Products such as crackers, cookies, baked goods, some breads and a lot amount of fast food contain trans-fats and should be avoided. When examining product labels, avoid products whose ingredients include “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” fats or “vegetable shortening”.

• Omega-3 Fatty Acids

These are a type of unsaturated fats (the good kind of fats that help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease). It is believed that they help to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, reduce blood clot formation, help lower your blood pressure, improve skin and hair condtion, and help in the aid and prevention of arthritis.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids can come from animal or vegetable sources. Good sources from animal include mackerel, herring, sardines, tuna and salmon. Plant sources include flaxseeds and leafy greens.

• Flaxseed

The flax plant provides seeds and oilthat contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which is a healthy essential fatty acid similar to the Omega-3 Fatty Acids found in fish. As mentioned, Omega-3 Fatty Acids may actually help your body in the health department and should be included in a healthy diet. Faxseed is the best plant source for such fats.

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