The healthy and not so healthy

Research shows that we need HEALTHY fats in our diet. They are essential for our health.

Saturated fats

These used to be called “bad fats” (animal fats), and they do not cause heart disease. The FDA in the USA has now overturned this. In my opinion, they are great fats to use in your diet and can have great benefit for the body.

They can help absorb the fat soluble vitamins - A,D, E and K, protect our organs, good for nail and hair, insulates the body and helps the body to produce oestrogen and progesterone.

• Beef Tallow

• Duck fat

• Bone Marrow

• Lard

• Coconut oil (it is a saturated fat but it doesn’t contain cholesterol. It also contains MCT’s (medium chain fatty acids), which can provide anti inflammatory properties from the antioxidants.

• Coconut milk yoghurt, cream and kefir (Choose one that contains no sugar and is loaded with gut healthy probiotics)

Monounsaturated fats

These fats can protect against heart disease, they are anti-inflammatory, strengthen bones, improves mood and aids in weight loss

• Avocado

• Nuts and seeds (whole and raw)

• Olive oil / olives

  
  Polyunsatured fats

  Omega 3 fats the only naturally occurring polyunsaturated fat. These are polyunsaturated fats that can build brain cells, keeps your heart healthy, and reduce inflammation.
  

• Fatty fish (salmon, trout, mackerel, sardines, herring, kipper)

Hydrogenated / Trans fats /Seed oils

These oils are unnaturally saturated, and can harden at body temperature and cause a build-up of fatty material in the arteries and systemic inflammation when they are ingested.  Hydrogenated fats can also be very disruptive as they can decrease the good HDL cholesterol (think H for happy) and increase the bad LDL cholesterol (think L for low).  

Diets high in refined sugar can be bad for us because our body can convert the excess sugar into long chain saturated fats, which, coming from this type of “conversion process” can contribute to clogging up arteries and weight gain. This is how sugar can contribute to inflammation and cardio vascular disease. 

• canola oil

• rapeseed oil

• sunflower oil

• corn oil

• vegetable or plant oil

• soyabean oil

• margarine

• sesame oil

• peanut oil

• rice bran oil

My aim is to reduce the amount of seed oil I consume and mindful about what products I choose to buy. Seed oils are very high in Omega 6, a linoleic acid, which can be inflammatory to our bodies. What concerns me more is that seed oils can be highly processed and involve many chemicals being used to create the oil. This can make them prone to reacting with oxygen and light and they can become rancid easily. Rancid oil forms dangerous free radicals that can contribute to cell damage, which can be carcinogenic. These oils can promote inflammation in our body, heart disease and many chronic health conditions. These oils were only introduced into our diets and food in the 20th century, when the technology became available to extract them and are cheaper form of fat for the food industry to use in our food. They are now present in almost all our every day food, from sauces, soups, dips, tinned fish, marinades, snacks, cakes, biscuits…. which means that we all consume too much of them on a daily basis. It makes it difficult to avoid them altogether, but we can reduce the amount we consume.

DIET, LOW FAT, FAT REDUCED, FAT FREE, LOW CALORIE

I find that these terms are very deceiving. They usually have their fat content dramatically reduced but add in sugar and other ingredients to compensate on the texture and flavour. The full fat options usually offers a less processed and reduced sugar option. These are fats I avoid.