If you have ever tried to lose weight with the help of some diets, you have definitely noticed that the majority of them is based on a limited consumption of fats. Furthermore, not only a popular opinion of fats being the major culprit for obesity is still spread widely today, but actually, there has been a real fight against fats since the middle of the previous century. Are all these restrictions for eating fats making us healthier? Let’s check some of the important issues connected to this basic nutrient.
Should fat remain in your diet or not?
Many people are trying their best not to eat fat believing it will help them to stay fit, however, it is not necessarily a good approach. While some people are regularly indulging themselves with eating fast-food full of fat, others are purchasing the products with extremely small content of fat. Whose diet is better?
In point of fact, none of them is right. Needless to say that the fat contained in junk food is definitely not the nutrient your body needs. First of all, such fat is usually used for deep frying which is the worst possible way of preparing meal no matter how good it tastes. Undeniably, almost all possible vitamins contained in food can’t stand such high temperature without being damaged. Furthermore, the fat used for such frying is usually a heavily processed product modified in such a way as to be use for long hours of frying. Actually, the standard time for using the same oil for frying in food industry is 16 hours. The more the oil is heated, the more cancerogenic it becomes.
On the other hand, people buying yogurts without fat or butter containing 60% of fat instead of standard 82% are making a huge mistake as well. First of all, manufacturers have to modify the food a lot in order to get the products with decreased amount of fat. This can be done in various ways including mechanical and chemical processing both of which are damaging the health-beneficial nutrients contained in food. Moreover, additional substances are added to low-fat products in order to gain the same consistency or taste of their fatty originals. One of the most frequently added ingredient for this purpose is modified starch which is definitely not healthier than fat naturally present in milk.
Another serious problem with the diet poor in fat is the inability of many crucial nutrients such as vitamins or microelements to be absorbed by the body. Many of them are dissolved in oils and only in such a way can be digested by a human organism in a proper way. That is why eating fresh salads made of the healthiest fruits or vegetables won’t bring you almost any health benefits as the majority of the nutrients won’t be used by your body at all. For example, some of the most crucial oil soluble vitamins are vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin D and vitamin E.
Health benefits of unsaturated fats
One of the greatest advantages of consuming unsaturated fats that are featured by double or triple bonds between their molecules is their ability to balance the level of unhealthy cholesterol in the blood vessels. In fact, the structure of the unsaturated fatty acids makes your body use them for the cholesterol production, however, these acids create HDL that is known for its ability to move “the bad cholesterol fraction” LDL to liver for further breakage. Thus, consuming such products as olive oil, corn oil, grape seed oil, linen seed oil, sunflower oil, avocados, nuts and fatty fish will help you to maintain a healthy cholesterol fraction ratio.
Certainly, the products mentioned above are full of other essential nutrients apart from large amounts of unsaturated fatty acids. On top of that, some of unsaturated fatty acids also show antibacterial and antioxidant activity.
Are saturated fats really evil?
As you have possibly noticed, the importance of consuming unsaturated fats is emphasised almost by every doctor and dietitian, yet, what would you do with saturated fats?
Saturated fats were regarded as the product which can lead one to his or her death because of its presumable ability to create the LDL cholesterol fraction in the blood. This opinion has been popular for more than half a century. Still, all the preventative measures of reducing the amount of saturated fats in the diet didn’t help people to avoid heart attacks and other cholesterol-related conditions. Moreover, it turned out, that the number of health problems connected to a bad cholesterol fraction ratio has been increasing since the start of anti-saturated fat propaganda.
Actually, it turned out that the real harm to the health is caused by trans-fats which are usually plant oils undergone the process of hydrogenation. This is a chemical technology used for creating fatty acid isomers which are the compounds made of the same amount of the same chemical elements but being located in a different way that can be compared to your hand and its image in the mirror. This slight difference results in new qualities of such fats that can usually withstand high temperatures and therefore be ideal for long hours of heating in the food industry. Unfortunately, the effects of such oils on one’s health can be unpredictable.