What Everyone Should Know About Fats
- Jennilyn Tanner
- Jul 1, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 11
What Are Fats: Essential Nutrient 4 of 6
This is post 4 of 6 dedicated to the 6 essential nutrients and in this post, we are talking about fats! Nutrients can be categorized into two groups, macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients include carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Micronutrients are your vitamins and minerals. These 5 nutrients plus water are the 6 essential nutrients your body requires for smooth sailing.
Fats are a structure made of 3 molecules called a triglyceride. You may have also heard them called ‘fatty acids’ or ‘lipids.’ Some fats are created by our bodies, but some are only found in the food we eat. These are essential fats, and they include Omega-3 fats (found in foods such as fish and flax seed) and Omega-6 fats (found in foods such as nuts, seeds, and corn oil).
There are three main types of fat in the foods you eat:
Trans fats from commercially prepared, processed foods.
Trans fats are created from hydrogenation of oils. It solidifies those oils at room temperature. Hydrogenated fats, or "trans fats," are often used to keep some foods fresh for a long time.
Trans Fats can raise LDL cholesterol levels in your blood. They can also lower your HDL (good) cholesterol levels. You should avoid foods made with hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. Trans fats are known to have harmful health effects.
2. Saturated fats from animal foods.
If you are going plant-based you will avoid all of these fats anyway. Which is great because everyone should limit foods that are high in saturated fats. Saturated fats raise your LDL cholesterol. If you have high LDL cholesterol, you can be at risk for heart attacks, strokes, and other health problems.
3. Unsaturated fats from plant foods (includes polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats).
If you are looking to reduce your risk of heart disease, try to reduce your intake of fat in general and focus on consuming unsaturated fats instead of saturated fats. Eating unsaturated fats can help lower your LDL cholesterol. Some unsaturated fats are essential to get from your food. Essential fats are called "essential" because your body cannot work without them or make them itself.
What do fats do?
Nutritional fats do much for us and help with many processes. These cell processes include things like, cell growth, muscle movement, balance blood sugar, brain functioning, and absorbing vitamins and minerals.
I talked about fat soluble vitamins in my essential nutrient post about vitamins. Your body requires vitamins A, D, E, and K, and the only way to absorb them is with fats.
The right kind of fat can lower your LDL cholesterol!
Your body needs them for brain development, controlling inflammation, and blood clotting.
What fats should you be eating?
So, what fats should you be eating? What foods will give you a healthy dose of fat without the dose of heart disease? Here are 12 healthy high fat foods from health.com. I thought it was a pretty good list and I will exclude the animal products. (I will follow any list that tells me to eat chocolate) Plus it had some good info on each: Olive oil, avocados, tree nuts, nut butter, dark chocolate, olives, seeds, and soybeans.
Bottomline is that most people get plenty of fat from their diet and if you're looking for better methods of choosing fat, look at the overall nutritional profile of your food item. Choose foods with unsaturated fats that also include many other essential nutrients, like proteins, minerals, and vitamins.
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