The Differences Between Healthy Fats and Unhealthy Fats

By Rob Manning


I have come across many individuals who don't really fully understand fat consumption, how to tell good from bad fats, or even the benefits of eating healthy fats. I created this post to demystify fat, and offer some information regarding the benefits associated with good fats, and on decreasing you intake of bad fats.

Healthy fats aka good fats include essential fatty acids (EFAs) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). Foods rich in healthy fat include fish (salmon, tuna), extra virgin olive oil, avocados, raw nuts, natural nut butters (peanut, almond), flax seeds and chai seeds. Good fats deliver a variety of health incentives such as reducing the potential for heart problems, many forms of cancer, stroke, and many other illnesses; improving brain performance; decreasing quantities of high cholesterol coupled with promoting healthy and balanced levels of low cholesterol; supporting the absorption of crucial nutrients as well as speeding up fat loss.

Meals with large quantities of saturated fat or TFAs (trans-fatty acids - better known as trans-fat) are viewed as unhealthy fats. Usually they are food items with high amounts of partially hydrogenated oil (trans-fat) or animal fat. Foods that are thought of as bad fat should be consumed in extreme moderation. This includes fatty cuts of meat, full fat dairy products, meals made in animal fat (e.g. Lard) and many desserts. Desserts tend to be bad as they blend copious amounts of unhealthy fat with plenty of refined carbs. Eating foods rich in high levels of unhealthy fats can and frequently will lead to health concerns. This includes rising quantities of bad cholesterol, increased potential for heart related illnesses, cancers, and strokes; becoming obese and poor energy levels which may have an impact on work productivity.

There are various methods to limit the level of unhealthy fat in your diet. I'm going to present a number of strategies that have worked for me:

Eat at home - cooking your meals at home is just about the simplest (and most affordable) solution to maintain a healthy diet.

Switch out full fat dairy products for low fat or light varieties.

Eat leaner cuts of meat or trim off as much fat as possible.

Get imaginative when cooking - Use non-fat cooking spray as opposed to oil or butter.

Give desserts a pass - limit your intake to once per week.

I have been trying to live and eat healthy for a few years now and I have learned a lot of things during this process. Amongst those things is definitely the significance of healthy fat when trying to shed those extra pounds. It may appear counter-intuitive but it takes fat to burn off fat. When the body doesn't get a regular flow of "new" fat from our food plan, it begins to store the fat that we are spending so much time trying to lose. Our system will continue to hoard these fat stores till we incorporate good fat into our diet regimen. This continuous flow of fat informs our body that it's obtaining acceptable quantities of fat from our diet and does not have to cling to our existing fat repositories.

Getting your daily requirements of healthy fats can help you keep a well-balanced diet and everyone must work towards making healthy fats part of their daily meal plans. This should be simple considering the fact that healthy fats are both healthy and delicious. One single portion daily allows us to reap the benefits of eating healthy fat and keeps our bodies functioning properly.




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