Good Fats and Bad Fats in Your Diet

Fat is the latest hero of the foodies. For years, it was taboo to eat more than a blip of fat in your diet. Fortunately, science has prevailed and you are once again able to eat fat guilt-free.

• Essential fat comprises three to five percent of a man’s bodyweight; eleven to thirteen percent of a woman’s.

Fats are involved with just about every process in your body. They are necessary for cell membrane integrity, hormone production, energy metabolism and proper heart function. A diet too low in fat will kill you just as quick as a diet too high in fat. Like everything else you eat, there is a proper balance that will enable your body to be at its peak level of health and performance.
Three types of fats have to be eaten in the right balance: omega-6, saturated and omega-3. Omega-6 fats are unsaturated and monounsaturated fats that come from vegetable sources like safflower, canola and olive oils. Omega-3 fats, which are also unsaturated, come from fish (especially cold water fish such as salmon), beans, soy and walnuts.                                These two forms of fat are anti-inflammatory, lower blood pressure, and increase circulation.

• Want a snack? Eat a nut. One ounce of walnuts has one-quarter of the daily requirement of Vitamin E and omega-3 fats that are normally found in fish. One ounce is about 14 walnut halves, 24-30 almonds or 35 peanuts.

Saturated fats come from foods of animal origin (other than fish) and are also found in dairy products. This form of fat causes inflammation, decreases circulation and raises blood pressure. Another form of fat out there in the modern world has no positive funtuion whatsoever in your body. These are partially hydrogenated or trans fats. Avoid this form of fat at all costs. Trans fats lower HDL and raise both LDL and triglyceride levels in your blood, which leads to heart disease. If even a small percentage of your fats come from trans fats (as little as 5 percent of your total fat intake) it can be enough to muck up the system.
LDL carries fats made in your liver to body tissues. While it takes aerobic activity to raise the amount of HDL in your blood, it only takes moderate amounts of physical activity to lower your total cholesterol and LDL.
Trans fats are found in almost every type of processed food on the market. Their use is valuable to the food industry because they are very stable, don’t break down on the grocery store shelf and work exceptionally well as a food preservative. The problem with them is that they don’t break down in your body, either. They stick                                around for a long time in your system. Athletically speaking, one of their side effects is to increase your perception of pain!
These are tricky fats to spot. Reading the labels on products is the only way to be sure you avoid eating partially hydrogenated fats. Don’t be misled by the claims on the front of a product. ‘No cholesterol’ does NOT equate to ‘no partially hydrogenated fats.’ ‘No saturated fat’ does NOT equate to ‘no partially hydrogenated fats.’ ‘Low in fat’ does NOT equate to ‘no partially hydrogenated fats.’ Read the labels and don’t make assumptions.

Taking healthy polyunsaturated fat like canola oil and converting it to partially hydrogenated fat makes it solid at room temperature. It’s magic… margarine! However, small amounts of trans fats are more harmful than larger amounts of saturated fat.  A small increase in saturated fats gave a 17 percent increase in coronary artery disease. A similar increase in trans fats lead to 93 percent increase.
Types of Fat
Omega-3, 6, Unsaturated and Monounsaturated:

• Increase circulation
• Decreases inflammation
• Lowers LDL

Saturated fats:

• Lowers HDL
• Raises LDL
• Decreases circulation
• Increases blood pressure
• Increases inflammation

Excess Saturated fats:

• Causes insulin resistance

Trans fats (Partially Hydrogenated Oils):

• Raises LDL
• Lowers HDL
• Raises triglycerides
• Increases perception of pain.

Exercising Effect
Aerobic Exercise:

• Raises HDL
• Lowers insulin levels

Excess Anaerobic Exercise:

• Lowers HDL

Why Eat Fats

Eating healthy fats is far healthier than eating no fats. A study by the JAMA showed that men on low-fat diets actually fared worse than those on moderate-fat diets, with the low-fat group’s HDL (good cholesterol) dropping and the harmful triglyceride levels rising.
Why? Most replaced the fat with carbohydrates. This lowers total cholesterol, but also lowers HDL levels, increasing heart-disease risk more than diets that replace saturated or trans fats with unsaturated fats. Exchanging fats for carbos can also lead to diabetes by increasing blood insulin levels.
The final tidbit on fats is to avoid fried foods. Frying requires fats to be heated, which tends to make them rancid. Rancid fats have a lot of free radicals, which are like little atomic bombs floating inside of your body, causing cellular damage.  Any spot on the cell membrane damaged by free radicals is a magnet for fatty deposits to build up on, which is one of the reasons people who eat a lot of fried foods get heart disease.