We need fat in our diet to help regulate our hormones and help us to better absorb nutrients from food. Fats can be broken down into four types, and, as you’ll see, some are better for you than others are.The Bad Fats
Saturated fats are generally fats that are solid at room temperature. Think about a stick of butter or the lines of white fat in a well marbled piece of meat. Most saturated fat comes from animal or dairy products. A diet high in saturated fats has been shown to lead to high cholesterol levels and an increased risk of heart disease. When I describe my diet plan at the end of this chapter, you’ll see that I try to steer you away from foods that are high in saturated fats. Trans fats were first created by scientists in the early 1900s; and at the time they seemed like a really good thing. Food manufacturers used a process that turned liquid fats, such as oils, into solid fats like margarine by adding hydrogen. That’s why you sometimes see trans fats referred to as “partially hydrogenated oils.” Trans fats were designed to keep things fresher longer. Being realistic, if you baked a batch of crackers today, would you expect them to be edible a year from now? No, of course not. Baking with trans fats, as opposed to using a more perishable form of fat, such as oil, however, allows that box of crackers you bought at the store last week to virtually last forever. The drawback? Studies have shown that these trans fats might be even worse for us than saturated fats are when it comes to keeping our cholesterol levels in check. The rise in the rate of heart disease is truly scary since the introduction of trans fats into the modern food supply.
The Good News about Fat
Unsaturated fats can help you lower your cholesterol level and can decrease your chances of developing heart disease. Depending on their molecular structure, unsaturated fats fall into two categories: monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. These fats are unsaturated with hydrogen molecules that are eliminated in the forming of the fats’ particular structure. The trans fats I previously talked about are unsaturated fats that are hydrogenated and, essentially, transformed into something resembling saturated fats. Hence the word trans. Both monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats have a liquid form at room temperature. Monounsaturated fats include and can be found in such things as nuts, olives, and avocados. Cooking with monounsaturated oils like olive oil, macadamia nut oil, and canola oil instead of butter is a great way to replace the heart-threatening fats in your diet with more heart-healthy
fats. You may have heard about the benefits of fish oil and how cultures that eat lots of fish have a far lower rate of heart disease. The reason for this is that fish oil is a particular type of polyunsaturated fat that contains omega-3 fatty acids. Studies have shown that diets that include fish oil not only lead to a decreased chance of developing heart disease, they can also promote a healthier brain, thanks to the omega-3 fatty acids’ ability to help repair and grow brain cells. Do you want to have the smarts to go with your sexier new look? Eat more fish! You should do your best to become a fish lover, but if you’re not, don’t worry. You can also get your omega-3s from flax. You can either buy whole flax seeds, crush them, and sprinkle them over yogurt or cereal or buy already-ground flaxseeds. Flaxseeds must be ground or your body can’t access the fatty acids. The other alternative is to supplement your diet with flaxseed oil or fish oil. I’ll talk more about supplements and vitamins at the end of the chapter. Just as we need to limit the amount of carbs and protein we eat, we also have to keep an eye on the amount of fat we take in. Due to its composition, fat is the most calorically dense of the three macronutrients. A gram of protein has 4 calories. A gram of carbohydrates also has 4 calories. A gram of fat, though, has 9 calories. This means that gram-for-gram, fat has more than twice the number of calories of either protein or carbohydrates. For every gram of fat you remove from your diet, you can eat twice as much protein or carbs and still lose weight. Removing excess fat from your food is a great way to be able to eat more and still shed the pounds.
