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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Throughout much of human history, fats were good. Having fat on your body or eating foods with fat could mean the difference between survival and death. Body fat is equal to reserve energy tucked away for future use. Food fat is a very dense calorie source. Until recently in history, for most cultures, food was scarce and physical labor was necessary to survival. Fat helped humans survive.
But in the 1950s our thinking about fat changed. Ancel Keyes, a noted researcher, published the Seven Countries study which linked a high dietary fat intake and heart disease. The Framingham Heart Study went further adding the idea that higher intakes of dietary fat lead to higher levels of circulating fats (cholesterol) in the blood.
Fats went on the “don’t eat” list and we saw a cultural eating shift to lowfat, nonfat foods, along with a replacement of fat calories with carbohydrate foods. Even though we swapped fat calories for carb calories, during this phase, Americans got fatter and fatter. This shows that too many calories, regardless of where they come from, are the root cause of gaining weight.
Fast forward to today and let’s take a look at what we know about fats. First, let’s put the myth to bed that fats, as a class of food, are bad. The notion that any fat is all good or all bad is just silly. Fats are very dense in calories, having more than twice as many calories as protein or carbohydrate by weight (1 gram of fat = 9 calories; 1 gram of protein or carb = 4 calories).
But, calories from fat are not the central issue. We simply eat too many calories and we like to blame fat calories as the problem. It is the overall calorie intake of the population that is making us fatter, not the specific fat calories we eat. As a matter of fact, fat calories might add to a feeling of fullness and help us eat less.
Fat is a class of nutrients that is quite complex. There are three major types of fat – monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and saturated fat. Every food with fat contains a mixture of all three fats, but we classify the food by the predominate type of fat it contains. Olive oil, peanuts, avocados, and chicken fat are high in monounsaturated fat. Soybean oil, soft margarine, corn oil, nuts, seeds, fish, flaxseeds and wheat germ are high in polyunsaturated fat. Meat, cheese, whole milk, butter, coconut, and poultry are high in saturated fat.
But the fat story does not end there. People who eat more monounsaturated fat have a lower risk for heart disease and other chronic diseases and appear to be healthier overall. A recent study reported that those people who ate the most olive oil reduced their risk of stroke by 40%. But many people who eat more of this type of fat also make healthier eating choices, so it may be a combination of the fat plus good eating habits.
The polyunsaturated story is a bit more complicated. Polyunsaturated fats can be divided into two subsets – omega-3 fats and omega-6 fats. Most vegetable oils are omega-6 polyunsaturated fats – safflower, sesame, soybean, corn, grapeseed and wheat germ oil. Fish, canola oil, flaxseeds, and walnuts are high in omega-3 fats. Many experts feel that we eat far too many omega-6 fats and far too few omega-3 fats. Why is that important?
Omega-6 fats tend to have an inflammatory effect on the body which may be the underlying cause for many chronic diseases such as heart disease. Omega-3 fats have an anti-inflammatory effect, which protects us from chronic disease. Observational studies have shown that when you increase the amount of omega-3 fats you eat your risk for diabetes goes down, the level of LDL cholesterol in the blood goes down, the level of triglycerides (blood fats) goes down, and overall inflammation in the body decreases. Eating more fish, grabbing a handful of walnuts daily, and using canola oil would tip the scale toward a more balanced intake of omega-3 to omega-6 fats.
Saturated fat, a dietary devil for decades, is now considered by many fat experts as less harmful than we once believed. Again, saturated fats are made up a complex class of fats. Palmitic saturated fat, found in palm oil and animal fat, is still considered by most to be a risk factor for heart disease. But myristic saturated fat (found in butterfat and animal fat) and stearic saturated fat (found in cocoa butter and animal fat) do not appear to be harmful. Lauric acid, found in coconut oil and palm kernel oil, once thought to be harmful, now appears to be far less of a problem.
What does this all mean to you? It is the overall calories that we eat and the lack of physical activity that is driving poor health and obesity in the US. The type and amount of fat we eat may contribute to your overall health profile, but fats don’t need to be avoided.
Bottom line: You can eat moderate amounts of any fat, but some fats like monounsaturated and omega-3 fats may provide health benefits. Select them more often.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales of more than 8.5 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Diabetes Counter, 4th Ed., 2011
The Protein Counter, 3rd Ed., 2011
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to TheNutritionExperts
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