Concerning fats

Concerning Fats in Diet

Good day friends! Welcome to today’s episode of Food, Nutrients and Health with the topic of discussion “Concerning Fats”.

Firstly, what's FAT? Know that we are not talking about the adjective ‘fat’ i.e. a state of being big. No, but actually in the real sense we are talking about Fats as a class of food. What then is fat? Fat can be defined as a refined chemical compound found either in small or large amount in food substance. Diet on the other hand can be defined as a portion of food or beverages a person or animal consumes.

Fat is defined as one of the three main macro-nutrients fat, carbohydrate and protein and is made up of fatty acids. Fat is an essential part of our diet and is important for good health. Fats are a wide group of compounds whose basis is in long chain organic acid used to refer to Fats that are solids at normal room temperature.
The main functions of Fat in diet or in the body are to provide energy, absorb certain nutrients and maintain core body temperature, insulation and temperature regulation.

Fats can also have different effects on the cholesterol levels in our body. There are none calories in every gram of fat regardless of what type of fat it is, which is more than double the number of calories provided by each gram of protein and carbohydrate that we eat. Fats get a bad rap even though it is a nutrient that we need in our diet but not just too much. It is also an essential source of fatty acid.

We need to consume fats every day to support the function of other energy providing classes of food, but some types of fats are better than others. Good fats protects the heart and keep the body healthy, while bad fat increases the risk of disease and damage the heart.

SOURCES OF FATS
There are high fat foods that are actually incredibly healthy and nutritious. They include ;
1. Avocados
2. Cheese
3. Full-fat Yogurt
4. Whole Eggs
5. Nuts
6. Chia seeds
7. Coconuts and Coconut oil etc.
8. Fatty fish
9. Extra Virgin Olive oil
10. Dark Chocolate

TYPES OF FATS
There are majorly four types of Fats. The four types have different chemical structure and physical properties. They include;

MONOUNSATURATED FATS
This is a type of fat that protects the heart and support insulin sensitivity, fat storage, weight loss and healthy energy levels. Healthy choices of Monounsaturated Fats include; Avocados, Macadamia nuts.

POLYUNSATURATED FATS
They are important to support healthy brain and muscle function but, on the downside they promote inflammation in the body. Example of Polyunsaturated fat includes Omega-6 which helps support healthy hormone levels and cell membranes. We need a small amount of Omega 6 fatty acids in our diet.

TRANS FATS
Trans Fats are unsaturated fats that have been processed and as a result, behave like saturated fats. Trans fat helps increase the level of bad cholesterol and decreases the rate of good cholesterol in the body which is the major risk of heart disease.

SATURATED FATS
They are solid fats at room temperature and are majorly found in Animal-based products such as Diary foods i.e. meats, palm oil, coconut with coconut products and manufactured and packaged foods i.e. fatty snacks foods, pastries, cakes etc.
High consumption of saturated fat leads to high increase in heart disease and high blood cholesterol level.


DEFICIENCY OF FATS
High consumption of fats in diet can lead to chronic diseases such as;
1. Cancer
2. Heart diseases
3. Diabetes
4. Obesity
5. Dermatitis

Conclusively, while thinking about drawing a diet plan, do well to include fats in it even though the low percentage of it can be healthy and low percentage of it can be detrimental too. Reason being that there are good fats and there are bad fats. Don’t over eat the bad fats and reducing the good fats.

Thank you for reading my piece!

For references, visit our blog.

Article by: Adekanmbi Joy Aanuoluwapo
Food, Nutrients and Health
……………………………………………….
Read up more of such articles on our blog
http://thefoodlegends.blogspot.com