The Ins and Outs of Dietary Fat
Dietary Fat – What You Need to Know
Dietary fat can be both good and bad. High fat diets have been directly related to an increase in some types of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Statistics Canada released their most recent stats and the outlook for children is not good. We are seeing an ever increasing popularity of fast food and convenience diets in the form of ready made meals. The number of children being overweight (17%) or obese (9%) is increasing at a faster rate than those exhibited by adults. Eating so many fatty foods is probably partially to blame for this increase in obesity.
Important Terms to Remember
Understanding food labels is extremely useful, because it allows you to know what each of the dietary fats stand for. These are the most common terms used:
Hydrogenated: adding hydrogen to a fat molecule makes it more saturated and more stable to increase its shelf-life.
Fat-free: less than 0.5 g per serving
Low-fat: 3 g or less per serving
Reduced fat: 25% or less than the original product
Saturated fat-free: less than 0.5 g of saturated or trans fat
Low saturated fat: 1 g or less per serving
Cholesterol free: less than 2 mg of cholesterol and 2 g of saturated fat per serving
Low cholesterol: less than 20 mg of cholesterol per serving
Saturated, unsaturated and trans fats, Omega 3 fatty acids: I describe these in my post “Muscle Gain with Little Used Foods”.
The Role of Dietary Fat
One sees a lot of advertising advertising reducing fat in your diet in order to be healthy. This is not completely true. Unbeknownst to many, dietary fat does play a number of important roles in food production and in the body:
foods taste better, giving it more flavor and taste- a more complex texture to foods like ice cream and chocolate
- keeps food moist when cooking like beef
- dietary fat helps you feel full by slowing the digestive process so you eat less
- aids in the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K which are fat soluble
- contains 9 calories per gram as compared to 4 calories per gram for protein and carbohydrates.
Different Varieties of Dietary Fat
- Saturated fat – a molecule made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen with as much hydrogen as it can contain
- Unsaturated fats – is a saturated fat with some of the hydrogen removed. Unsaturated fats can be changed to a saturated fat by reacting the molecule with more hydrogen, a process called hydrogenation. Oil are converted to a more stable solid in this process.
- Trans-fatty acid – these are a bi-product of hydrogenation. These are not good fats. They are known to increase the level of cholesterol in the body.
- Cholesterol – used for nerve cell function and production of vitamin D and sex hormones.
Food Intake for Dietary Fat
As a general rule, only 30% of your calorie intake per day should be from total fat and less than 10% from saturated fat. Cholesterol intake should be limited to 300 mg per day.
Eat a balanced diet that includes the good fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats as well as omega 3 fatty acids.
Food choices that have good fats include:
- Vegetable oil, olive oil, avocados and sunflower seeds
- Peanut oil, sunflower oil, chicken and nuts
- Cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel and herring
Eat well, exercise daily and obesity will not be in your future. the trend does need to be reversed so make the effort now to change your eating habits so you don’t end up fighting heart disease and diabetes before the age of 20. Life never intended children to die before their parents.
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Jacques Delorme
Skype: Jacques.delorme6
Email: shakes4me@gmail.com
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