What Kind of Fat Can You Eat?

Research has shown that you not only need to watch
the "amount" of fat that you eat in your diet, but also
the "types" of fat you eat. This article will help you
minimize the negative effects that fat has on your health.

1. Basic Terms:

- "Bad" cholesterol clogs your arteries and causes
heart disease.

- "Good" cholesterol helps collect up the bad
cholesterol and get it out of your system.

- Saturated fat is "bad fat" that increases the bad cholesterol
in your body.

- Polyunsaturated fat is "good fat" that lowers both
good and bad cholesterol.

- Monounsaturated fat is "really good fat" that helps
lower the bad cholesterol, but leaves the good cholesterol
alone.

- Fatty acids are the building blocks of fat.

- Trans fatty acids are made in the production of partially
hydrogenated vegetable oils used to make margarine
and many snack foods and processed foods.

- Whole foods are unprocessed food that occur in nature...
nuts, meat, milk, poultry, eggs, fish, seeds, grains, rice, fruits,
vegetables.

2. Why Fat is Bad:
Fat is calorie-dense, it contains more than twice the number
of calories as carbohydrates. A high fat diet has been linked
to several chronic diseases such as cancer and increased
risk of coronary heart disease. Saturated fats can increase
bad cholesterol.

3. Why Fat is Good:
It gives taste and texture to foods. Unsaturated fats
can decrease the bad cholesterol in your body.

4. How Fat in Your Diet Affects You:
Fat in your food can affect you differently depending on
your particular health issues.

If you are at risk for heart disease,
saturated fat is something you want to avoid. According to
the American Heart Association, a heart healthy
diet can contain up to 30% of calories from fat, as long as
most of the fat is unsaturated. More on the heart-healthy
diet: http://www.nutricounter.com/articles/garrett3.htm

If you are diabetic, you want to lower the trans fatty acids and
raise the polyunsaturated fatty acids. Consider reducing the
amount of processed foods and increasing the amount of whole
foods you consume. More on the diabetic diet:
http://www.nutricounter.com/articles/garrett4.htm

If you are on a diet to lose weight, it's a good idea to lower
total fat in your diet. Losing weight comes down to
the calories in versus calories out and fat has more than
twice the amount of calories as other foods.

5. Types of Fat You Should Choose:

- Polyunsaturated fats are found in flax, corn, safflower, soybean,
sesame, and sunflower oils. (These nonhydrogenated fats are
liquid at room temperature.)

- Polyunsaturated fats found in fish.

- Monounsaturated fats found in olive oil and canola oil.

Read this article for more information on fat in animal meats:
http://www.nutricounter.com/articles/howard1.htm

6. Types of Fat You Should Try to Avoid:

- Any type of hydrogenated fat. This is man-made fat and
you will find it in snack foods, margarine, bakery products and
other processed foods.

- Man made fat substitutes like Olestra (you might find fat
substitutes in fat free snack foods). Even if scientific research
could solidly prove that fat substitutes weren't hazardous
to your health, these products just perpetrate bad eating habits.

- Animal fats including whole milk, butter, poultry skin, and fatty
cuts of meat.

Fat doesn't have to be a bad thing if you choose your
fat wisely! If you can choose whole foods over process foods,
you will be eating a much healthier diet. Also, for any type of
special diet, use your NutriCounter
(http://www.nutricounter.com) to help you
keep track of your total fat and saturated fat intake.