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Fat
gain or fat loss… bad fats versus good fats
Fats fall
into two categories – those that are good for you
and those that are bad for you. Of course this is a
generalization because other factors such as food
and drink combinations can affect the end result.
But in general monounsaturated and polyunsaturated
fats are the good guys. The bad guys are saturated
fats, cholesterol and something called Trans fat,
all of which can contribute to obesity.
Have you heard of Trans Fat?
In 2006 it became a requirement that manufacturers
of food had to list trans fats on labels.
When food is processed, trans fats occur during a
process called hydrogenation, when solid fats are
created from liquid oils. The purpose of the process
is to keep food fresher for extended time on the
shelves of the grocery store. Good for the grocery
store, but bad for us. Trans fats form part of these
partially hydrogenated oils, which in turn increase
the risk of heart disease through cholesterol.
Due to consumer pressure, some manufacturers have
changed the way they prepare the foods to lessen the
trans fat content. Read the labels carefully,
particularly with long shelf life products such as
crackers and pies. Also try to stay away from fried
foods in restaurants.
The Curse of Saturated Fats
The bad fats are those that are generally called
solid fats. These include things like butter, solid
cheeses (as a rule of thumb, the yellower the
cheese, the higher the saturated fat content), ice
cream, cream, full cream milk, fatty meat and palm
or coconut oils. In other words, all the nice stuff,
right!?
So, are products marked “low fat” healthier and less
likely to lead to weight gain? Well maybe. There are
a few schools of thought on this, as you’ll read in
other articles on this website. Bear in mind they
will still contain saturated fats, but in smaller
quantities. So it’s not going to help if you consume
double portions of low fat products!
Saturated fats come mainly from animal products,
more specifically cattle products – from both their
milk and meat. So if you’re a vegan, you’re probably
in better shape than most, at least in the saturated
fat department! Okay, don’t panic, you don’t have to
be that extreme.
Certain plant oils too can have a high saturated fat
content, like cocoa butter, as well as palm and
coconut oils. Now before you protest that you never
use these products (after all you never buy them
from your grocery store, right?), in reality you do
consume them, most likely every day. They are used
by many food manufacturers in baked products like
pies, doughnuts and cakes (all the nice stuff once
again, right?).
Cholesterol the killer
We’ve all heard about cholesterol, the
bad stuff that can lead to
heart attacks later in
life. Well cholesterol comes from the same places
where you find saturated fats – full fat milk, egg
yolks, meat and chicken.
Of course the good news is that if you reduce the
intake of foods that are high in saturated fats,
you’ll also be reducing the consumption of dietary
cholesterol as well.
So is the secret to weight loss or fat reduction as
simple as cutting out products with a high content
of saturated fats? Sadly, it’s not that simple, even
though it’s a step in the right direction. What is
vital is that to lose weight effectively, and keep
the weight off, you need to find a good program that
suits you, one that sets achievable goals.
A word of warning here. Beware of programs that
offer rapid fat loss or extreme fat loss
fast. You know the ads… lose pounds in two
days… or magic pill helps you lose weight in
a few hours. Throw these out with the rest of
the garbage.
There are some
excellent weight loss programs out
there. Elsewhere on this website we look at some of
the best diet and weight loss plans we could find.
Are you
overweight and in danger?
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