
Why Eating Fat Keeps You Healthy
10 months ago
A lot of people are under the impression that eating fat is not healthy for the body. It's understandable why this has become a common thought. Media and health experts around us have often told us that fats will clog your arteries, leading to health conditions.
While that is true, it does not mean that you should stop eating fats at all. Instead, you should eat fats in moderation since eating fats in excess will just be stored as fat tissue.
But eating fats in moderation doesn't mean eating it only once or twice a week, and surely eating fat all day isn't allowed either. The key here is eating the right type of fat.
When eating fats, you have to choose unsaturated ones which are less harmful than saturated ones. Unsaturated fats can be found in nuts, olive oil, avocado, and others while saturated ones come from animal products such as meat and dairy products.
So if you want to eat more healthily without adding any extra calories to your body, try eating unsaturated fats instead of eating food loaded with saturated fats.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how much fat you should be eating. Plus, we’ll discuss why eating fat keeps you healthy and why you need to make it a part of your daily diet.
Can You Eat Fat To Lose Weight?
If you want to lose weight, eating the right kind of fat is a surefire way to boost your metabolism while keeping you feeling full throughout the day. Studies have shown that eating too many carbohydrates will lead the body to store fat and eating too much protein leads to excess muscle, not fat.
Even eating a small amount of dietary fat is enough to increase your metabolism, making it easier for you to burn more calories throughout the day. This is why eating fats in moderation is effective in helping you lose weight without feeling hungry all the time.
While eating fats can help promote weight loss by boosting metabolism, eating too much of it will just cause health issues such as clogged arteries or heart diseases.
That's because eating excess fats would be easily stored into the adipose tissues located around your vital organs where it deposits itself as fat cells. Thus, if you wish to live a healthy life, eating fats in moderation is the way to go.
What are Good Fats?
You must have heard the term 'good fats' but have you ever wondered what they are and why you need them?
Good fats are unsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats which can be found in vegetable oils, nuts, avocado, olives, etc. These types of fats have been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart diseases to a great extent.
Good Fats vs Bad Fats: Unsaturated, Mono-unsaturated, and Polyunsaturated
Monounsaturated fatty acids are those that have one double bond on the carbon chain containing 18 carbons.
They include oleic acid, palmitoleic acid, linoleic acid, etc. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are characterized by having two or more than two double bonds on their carbon chains. Examples of such fatty acids include alpha-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, etc.
Fatty acids with one double bond on their carbon chains are known as monounsaturated oils. Those that have two or more than two double bonds on their carbon chains are referred to as Polyunsaturated fats and oils.
Both these groups of lipids can be arranged in a similar fashion at the same time with saturated fats and different from one another in the following ways:
- The presence of carbon double bonds in polyunsaturated fats and oils increases their reactivity toward oxidative attack compared with saturated fats.
- Among the polyunsaturated fatty acids, linolenic acid and arachidonic acid are more prone to oxidation than the others.
- The type of unsaturation that occurs in the substrate determines whether or not lipid peroxidation will occur.
The only good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that are found mainly in vegetable oils such as olive oil or sunflower oil, these types of healthy fats help to lower cholesterol levels and stimulate blood vessel function as well as improve skin and hair texture.
They have been known to reduce inflammation within cells so eating foods packed with them would be very beneficial on a day-to-day basis.
However, eating large amounts of them doesn't always mean eating healthy. Too much fat can also tend to make you put on weight which most people really don't want.