The
Skinny on Dietary Fat
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Guest Article by Christopher William McCombs
For
the most part, fats get a bad rap. It's really unfortunate
that fat got stuck with the exact same name as the condition
that fitness minded people are trying to avoid, because
the fact of the matter is that you need fats in your
diet, just like you need carbohydrates and protein.
But there is a wide spectrum of fats to be found in
the ingredients of the items at your supermarket, and
they are not all created equally.
Here
are the basic kinds of fats you might see on an ingredients
list, and what they all mean to your nutritional needs.
Trans
Fats
If you have ever read a news story on the obesity epidemic
in the US or fast food restaurants, you have probably
heard trans fats mentioned once or twice. Trans fat
is a kind of unsaturated fat that is created by hydrogenating
(adding hydrogen atoms) to soybean or some other vegetable
oil. This is done typically to increase the shelf life
of the fat and the food that is made with it. Unlike
virtually every other kind of fat that is available
for people to eat, trans fat can hardly be called "natural."
In fact, the process designed to make them wasn't invented
until the very early twentieth century, and they didn't
appear on the food market until 1911. Trans fats are
really bad stuff, and have shown to throw your cholesterol
out of whack and possibly cause other complications.
It is so bad, there has been a movement to ban the substance
entirely from store shelves.
Saturated
Fat
Saturated
fat isn't made in a lab like trans fat is, but it still
isn't very good for you. This kind of fat is typically
found in animal products and certain kinds of nuts,
most notably coconuts. It really isn't practical to
completely eliminate saturated fat from your diet, but
you would be doing your health good to cut down as much
as you can.
Monounsaturated
Fat
Monounsaturated
fat is one of the "good fats." It has been
shown to raise you levels of "good" cholesterol,
while lowering your levels of "bad" cholesterol.
Regular intake has also shown to decrease your odds
of contracting cardiovascular disease. They typically
come from oils such as olive oils, sesame oil, and corn
oil. You can also get them from avocados and nuts.
Polyunsaturated
Fat
Polyunsaturated
fats are very good for you, and it seems like every
year scientists are discovering new benefits to regular
consumption. So far, there have been studies that show
that polyunsaturated fat can boost your metabolism,
help improve brain function, reduce exercise recovery
time, improve heart health and increase blood flow.
You can get this fat by eating fish and certain kinds
of seeds, most popularly flax seeds.
So how much dietary fat should you consume each day?
For most, it should be around twenty percent of your
daily caloric intake. You can calculate how much you
personally need by remembering that each gram of fat
contains eight calories.
Christopher
William McCombs is a personal
trainer in Huntington Beach, California. Chris teaches
a unique approach to losing fat to Orange County locals.
Chris is also a fitness
marketing expert and helps fitness trainers all
over the country to triple their income while cutting
their work hours in half.
