Why should you know your fats?

A walk down the grocery aisle will confirm our obsession with low-fat foods. We’re bombarded with supposedly guilt-free options: baked potato chips, fat-free ice cream, low-fat candies, cookies, and cakes. But while our low-fat options have exploded, so have obesity rates. Clearly, low-fat foods and diets haven’t delivered on their trim, healthy promises.

Despite what you may have been told, fat isn’t always the bad guy in the waistline wars. Bad fats, such as trans fats and saturated fats, are guilty of the unhealthy things all fats have been blamed for—weight gain, clogged arteries, and so forth. But good fats such as the monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and omega-3s have the opposite effect. In fact, healthy fats play a huge role in helping you manage your moods, stay on top of your mental game, fight fatigue, and even control your weight.

The answer isn’t cutting out the fat—it’s learning to make healthy choices and to replace bad fats with good ones that promote health and well-being.

Myth: All fats are bad for you.

Truth: Trans fats and saturated fats are bad for you because they raise your cholesterol and increase your risk for heart disease. But monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are good for you, lowering cholesterol and reducing your risk of heart disease.

How do “bad fats” affect the quality of your health?

A lipoprotein is a precursor protein complex that transfers lipids within the body is called a apolipoprotein. The bad cholesterol, which is Low-Density Lipoproteins (LDL), will carry cholesterol from the liver which is absorbed from the food ingested to the blood stream. With increasing amount of LDL cholesterol, deposits or plaque can form on the walls of arteries and veins and limits the flow of blood in the body. A stroke or heart attack may happen if the plaque should block the entire blood flow, causing the affected part of the organ with no blood flow to die.

However for High-Density Lipoproteins (HDL), which is the good cholesterol, will bring fats from the blood vessels back into the liver to be further broken down for excretion. Therefore the prevention of stroke or any health related risks would depend on whether is it present in one’s diet.

Trans Fats raises the level of LDL. This results in increasing the risk of coronary heart disease. It also reduces HDL and raises the levels of triglycerides in the blood. Both of these conditions are associated with insulin resistance, which is linked to diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Trans fats also have a detrimental effect on the brain and nervous system. In the neural tissue, The myelin sheath which covers the neurons are mostly made of fats (e.g Oleic acid and DHA). The problem with ingesting trans fats is that these trans fats replace the natural DHA in the membrane and alter the ability of neurons to communicate and may cause neural degeneration and diminished performance. Neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease appear to exhibit membrane loss of fatty acids.

Examples of Good Fats & Bad Fats:

References:

• http://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/choosing-healthy-fats.htm
• http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm
• http://www.bhlinc.com/
• http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/healthieryou/html/chapter8.html
• http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats-full-story/
• http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Kr-Ma/Low-Density-Lipoprotein-LDL.html