 |
||||
|
|
Have you seen those fat free foods in supermarkets? Have you possibly delighted in them guiltlessly thinking that they are healthy for you? Theres a good chance that you have because we usually follow what the media and the world around us says. In this day in age, along with other health fads, many people believe that fat makes you fat. This is true, to an extent. What we fail to notice is that not all fats are bad. If I had to guess, since the words fat (as in whats in food) and fat (as in excess body tissue, or adipose tissue) are the same word it makes sense that when you eat fat, you get fat. However, this is not the case. Now dont get me wrong, there is a difference between good fats and bad fats. If you eat the bad fats they can make you fat, and also contribute to several diseases. Your body uses the good fats in several ways to repair itself, grow, and work more efficiently. Some of the benefits of eating these healthy fats include:
- Healthy fats have an anti-inflammatory effect they can help relieve many of the pains that we experience around our joints - Healthy fats are essential for lubrication of our joints - Healthy fats improve insulin sensitivity. Insulin is the hormone our bodies use to transport nutrients throughout the body. Insulin sensitivity is essentially a measure of how efficient our bodies use insulin. Insulin resistance is the opposite of insulin sensitivity and is one of the early stages of diabetes. - Healthy fats can increase the strength of our immune system - Healthy fats play a major role in the production of energy from foods we consume - Healthy fats are required for our body to efficiently use oxygen - Healthy fats can improve skin texture - Healthy fats can increase your metabolism - Healthy fats can help you burn more fat (the kind that is attached to your body) Dr. Udo Erasmus, author of one of the most popular books ever about fat, Fats the Heal, Fats that Kill, writes in his book, At levels above 12 to 15% of total calories, healthy fats increase the rate of metabolic reactions in the body and the increased rate burns off more fat into carbon dioxide, water, and energy (heat), resulting in fat burn off and loss of excess weight. In this article we will discuss what exactly these healthy fats are, where to get them from, easy ways to add them into your diet, and the optimal amount of fat that you should consume. I will also explain why the belief that fats make you fat has developed because fats can make you fat if you eat too many of them. The Bad Fats - Trans Fats Trans fats are made by bubbling hydrogen through unsaturated fats in order to make them solid and have a longer shelf life. In addition, it was once thought that trans fats were a healthier alternative to saturated fats. However, this is far from the truth. In a statement made by the Bush Administration they warn us to keep consumption of trans fats "as low as possible" and also state that the food industry has an important role in decreasing trans fatty acid content of the food supply. Some of the top Harvard nutritionists state that replacing trans fats with a safer alternative would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year. In fact, Denmark has already taken an initiative and banned the sale of trans fats to not allow more than 2% of the food to contain trans fats. Now that you know that trans fats are bad, how do you avoid them? In America, the FDA has required food manufacturers to list the number of trans fats a food contains. This has helped consumers make wiser choices, but according to FDA regulation, if the serving contains less than 0.5 gram, the content, when declared, shall be expressed as zero. This rule allows food manufacturers to list very small serving sizes and as long as theamount of trans fats is less than 0.5 grams in that particular serving, they are allowed to list it as 0 grams of trans fats. The ultimate way to tell if a food contains trans fats or not is if the ingredients list contains the phrase partially hydrogenated or shortening. Trans fats are mostly contained in foods such as candies, cookies, snack foods, chips, shortenings, and many restaurants. - Saturated Fats Saturated fats are widely recognized as being bad fats. You probably know or believe this to be true, and it is to an extent. There is actually quite a controversy between many dieticians and nutritionists about saturated fats concerning the optimal amount that we should consume or if we should even consume them at all. The reason for most of the bad rap that saturated fat has been given is due to the fact that the liver uses it to produce cholesterol. It has been noted to raise the good (HDL) cholesterol as well as the bad (LDL) cholesterol. The FDAs general guideline for saturated fat is to limit it to about 10% of total calories per day. This would convert to about 20 grams per day for diet containing about 2,000 calories per day. Saturated fat is mostly found in foods that are derived from animals. The exception would be coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils, which also contain saturated fat. The Healthy Fats - Monounsaturated Fats Monounsaturated fat is believed to help lower the bad cholesterol(LDL) and raise the good (HDL) cholesterol. As listed in the beginning of this article, they also provide many healthy benefits. Monounsaturated fats are mostly found in vegetable oils. Some examples would include olive oil and canola oil. - Polyunsaturated Fats Polyunsaturated fats contain the family of fats known as Essential Fatty Acids, or EFAs. As you can tell by their name, these fats are essential to the body because the body cannot produce them on its own. The main EFAs are the Omega-3 fatty acid and the Omega-6 fatty acid. They provide many of the benefits listed at the beginning of this article as well. Good sources of these fatty acids are fish, mustard seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnut oil, leafy green vegetables, sunflower, soybean, avocados, and perhaps one of the best sources is flax seed (make sure to grind them or buy them in an oil form the stomach has trouble digesting the whole seeds). - Why Fat Supposedly Makes You Fat (Note: You can calculate your TDEE at:http://weight-loss-resources.com/calculators/dailycalories.html) There is a simple law known as the Law of Thermodynamics. In addition to this, our bodies burn a certain number of calories per day (this number changes everyday and is influenced by many factors). This burning of calories everyday is known as total daily energy expenditure or TDEE. If the amount of calories we eat in a certain day is below our TDEE, we lose weight (this weight is not necessarily fat all the time). If the amount of calories we eat is equal to our TDEE, our weight stays the same. If the amount of calories we eat is greater than our TDEE, we gain weight (as stated before, this weight is not necessarily fat all the time - it could be muscle). Many people skip this important fundamental and look at the type of food they are eating or several other factors before they investigate how many calories they are eating per day and how to adjust their amount of calories consumed to achieve their goals. Fat holds 9 calories per gram, while carbohydrates and protein hold only 4 calories per gram. This means that eating fat (any type of fat, even the good kind) will result in a greater number of calories consumed. Therefore, its more likely that youre going to go over your TDEE and gain weight, especially if much of your diet comes from fattening foods. In addition to this, fat is very similar chemically to the fat that your body stores. This makes it easy for your body to store consumed fat as fat (adipose tissue), but you must take into consideration that storing fat (consumed) as fat (adipose tissue) is not the only thing your body does with fat (consumed). - The Optimal Levels of Fat Youre going to want to eat part of your calories from fat to get their many benefits, but not go too high. Like anything else in the world of nutrition and fitness, there are many opinions on what the optimal levels of fat in the diet are. For instance, advocates of low-fat diets opt for absolutely no fat and believe that fat is what makes us fat. However, there is a flaw in this belief as they are also cutting out the good, numerously beneficial fats. Then there are high fat diets, such as diets suggesting low carbs (they usually say you can eat all the fat and protein you want). Although, it is generally accepted to consume between 15% - 25% of your calories from fat while severely limiting the amount of trans fats and watching the amount of saturated fat that you consume. - Some Easy Ways to Add Fat Into Your Diet Now you may be wondering how youre going to add some of these healthy fats into your diet. There are actually some really easy ways to do so. If you eat salads, you can add about a tablespoon of olive or canola oil. In my experience, you usually cannot even taste these added oils. If you buy some flax seed and grind it, you can add it to almost any food. Once again, these flax seeds are mostly tasteless. Really, adding these healthy nutrients into your diet isnt that big of a burden.
=================================================================== SITE DISCLAIMER: The self help books and personal development resources on this site are not intended to be a substitute for therapy or professional advice. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this self help book and personal development publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the self help books and personal development subject matter herein. There is no guarantee of validity of accuracy of any self help books and articles content. Any perceived slight of specific people or organizations is unintentional. This self help books and personal development articles website and its creators are not responsible for the content of any sites linked to. The self help book and new health articles website contents are solely the opinion of the author and should not be considered as a form of therapy, advice, direction and/or diagnosis or treatment of any kind: medical, spiritual, mental or other. If expert advice or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought. The author and the Publisher assume no responsibility or liability and specifically disclaim any warranty, express or implied for any self help or otherwise products or self help or otherwise services mentioned, or any self help or otherwise techniques or practices described. The purchaser or reader of this self help book and personal development articles website publication assumes responsibility for the use of these self help personal development materials and self help books and personal development articles and information. Neither the self help author nor the self help book Publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these self help books and personal development materials. Self help site contains: Self help books and new health articles for your Lifetime Health & Fitness and wellbeing self help book and personal development health article about keyword, free self help books for your improved health, nutrition & lifetime fitness Self help books and new health articles for happiness & personal development resources, free self help books and new health articles listed for your convenient self help books for lifetime fitness health and wellbeing search in the self help books and new health articles subjects of self image, self help health tips, self help book resources for lifetime health & fitness and self help emotion management, panic attack self help, self help for low self esteem, self help famous quotes, anxiety self help resources, stress management self help books, new health articles and depression self help books, new health articles and resources. size=1> Back to Happiness self help books and health articles Home Page
|
It's time to join our happy subscribers, like these: "I wish to express my appreciation and gratitude for this powerful tips you send to me.Thank you so much and may God richly bless all the team working towards this. Thank you for this. It has been most instructive. Please keep them coming! With no other words, I simply love these Power Tips - thanks for every email I have received from you - I find there always something that cheers my day up or gives me some more inspiration. Good work, there! I always read your Power Tips and it has helped me a lot in my life... I would like to thank you a lot for such a nice article at regular intervals. I am really grateful to you for what you have been doing for me and my growth. I know that I am not alone and hundreds of thousands of people would be feeling the same. Your Newsletter are always a help. Thanks a tonne. You are doing so much for the whole mankind and as a matter of fact sometimes even a small thought delivered at the right time can do miracles in someone's life and his whole life can take a turn around. When the positive seeds through your news letter are falling all over the world, then I am sure some would become tree and bear fruits. Vikas B |
||
Free self help books website resources and new health articles for your Lifetime Health & Fitness and wellbeing, solution health, ideal body weight, womens health issues and personal development health articles about solution health, free self help books for your improved health, nutrition & lifetime fitness. size=1>
- Healthy fats are essential for absorption of fat-soluble vitamins
