Good Fats, Bad Fats

When most people think of fat in their diet, they immediately think BAD. We've been conditioned to believe that all fat in the diet is bad. This simply is not true. Fat is an essential nutrient; what matters is what kind of fat it is. Good fats can work wonders; bad fats indeed will destroy your health. A no-fat diet is a disaster. Without any fat in the diet, your body would react in a multitude of unhealthy ways, such as destroying your gall bladder and having your hair fall out. So the healthiest strategy is to minimize bad fats and go ahead and indulge (in moderation) the good fats. Remember that all fats, good and bad, contain lots of calories, 9 calories per gram. The difference lies in how heart-healthy the individual fats are.

Good fats in your diet can actually help you lose weight and avoid a whole range of diseases including heart disease and cancer. Nutrition experts insist that if suddenly all Americans were to switch from bad fats to good fats, we'd see huge results and be much healthier. Unfortunately, the typical American diet is loaded with bad fats and short on good fats. Bad fats do indeed wreck havoc with our health. It's the bad fats which promote obesity, heart disease, cancer and other ailments. Bad fats are not needed by the body at all but good fats are essential. Every one of the six billion cells in your body requires good fats to function properly.

So which are the good fats and which are the bad fats? Put in the most simple terms, saturated fats and trans fats are bad, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are good in varying degrees.

The term saturated refers to the molecular composition of the fat molecule. A fat is saturated if the outer electron shell is full (saturated) with electrons. The fat molecule also contains hydrogen atoms paired with carbon atoms. If only one pair exists, it's a monounsaturated. Polyunsaturated means there are multiple bonds. But don't worry, you don't have to understand molecular biology in order to eat healthy!

In general, saturated (unhealthy) fats are solid at room temperature. Think of butter. It's as saturated as a fat can get and it remains hard at room temperature. All saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Olive oil, which is a monounsaturated fat, is liquid at room temperature. Corn oil, a polyunsaturated fat, is also liquid and room temperature. In general, monounsaturated are the healthiest fats and polyunsaturated fats come in second. (See list below) Monounsaturated are considered the healthiest because they help raise your "good" cholesterol (HDL) and lower the "bad" cholesterol, (LDL). Polyunsaturated will help lower overall cholesterol, but it lowers both the good and the bad.

All saturated fats and trans fats are bad. Saturated fats include any fat of beef origin, like butter or beef fat (lard). Dairy products originate with beef, so the fat in a dairy product is saturated. Any solid shortening is a saturated fat. Saturated fats and trans fats are both dietary disasters.

Trans fats are a manmade invention, and are a good example of how sometimes people know just enough to be dangerous. When it was first discovered back in the 50's that heart disease was caused in part by saturated fats, food scientists took to the lab and created trans fats; this is when margarine was born. Today, trans fats are in almost every processed food on the store shelves. Initially, they thought trans fats would be a healthy alternative to saturated fats, but they were wrong. Most nutritionists today admit that trans fats are bad and might even be worse than saturated. Trans fats are present whenever you see the phrase, "partially-hydrogenated." Food labeling laws do not yet mandate than trans fats be listed, so you have to read labels carefully.

Cholesterol is often considered a bad fat, and it certainly is bad if it's clogging your arteries. However, the cholesterol clogging your arteries primarily comes from eating saturated and trans fats, not from eating cholesterol laden foods like eggs. Cholesterol is made by the body and is actually considered an essential fat. The food industry uses this confusion to their advantage. Many food products are labeled "cholesterol free," yet they're loaded with saturated or trans fats so unsuspecting consumers think they're buying a heart-healthy food. WRONG. Although you don't want to eat a lot of cholesterol, what you really want to avoid are saturated and trans fats.

Monounsaturated: (The healthiest type)
Olive oil
Canola oil
Peanut oil
Avocado oil
Almonds
Pecans

Polyunsaturated fats: (Second healthiest type)
Corn oil
Safflower oil
Sesame seed oil
Soy oil
Sunflower oil

You might have heard of the so-called "Mediterranean Diet," which is what folks in countries like Italy, Greece and Spain eat. A typical Mediterranean diet includes 30-40% fat but since most of the fat comes from olive oil, those countries have significantly less heart disease and obesity than the United States.