Episode 10 - The Truth About Fat
From the last episode we received a lot of questions on exactly what are healthy and unhealthy fats, so today’s episode is dedicated to breaking that down further and giving some practical advice on how to manage that. In this Episode we are going to be exploring: a. Types of dietary fat; b. The History of fat in the diet; c. Which fats are the so-called “healthy fats”; d. Which fats are abjectly unhealthy and why; and e. What you can do about all of that. First of all Fat is an important macronutrient that is critical to the functioning of the body. In provides us with energy, in fact it is the most energy dense macronutrient with 8.9 calories per gram; it helps make and balance our hormones; provides the structure and protection of our cells through the creation of cell membranes; fat is used to form our brains and our nervous system. Fat also acts a transport for Fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K. So, without fat we would be in big trouble. For many decades dietary fat was seen as Public Enemy Number 1. In the 1970s the 7 countries study by Ancel Keys produced a hypothesis that it was dietary fat that was making us fat. There was great debate in the scientific community with many scientists poking holes in Keys’ research and pointing to sugar and refined carbohydrates as being the culprit. But Keys was somehow able to be more convincing and the McGovern report and subject Dietary Guidelines for Americans lead to the “low fat” mantra. Now, the evidence is really speaking for itself. In the subsequent 40 years since those guidelines have been released, obesity rates have triple, diabetes has increased by a factor of 4 and we are spending far more on healthcare than ever before. There are 2 major classes of Fat – Saturated Fat and Unsaturated Fat (with Unsaturated Fat broken down into 3 more subclasses – Monounsaturated; Polyunsaturated; and Trans Fats). So, which are the healthy fats and which are not healthy fats Let’s start with our Stars – Mono and Poyunsaturated Fats are both considered to be healthy fats. They are both known to increase your HDL and decrease your LDL, which if you recall from Episode 9, that is exactly what we are trying to do to stay healthy. So you are encouraged to find high quality sources of monounsaturated fat including avocados, almonds, eggs, olives and nuts. You are also need sources of essential polyunsaturated fats including Omega-3s from fish, fish oil, eggs, flaxseeds and walnuts and Omega-6 from corn, nuts, seeds, and meat. So, mono and polyunsaturated fats are healthy fats. The tricky ground is Saturated Fats Many studies are now concluding that Saturated Fats are completely healthy in your diet, but I would like to put a moderation and balancing caveat on that. Saturated fats are known to increase both your HDL and LDL and you will remember we want to increase your HDL, but you want to decrease or maintain lower LDL. So a diet that is rich in Saturated Fat should be balanced with a good amount of fibre and good sources of unsaturated fat to improve your HDL and LDL ratio. The universally accepted NO NO is Trans Fats. The small amount of naturally occurring Trans Fat in meat and dairy is fine, but the man-made Trans Fats in margarine, fried foods and cookies is just not safe. There is no safe amount to have. The process of hydrogenation creates a strong bond that makes the product solid at room temperature and makes it stable without going rancid. They same process makes it very difficult for lipase and digestive enzymes to break down Trans Fats leaving them to be a sticky and somewhat solid mess in your body.
