Fat

Saturated fats

• These naturally occur in dark meat (beef, lamb, etc.), skin (poultry, etc.), butter, cheeses, and other dairy products (high fat products contain significantly more).
• There are lot of critical viewpoints on saturated fat. It is often claimed to be responsible for raising the level of cholesterol and increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. More recent studies show that it’s more complicated than that as we expand upon in the upcoming section.
• Saturated fats raise HDL (know as good cholesterol) and change LDL from small LDL (bad cholesterol) to large LDL (mostly unharmful). Saturated fat doesn’t have a bad impact on a person’s blood lipid profile (a panel of blood tests) as previously believed.
• Major recent studies also have shown that there is no significant association between heart disease and saturated fat.
• Recent studies have also shown that consumption of products low in saturated fat does not reduce the risk of heart disease. In addition, dairy products that are high in fat content, also do not increase the risk of metabolic disease and are in fact associated with significantly reducing the risk of obesity.
• Foods that are naturally high in saturated fat are often very healthy and nutritious as long as you’re eating quality unprocessed food in moderate amounts.
• You will miss some of the benefits of real food if you decide to skip some foods that are rich in saturated fat. For example, butter includes a lot of vitamins (A, E, K2), is a good source of fatty acids, and also helps speed up the metabolic process.

Monounsaturated fats

• These naturally occur in olive oil, olives, almonds, cashews, peanuts, pistachios, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, pork, eggs and other.
• They bring a number of benefits, such as helping with weight loss, reducing the risk of heart disease, lowering blood pressure, decreasing inflammation, helping improve insulin sensitivity, and reducing the risk of certain cancers.
• Monounsaturated fats help increase HDL and lower LDL (lowering bad cholesterol and increasing the good one).

Polyunsaturated fats

• Two major classes of polyunsaturated fats are omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids.
• Most Omega 3 fatty acids can be found in fish (fatty fish like salmon or herrings have more than a low fat fish, such as trout), shrimp, and a less active form of omega-3 can be also found in walnuts, pine nuts, flax seeds, and sunflower seeds.
• Most omega 6 fatty acids can be found in oils from safflower, sunflower, grapeseed, flaxseed, poppy seed, and soybean.
• Both are essential fatty acids, which your body cannot make, so you have to get them from nutrition.
• Most health benefits are associated with Omega 3: it reduces mental decline, improves infant development, and improves heart health. Omega 6 also has a positive impact on heart health.
• Most people get enough (and often way more than enough thanks to fried foods.) of Omega 6, but not enough Omega 3. This is why we should focus on how to increase Omega 3 and at least slightly reduce Omega 6.

Hydrogenated Fats

Hydrogenated fats are artificial fats made by hydrogenation. Hydrogenation is the process when liquid fat (vegetable oil) is turned into solid fat by adding hydrogen. Hydrogenated fats are divided into partially hydrogenated and fully hydrogenate.

Partially hydrogenated fats

• These are the worst kinds of fat since they contain industrial trans fat.
• Industrial trans fat is the most artery-clogging fat of all because it takes your body much longer to metabolize than any other fat. Consuming industrial trans fat raises your small LDL (bad cholesterol) without increasing HDL (good cholesterol). Consumption of industrial Trans fat dramatically increases the risk of heart attack or stroke.
• Partially hydrogenated fat commonly occurs in margarine, butter replacements, baked goods (especially in croissants, burger bun, etc.), candies (even in gelatin kinds too), cake mixes, ready to use dough (pie dough, puff pastry dough, etc.), baking shortening (especially in the most famous one), ready-made puddings, chips, coffee creamers, and many more foods (you will be surprised where you can find industrial trans fat)!
• The reason for adding partially hydrogenated fats to food is simple: there is a dramatic increase a product’s shelf life, it makes products easy to use, improves texture, and very inexpensive.
• Unfortunately the U.S. government allows manufacturers to claim 0% of trans fat on food labels if a product contains less than 0.5% of trans fat. While that may seem like a small amount, it is already enough to start slowly clogging your arteries. And, it can get even more dangerous when you combine multiple products that contain industrial trans fat.
• Luckily enough you can find products in all categories which do not include any industrial trans fats. My advice is to never buy food which has on the label “made with partially hydrogenated fats/oils”. I go even one step further and use an independent app on my cell phone. The app allows me to scan any product to get real information about the constitution of the product. Luckily, there are more than a few great apps which could be your companion through your healthy lifestyle.

Fully hydrogenated fats

• Even if it may sounds misleading, fully hydrogenated fats are much less dangerous than partially hydrogenated ones since they don’t include industrial trans-fat. On the other hand, it is good to know that some kinds of fully hydrogenated fats may cause other health risks, such as cancer.
• Fully hydrogenated products can include shortenings, corn oil, cottonseed oil, or even peanut butter oil (included in peanut butter).
• The great news is that you can avoid consumption of fully hydrogenate fats. For example, you can buy peanut butter without hydrogenated fat (usually called natural but since “natural” is not a regulated term, double check the label).

In my opinion consuming any processed food (which includes partially and fully hydrogenated fats) is not just unnecessary but is also very unhealthy. If you always choose real food, you will never have to worry about the consequences of consuming hydrogenated fats and also enjoy better flavors.

Not trans-fat like trans fat

Unlike industrial trans fat, natural (ruminant) trans fat is completely harmless if consumed in moderation. One of the most famous ruminant trans fats is called conjugated linoleic acid and is often consumed as a supplement since many believe it is beneficial. Trans fat found in relatively large amounts in dairy fat (especially from grass fed cattle) is extremely healthy and helps reduce the risk of heart disease.