Sep 11
25
The subject of Fat, needs to slim down.
Fat may have long been unfairly demonized for the last 50 years. Typically the ongoing reduced fat craze has reached the amounts of insanity. To be clichd, now there are good fats, bad fats and downright ugly fats. Conventional wisdom has not only branded all fats as bad, but they’ve completely mixed up the different types of fat. A brief aside; any respectable biochemistry textbook will show you that your body and brains must have essential fatty acids, which come from the fats we eat. Further, your mind needs cholesterol and your body makes around eighty percent of the cholesterol it requires. The challenging question is, if your body requires fats for survival and manufactures its own cholesterol, why are they so maligned? The fact is that some fats and cholesterol are harmful and then in a violent over reaction to this discovery the baby was thrown out with the bathwater. Prepare to be very really shocked! The healthiest fat is saturated fat. That isn’t a typo. The fat that everyone loudly proclaims raises your cholesterol and gives you heart attacks has been wrongfully convicted.
Prepare to be very really shocked! The healthiest fat is saturated fat. That isn’t a typo. The fat that everyone loudly proclaims raises your cholesterol and gives you heart attacks has been wrongfully convicted.
Trans saturated fat was first created as a byproduct of cotton production in 1911 and used as a cheap lard substitute for cooking. Trans fats crop up in margarines, fast foods, deep fried foods, some baked goods, and fake foods such as fake cheese. All these products are either made with, or cooked in, hydrogenated vegetable oils. The full impact of these unnatural fats on your health has not been completely investigated, but more and more scientific studies are pointing toward man made trans fats as the true cause of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease. Man made trans fats should be avoided at all costs. Polyunsaturated fat should be around ten percent of your total fat intake and no more. Polyunsaturated fat is also found in hydrogenated vegetable oils (but the trans fat contained within them will kill you before too much polyunsaturated fat kills you). Excluding trans saturated fat, the greatest source of polyunsaturated fat is nuts. It (along with naturally occurring trans fats) is found in small quantities in eggs, fish and meat but the amount in them is so tiny that it does not matter. However much of those products you consume won’t be adequate to obtain too much polyunsaturated fat. In some other words, overeating nuts is not good for people.
The real crux of the problem with polyunsaturated fats boils down to the balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. The real crux of the problem with polyunsaturated fats boils down to the balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. Most of you are probably familiar with Omegas thanks to all those fish oil ads. Lots of Omega 6 without Omega 3 causes inflammation. Inflammation is your body’s reaction to trauma. Inflammation is the swelling, redness and pain that go with a stubbed toe or a cut. It also happens internally as soon as you get a virus or pathogen which activates your body’s defence mechanism and causes it to unleash white blood cells to kill the attacker. Overworking the immune system weakens it and makes you susceptible to all sorts of problems.
It (along with naturally occurring trans fats) is found in small quantities in eggs, fish and meat but the amount in them is so tiny that it does not matter. However much of those products you consume won’t be sufficient to obtain too much polyunsaturated fat. In alternative words, overeating nuts is not smart for people. The real crux of the problem with polyunsaturated fats boils down to the balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. Most of you are probably familiar with Omegas thanks to all those fish oil ads. Lots of Omega 6 without Omega 3 causes inflammation. Inflammation is your body’s reaction to trauma. Inflammation is the swelling, redness and pain that go with a stubbed toe or a cut. It also happens internally when you get a virus or pathogen which activates your disease fighting capability and causes it to unleash white blood cells to kill the attacker. Overworking the immune system weakens it and makes you susceptible to all sorts of problems. Thus, you really want to keep your Omega 6 to Omega 3 balance as good as possible. Good is having a ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 of 3:1 or better. Grass fed cattle has a balance of 3:1, whereas grain fed cattle has a balance significantly worse. Fish have a balance of 1:1 to its good to supplement with fish oil when eating lots of foods with bad Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratios, such as foods high in polyunsaturated food or grain fed beef.
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