Are there Healthy Fats?

Are all fats the same? Do we avoid all kinds of fats? Just look around the grocery and you will find labels of low-fat. Fats have really gotten a bad rap. Let's see if we can turn the tide around for poor old fat. It isn't true that all fats are bad for us because they raise the risk for heart disease and other conditions.

It is true though that we get more calories from one gram of fat than from one gram of carbohydrate. That's how the news started to spread around that all fats are bad. But in reality, we need fats because they furnish us with fuel to run the functions of the body cells.

Now don't go all out and eat all the fats you can get. Moderation is the key. It is good to remember that we should not avoid fats like the plague they are not because some fats are good for us. They are an important part in keeping us healthy.

What we have to do is eat the healthy fats and avoid the bad ones. But let's not forget that our goal is to keep our weight within normal limit in order to avoid diabetes and the complications that might come along. Now what are the unhealthy fats? I thought you'd never ask.

Two unhealthy fats are the trans fats and saturated fats. They are abundant in dairy products, meats and animal fat and in some oils. Saturated fats clog the arteries and raise the LDL or bad cholesterol. Trans fats are man-made where chemists changed the liquid oil to solid so products will be easier to transport.

So read the food labels. Before 2006, the labels did not specify the amount of trans fats. Be on the lookout for words partially hydrogenated because this would mean trans fats are present. Like their cousin the saturated fats, trans fats increase the risk for heart disease and other conditions.

Now here come the good guys, the healthy fats. the monounsaturated fats found in olive, canola and peanut oils, and polyunsaturated fats found in soybean and corn oil, salmon, tuna, seeds and whole grain. Don't shy away from them for they lower the bad cholesterol.

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