Fats We Eat

As I blog and share about 10 Diet Mistakes in my Fan Club in FaceBook (FB), some little details within my limited knowledge were still too extensive to be elaborated in the small note space in FB. I wish to jot them down in my blog instead, for my readers who are keen to read more about whichever I knew.

The No. 6 Diet Mistake I have jotted in my Note of FB is about Consumption Fat which has been a major concern by diet and health watchers.

In my note of FB, I mentioned about Fats – Saturated and Unsaturated Fat as well as Trans Fat. To my friends and readers, who wish to know what are those, in a summary of all, and some basic food items which contain these fats, here’s it:

Saturated Fat – “Bad” Fat
It is known to have adverse effects on our heart and raise bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. A “No No” fat to our body which we should try to limit its intake. Hence, choose food that comes with very low saturated fat.

Saturated fat is found in some of these food:
Fatty meats
Poultry skin
Pork lards
Palm oils
Pastries/ Cookies/ Cakes
Whole milk

Unsaturated Fats – ‘Good’ Fats
Unsaturated fats are divided into two groups i.e. Polyunsaturated fat and Monounsaturated fat. And… please don’t go into the very detailed of what are Poly and Mono as I am not the professional to tell you about its scientific formations. Only know that these polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat benefit your cholesterol level in your blood stream by increasing the good cholesterol (HDL) and lowering the bad cholesterol (LDL). Omega 3 and 6 are two types of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Polyunsaturated fat is found in:
Salmon
Tuna
Sardines
Evening Primrose oil
Corn oil
Soybean oil

Monounsaturated fat is found in:
Peanuts
Almonds
Hazelnuts
Olive oil
Canola oil

Should you remember do not cut out all fat intake as it is essential to consume fat for your body to dissolve the oil-soluble vitamins. Hence, take this unsaturated fatty acid. This fatty acids will not raise your weight that easy, but in fact, it helps to trim away your bad cholesterol level in your blood stream, promoting better metabolism that benefits you in slimming goal.

Trans Fat was once widely added into food for ‘good’ reason in enhancing flavour, texture and shelf like. Hence, we often found rich trans fat created in frozen food items and fast food during its industrial process. Unfortunately, it risks our health! Trans fat not only raise LDL cholesterol like saturated fat, but it’s also LOWER the HDL cholesterol level in our blood stream.

Food contains trans fat are:
French fries
Doughnuts
Pastries/ Pie crusts
Biscuits/ Cookies
Pizza (mainly fast food or frozen)
Margarines/ Shortenings
Frozen meals

Hence, try your best to chose food brands labeled with ZERO % (though some food with less than 2% of TF still listed as 0%!) Trans Fats in foods such as margarine, instant noodle, frozen pizza, bread loaf, cookies and pastries.

To promote good health, these 0% trans fat items are widely sold everywhere. So, why go for trans fat and risk the health of your heart?!

And remember, even though it is tasty to have food with trans fat, but it’s not necessary in our daily diets. Try to limit your children in having fast food meals which pretty high in trans fat.