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Good Fats and Bad Fats

Posted by admin on November 28, 2009 | No Comments

In general, there are good fats as well as bad fats. Good fats help with our health positively while bad fats increase our risks of heart disease and can even cause certain types of cancer. The key, here, is to replace bad fats with good fats in our daily diet.

The fact is we all need fats in our body. Failure to include fats will result in many nutrients not being absorbed by the body. The reason is because many nutrients are fat-soluble nutrients. Three such nutrients are Beta carotene, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E. They require fat in order to be absorbed and used by our body. Fats also help with nerve transmission and maintaining cell membrane integrity etc.

Our body also needs Omega-3s, which is an essential fatty acid that our body cannot produce but need in order to build up the immunity and nervous system and boost better memory.Omega-3 which are found in oily fish and Omega-6 (found in evening primrose oil) have been used to treat everything from depression to skin problems.

Good fats are the natural, traditional fats that are not damaged by high heat, processing or refining. These kinds of fats are commonly found in nuts, avocados, fish and seeds.

Among the worst of the ‘bad’ fats are found in margarine and the fats in anything fried. And avoid anything that has words ‘partially hydrogenated’ on any food label like the plague. On the ‘bad’ fats list is also refined vegetable oils. These oils have been processed with high heat, which removes all the healthy nutrients like Vitamin E.