The lowdown on fats

People avoid eating fat because there’s a tendency to think that it has something to do with the reason their clothes are too tight. But it’s eating too much of anything that’s the reason we have love handles!

Fat is essential in our diet because, aside from the basic manufacture of cells and hormones, it helps us absorb vitamins A, D and E (that’s skin, hair, nails, bones, eyesight and disease immunity to you and me).

What are the different types? Saturated fats (red meats, all animal fat, butter, cheese, coconut oil, all mostly solid at room temperature). The thinking is that too much saturated fat raises bad cholesterol so the less you can eat the better. Instead swap them for unsaturated fats.

There are two groups under this umbrella term: monounsaturated (olive oil, nuts, avocados, seeds) and polyunsaturated, which include omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids (EFAS). If you’ve nodded off, this is the important bit. The body can’t make some EFAS, so we need to get them from food as they help massively with heart health, brain health and fight inflammation. However, as a nation, we overeat on omega-6 foods (oils such as corn and sunflower because of their use in making processed cakes and biscuits) and not enough omega-3. So the upshot is, if we stick to eating a variety of oily fish, tofu, nuts, flax seeds, omega-3 enriched eggs and green leafy veg, then we’ll be rocking and rolling.

Then… whoa… there’s trans fats. These may creep into your diet now and then (processed ready meals and foods with a long shelf life), but generally speaking we should avoid them. They’re chemically altered and do nothing for our health AT ALL. Fat should make up about 30% of our caloric intake. Sounds a lot, but fat (from whichever source) is calorie dense with 9 calories per gram (carbohydrate and protein has 4) so you don’t get much for your buck.

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