For years, nutritionists and doctors have preached that a low-fat
diet is the key to losing weight, managing cholesterol, and preventing health
problems. But more than just the amount of fat, it’s the types of fat you eat
that really matter. Bad fats increase cholesterol and your risk of certain
diseases, while good fats protect your heart and support overall health. In
fact, good fats—such as omega-3 fats—are essential to physical and emotional
health.
Making sense of dietary fat
A walk down the grocery aisle will confirm our obsession with low-fat foods.
We’re bombarded with supposedly guilt-free options: baked potato chips, fat-free
ice cream, low-fat candies, cookies, and cakes. But while our low-fat options
have exploded, so have obesity rates. Clearly, low-fat foods and diets haven’t
delivered on their trim, healthy promises.
Despite what you may have been told, fat isn’t always the bad guy in the
waistline wars. Bad fats, such as saturated fats and trans
fats,
are guilty of the unhealthy things all fats have been blamed
for—weight gain, clogged arteries, and so forth. But good fats such as the
monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and omega-3s have the opposite
effect. In fact, healthy fats play a huge role in helping you manage your moods,
stay on top of your mental game, fight fatigue, and even control your weight.
As a matter of fact, healthy fats play a huge role in helping you manage your
moods, stay on top of your mental game, fight fatigue, and even control your
weight.
The answer isn’t cutting out the fat—it’s learning to make healthy choices
and to replace bad fats with good ones that promote health and well-being.
| GOOD FATS |
| Monounsaturated fat |
Polyunsaturated fat |
- Olive oil
- Canola oil
- Sunflower oil
- Peanut oil
- Sesame oil
- Avocados
- Olives
- Nuts (almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews)
- Peanut butter
|
- Soybean oil
- Corn oil
- Safflower oil
- Walnuts
- Sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds
Flaxseed
- Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines)
- Soymilk
- Tofu
|
