Not all food containing fat is bad for our health. It is not how much fat we consume, but more like what kind of fat we consume. There is bad fat, a type of fat that will increase the cholesterol level (LDL) and trigger all kinds of diseases.
There is also good fat, type of fat that will help us protect our heart and provide numerous benefits for our bodies. By knowing which food has good or bad type of fats, we can determine to choose what food to put in our daily diet and which one to avoid.
The following are types of fat and its positive / negative impacts to our health:
Saturated Fat and Trans Fat
The bad fat also known as the saturated fat and trans fat are usually contained in processed products. You can easily remember that saturated fat will remain dense even in room temperature. Some examples of saturated fat are fat from lamb, pig, or cow meat, milk, chicken skin, margarine, and ice cream. On the other side, trans fat comes from processed food, such as donut, cakes, fried food, candies and chips or margarine.
Single and Double Non Saturated Fat
Good fat or also known as single and double non saturated fat, is a type of fat that will remain liquid in room temperature. Some examples of single non saturated fat are canola and olive oils. This type of fat can also be found in sunflower oil, avocado, and beans. Other examples are double non saturated fat such as soy oil, fish fat, walnuts, tofu and corn oil.
The Impact of Bad Fat (Saturated) for our Health
Saturated fat and trans fat are considered as bad fat due to the many negative effects they have rather than the positive.
Consuming these type of fats can cause a significant increase in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL). LDL is classified as a bad cholesterol due to its ability to accumulate plaque in our artery that may result in atherosclerosis (hardening of the artery), which is the general cause for heart disease, stroke and other fatal diseases.
The Saturated fat and trans fat are also the common culprit for obesity. Food with high content of saturated and trans fat will definitely contain high calories.
It is important to know that our body can only burn calories in a limited amount per day, depends on the amount of energy needed. The excess calories will be stored as fat in our body. This stored fat creates weight problem and obesity.
The Benefits of Fat for Our Health
Single non saturated fat and double non saturated fat are called good fats because they possess many benefits for our health. This fat can dramatically reduce the amount of bad cholesterol and increase the lipoprotein high-density cholesterol (HDL), which is also known as good cholesterol. This effect will improve the healthy blood circulation, which is important to increase our body’s metabolism process. An active and healthy metabolism will promote an effective overall weight lost which will then help in preventing obesity.
Including a certain food that contains good fat in your diet will help promote a healthier body function and prevent various diseases or other serious medical conditions.
If you would like to remain healthy, then you should keep in mind all the things that we have discussed above when choosing what to eat everyday. This is to ensure that we have consumed enough good fat and always avoid consuming the bad fat.
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