Table of Contents
Definition Of Fat
Fat means any ester of fatty acids or a mixture of such compounds. It most commonly those that occur in living beings or their food.
The term refers specifically to triglycerides (triple esters of glycerol). The main component of vegetable oils and fatty tissue in animals and humans being.
Fats are the three main macro nutrient groups in the human diet, along with carbohydrates and proteins. The main component of food products presents in milk, butter, tallow, lard, bacon, and cooking oils.
They are a significant and dense source of food energy for many animals and play essential structural and metabolic functions. Dietary fats carry of some flavor and aroma ingredients and vitamins that are not water-soluble.
What are the Different Types Of Fats?
Every time we hear the word fat, we tend to see it as something negative. And nothing is further from the truth. As any self-respecting food handler would say, fats are necessary. We have to know how to differentiate them.
Like any other food, those that contain fats provide us with those nutrients that our body needs to live. It would be like saying that it is the fuel that allows us to activate the mechanism of our body. We need it to move.
Unsaturated Fats Is One Of The Best Type
- When we require an extraordinary effort, our body tends to consume energy from sugars. It types of more active and less stable fats.
- This type of fat is called unsaturated, which characterize by lasting for a short time in our body. It is estimated that days, and even hours. These unsaturated fats usually see in liquid form at room temperature.
- And the reason we sometimes call them good fats is because they control high cholesterol levels and heart-related diseases.
What are the Types Of Unsaturated Fats?
Among unsaturated fats, we can find:
Monounsaturated Fats
The monounsaturated fats are a type of lipids to the cooled slightly thickened, as is the case of olive oil. We can find them in olives, avocados, or nuts, such as almonds, peanuts, or hazelnuts.
Polyunsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated fats still maintain at the cooling liquid. This fat as fish oils, sunflower or soybean, even seafood, having fatty acids Omega 3. We can find them in blue fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines, or anchovies.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
It finds in plant-based foods like soybean oil, canola oil, walnuts, and flax seeds. They see in fatty fish and shellfish, such as Icosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
A healthy diet includes 8 ounces (227 g) or more of these types of fish per week. Take an average of 250 mg per day of these omega-3 fatty acids.
Omega-6 Fatty Acids
It is found mostly in liquid vegetable oils like soybean oil, corn oil, and safflower oil.
Saturated fats are not suitable for health
- On the other hand, Saturated Fats are those that can store for a long time without becoming rancid. Hence they are so widely used in the preparation of food at an industrial level.
- It allows the duration of these to prolong for longer, in addition to providing more flavor. In return, these are less active but more stable and durable.
- These fats are better stored in our body to serve as a pantry for times of less activity.
- It is usually related to winter times and, therefore, more hunger. It interprets from this that nature is wise and knows that it has to save nutrients.
- Saturated fat is more difficult to find food, something that happened to us very often in prehistory. And that is what usually happens to many animals.
- It has to spend less energy so as not to end up with the pantry to which we previously referred. This fat is a fatty acid already processed that the body cannot transform.
- This fat tends to accumulate, ending up by clogging the arteries and causing problems in the circulatory system.
- These lipids are present in red meat, dairy products, and their derivatives. At room temperature, they are stable and are responsible.
- In excessive consumption, for high cholesterol levels, obesity, heart disease, arteries, and high blood pressure.
Trans Fat
These are facts that have to modify through a process called hydrogenation. This process increases the life of fats and makes them harder at room temperature.
A more hardened grease makes crunchier cookies and more flaky pie crusts. Trans fats can raise your cholesterol, so eat as little trans fat as possible. You will find them in:
- Processed foods.
- Snack foods, like potato chips and cookies.
- Sweet cookies.
- Kinds of margarine and
- Salad dressings.
Food makes with butter and partially hydrogenated oils.
Total Fat
Total fats include saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and trans fats. Check the nutrition labels on packages for total fat, saturated fat, and trans fat. Food labels are not required to include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
Good And Bad Fats
- First of all, what we recommend is to know the different types of fats or lipids that exist. And know in which foods the other fatty acids find.
- Once this does, know that we have to consume them depending on the type of activity we carry out daily. Since the food that a child of growing age needs is not the same as the needs of a young person.
- Who does sports daily or works by making the physical effort. The nutritional contributions that an adult with sedentary habits will require.
- To keep fit and healthy, you must include more foods rich in unsaturated than saturated fatty acids. Since in addition to being necessary, they are more nutritious and help eliminate the reserves of the lousy fatty compound.
- It is controlling the levels of cholesterol in the blood, improving the health of arteries, and promoting good blood circulation. Also, every day, it is recommended to walk at least thirty minutes.
- If our body interprets that there is lethargy, as we explained above, by nature. It tends to use less energy, storing in our body those undesirable fatty elements that, today, are completely unnecessary and very harmful.