Dietary Fat - Decrease, Examine, Replace
Do you want to have as healthy a heart for as long as possible? There are things we can do now that will make a difference regarding lowering your risks of heart disease, certain types of cancers and other diseases!
Dietary fats are the fats found in foods. Dietary fat is an important part of a healthy diet, but eating too much is not healthy for us. We need to think about the amount and kind of fat we eat each day. We need to eat foods and have lifestyles that promote health and lower the risks of heart disease, cancer and other diseases.
What You Will Learn
In this lesson, some of the things you will learn include the following:
- The types of fat and their effect on heart disease risk and risk of certain types of cancer and other diseases.
- How to examine the food sources of fat you eat and select foods that lower the LDL and raise the HDL levels in your blood.
- How to replace the saturated and trans unsaturated fatty acids with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.
- How much fat you need each day for health.
- How to decrease the total amount of fat in your diet.
MyPyramid Review:
Fats are a healthy part of our diet; however, we should be careful about what kinds of fat we eat and the amount of fat we eat. About 30% or less of our calories should come from fat in the form of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Replace higher-fat foods in the MyPyramid with lower-fat ones. Select foods that increase the heart-healthy high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and lower the heart-unhealthy low-density lipoprotein (LDL).
Eat MyPyramid way every day! Eat the recommended number of servings from each of the food groups daily.
Eat six to 11 servings from the Grain Group. Replace foods high in fat with nutrient dense complex carbohydrate foods. Eat more nutrient dense complex carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes and beans instead of candy, cookies and cake.
Eat more vegetables. Eat 2 1/2 cups from the Vegetable Group. Prepare vegetables without adding additional fat such as eating a baked potato with broccoli and a teaspoon of tub margarine instead of eating french-fried potatoes.
Eat two cups of fruit from the Fruit Group daily. Eat more fruit instead of candy, cookies and cake. Drink fruit juice instead of a soft drink.
Have two to three glasses of milk from the Milk Group. Drink milk instead of soft drinks. Drink skim milk instead of whole milk.
Eat up to 7 ounces from the Meat and Beans Group daily. Replace higher-fat foods with lower-fat versions of the same food. Eat fish regularly. Eat tuna, salmon or sardines daily or at least once or twice a week. Eat fish baked or broiled rather than fried. When eating nuts, select walnuts and peanuts.
Be careful about oils. Use liquid vegetable oils instead of solid shortenings or lard. Replace solid with liquid fats. Use one tablespoon of polyunsaturated vegetable oil (soybean or other plant oil) each day. Use soft tub margarine instead of stick margarine.
Choose a diet that provides no more than 30 % of total calories from fat. The upper limit on the grams of fat in your diet will depend on the calories you need. For example, at 2,000 calories per day, the suggested upper limit of calories from fat is about 600 calories. Sixty-five grams of fat contribute about 600 calories. On the Nutrition Facts Label, 65 grams of fat is the Daily Value for a 2,000 calorie intake. Reducing saturated fat to less than 10 % of calories will help you lower your blood cholesterol level. Cutting back on fat can help you consume fewer calories.
Why we need fat?
Energy
Fat is one of the three key nutrients that provides calories. It is the most concentrated dietary source of energy. Since the same amount of fat gives over twice as many calories as carbohydrates and protein, fat is a very concentrated source of calories. Fat gives 9 calories per gram, and both carbohydrate and protein give 4. So, a little fat goes a long way! Fat has an important place in our diet, but we need to limit our intake fat since it is such a concentrated source of calories. Also, too much fat is not healthy for us.
Metabolism
Fat promotes satiety and is used to make important hormones. It helps our body use fat-soluble vitamins.
Carries Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Some fats and oils are important sources of vitamins A, D, E and K. They carry fat-soluble vitamins and aid in their absorption. Fats provide various amounts of fatty acids known to be essential and also provides many other fatty acids, which may have nutritional functions that we do not now know yet.
Insulates and Protects Your Body
Fat is stored mainly as triglycerides in special cells called adipose (fat) cells. These cells can increase about 50 times in weight. If more fat needs to be stored than the cells can contain, the body can form new adipose cells. Adipose cells are about 80% fat and about 20% water and protein.
Kinds of Fat
We need to understand a little of the structure and composition of fats in order to know what the words or terms mean that we see on food packages and labels or hear from our doctor or from advertising. Let's vi
sit a Polynesian family to learn more about the kinds of fat.
The Story of a Polynesian Family
Last summer, I had the most exciting trip! I took a cruise to one of the exotic Polynesian islands! It was so beautiful - the tremendous palm trees were gently swaying in the breeze. Big, tropical flowers dazzled with their brilliant color. The emerald- green water softly lapping up onto the shore.
King Satch
When our ship landed, I was greeted by the king of the island, King Satch. Oh, he was big! He was solid! Why, King Satch even wore a necklace! His necklace was very interesting. It was made of pop-beads. Each pop-bead was in the shape of a C. On every C, there were little beads shaped like H's. Every one of his C shaped pop-beads had H's attached to it. His necklace was completely filled or saturated.
Queen Mama Mono
Queen Mama Mono, his wife, came up to greet me and to put a necklace around my neck! Oh, she was big, too. But, she wasn't as big as King Satch. Queen Mama Mona had a beautiful flower in her hair. She wore a necklace, too. But, her necklace was a little different. One of Mama-Mono's pop-beads was missing it's H-shaped beads. Mono means one. One of the C-shaped beads was not filled with the other H-shaped beads.
Princess Poly
After a few minutes, King Satch and Queen Mama Mono introduced me to their daughter, Princess Poly. Oh, was Princess Poly beautiful! Although she wore a beautiful flower in her hair, she did not look at all like her mother - nor even her father! Princess Poly was so slim! Her favorite parrot was perched on her shoulder. Princess Poly's necklace intrigued me - it was similar to her mother's and father's, yet it was different. When I looked close, I could see that Princess Poly had two or more of her C-shaped beads empty. The H-shaped beads were missing. Poly means two or more. Princess Poly had two of her beads empty. This is so strange. I'm sure these necklaces are special. They must have a special meaning.
King Satch
When I asked about their necklaces, King Satch said I was right, that they are special. The necklaces stand for the kinds of fat we eat. You see, each of us eats a different kind of fat. He prefers saturated fat.
Fats, Fatty Acids - Structure of Mixed Triglycerides
If I'm a little technical, it's because I want to show you that all fats are made up of the same skeleton; the backbone is glycerol molecule. The arms and legs are made of chains of carbon atoms. This chain is called the fatty acids. Now, notice the top row. All the C's or carbon atoms are filled with H's or hydrogen atoms. Saturation means that all the carbon atoms on the fatty acid chain are filled or saturated with hydrogen. The middle row has one carbon group missing its hydrogen. That is what we mean when we say monounsaturated. One of its carbons is missing the hydrogen. The bottom row of fatty acids has two of its carbon groups missing the hydrogen. If a fatty acid has two or more of the carbon groups missing hydrogen, it is called a polyunsaturated fatty acid. Poly means
two or more. Hydrated means a food processing company put back in hydrogen that was originally missing. So, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated all refer to the fatty acid part of the fat skeleton and tells us if the fatty acid chain is filled with hydrogen, if only one carbon group is missing hydrogen (monounsaturated) or if two or more carbon groups are missing hydrogen (polyunsaturated). The important point about this is that fat can be good for our heart by lowering blood cholesterol levels or can be bad for our heart by raising blood cholesterol levels.
Saturated fat tends to raise blood cholesterol levels. Saturated fat raises blood cholesterol more than other forms of fat. This kind of fat is bad for our heart.
Monounsaturated fat does not have that much effect on blood cholesterol levels.
Polyunsaturated fat tends to lower blood cholesterol levels. Polyunsaturated fat is better for our heart.
King Satch and Saturated Fat
Can anyone tell me what kind of fat King Satch eats? King Satch eats saturated fats. See examples of saturated fats. Note that fats from animal sources are in red. Ones in orange are hydrogenated. Those in green are from plant sources. Think of the Polynesian Island as having a lot of coconut trees and palm trees. The fat in coconut oil and palm oil is saturated.
Mama Mono and Monounsaturated Fats
Mama Mono eats the monounsaturated fat. She eats peanut oil and olive oil or foods prepared with them. The monounsaturated fatty acids are those with one unsaturated linkage. An example is oleic acid. Olive oil and canola oil are sources of monounsaturated fatty acid.