Fats. One of the most controversial macronutrients, right next to carbs.
Do we eat them? Should we not? Are they bad for us? Are they gonna clog all of our arteries?
Let me break down the ins and outs of dietary fat, and you can decide for yourself.
What are fats?
But what makes fats healthy? I thought fat was bad?
It’s easy to get confused since most of us want to lose body fat. First, when we talk about eating ‘healthy fats’, I’m referring to dietary fats. Body fat is something completely different, and they aren’t always correlated.
In regards to dietary fat, no, it’s not bad. In fact, we all NEED some level of healthy fats in our diet. Healthy fats are critical for recovery and repair.
If your fat consumption drops below 20-25% of your total calories, you could run into problems with hormones, energy, etc. No need to pull out your nutrition calculators to add up your calories from your fats. If you’re getting in your 1-2 thumbs worth at each meal, you’re all good ;). I’ll talk more about this later.
Healthy fats carry a wide range of benefits to our health. For one, we need adequate fat for energy, to support metabolism, to provide essential fatty acids that the body can’t make, cell signaling, the health of various body tissues, immunity, hormone production, and the absorption of many nutrients. Having enough fat will also help keep you feeling full between meals, which we know is key for actually eating less and losing body fat.
Healthy fats also have been shown to offer some other benefits as well, such as Cardiovascular protection, improved body composition, alleviated depression, prevent cancers, preserve memory, preserve eye health, reduced incidence of aggressive behavior, and reduce ADHD and ADD symptoms.
There are some fats that aren’t so good for you, but I’ll get into that more tomorrow. To reap all the health benefits that healthy fats have to offer, make sure you’re getting in a mix of fat types from whole, minimally processed food sources.
Try to avoid industrially processed, artificially created, and factory farmer foods. These all contain the unhealthy fats that most people are worried about.
The good news is, most bad fats are created by industrial processing. So it’s very tough to get these bad fats from whole, unprocessed, healthier food options.
To understand how a fat becomes “bad”, I need to tell you a little bit about the structure of fatty acids. The molecules of fatty acids kind of look like caterpillars(imagine a zig-zag line). During processing, trans fatty acids can be created as a by-product of fatty acid saturation. This straightens out the caterpillar. Trans is bad.
Companies create these trans fats to improve mouth feel and shelf life of their products. Trans fats are created to act more like saturated fats(hardened at room temperature). Now, keep in mind that not all trans fat configurations are harmful to health. Some do occur naturally. It’s just the man-made ones we should stay away from.
Saturated fats are also sometimes labeled as “bad”, and in excessive amounts, they can be. However, the amount found in non “man-made” food generally won’t contribute to chronic disease.
The reason that bad fats are so bad for us is because of their structure. Remember, molecularly speaking, healthy fats are shaped like zig-zagged caterpillars. Unhealthy fats are basically straight lines. Since these unhealthy fats don’t zig-zag, they can’t fold in on themselves and they pack more tightly into cell membranes. Studies suggest that this means an increased risk for coronary heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases, possibly because of their potential to manipulate membrane fluidity.
Even a single meal with a high “bad fat” content can diminish blood vessel function and elasticity. This can contribute to the progression of heart disease. When consuming a diet based on unprocessed, whole foods, accumulating high amounts of trans fat and saturated fat is difficult. Most of the bad fats are added to foods so profitability can be enhanced, directly or indirectly.
How much should I eat and what kinds?
- For our fats, we use our thumb as our portion guide
- At each meal, you will have 1-2 thumb-sized portions of healthy fats
- There are 3 types of healthy fats: saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated
- saturated fatty acids=butter, coconut, dark chocolate, animal foods in general
- monounsaturated fatty acids=nuts and nut butter, olives and olive oil, avocados, and guacamole
- polyunsaturated fatty acids=flax and chia seeds, walnuts and pecans, fish and fish oil
- Get a mix of all 3 of these each day- yes, you can have some chocolate. It’s for your health 😉
Should I take supplements?
Just like any food group, we can sometimes have some deficiencies if we aren’t getting in the appropriate amounts of fats. For one, some of the vitamins we need in our body are fat-soluble. What this means is that you need a certain amount of dietary fat for them to be absorbed into the body properly. A deficiency in fats can sometimes turn into a deficiency in essentials vitamins.
When it comes to our fat intake, most of us are way out of balance. In the hunter-gatherer days, it’s estimated that they had a 1:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. Today, humans have something like 16:1 to even 20:1. In other words, we’re eating way too many Omega-6s compared to Omega-3s. To make it worse, most of our Omega-6 fats come from refined food sources, rather than whole foods.
The most important Omega-3 fats are EPA, DHA, and ALA. Our bodies mostly use EPA and DHA, we don’t convert ALA very well. Plant-based foods are usually very rich in ALA, while marine-based foods and algae are rich in EPA and DHA. If you are a plant-based eater, make sure you pay extra attention to your EPA/DHA levels, as they may be low from lack of animal products.
If you eat adequate amounts of seafood, your Omega-3 levels may be good to go. But in most cases, you would benefit from taking a Fish Oil supplement, which is rich in the essential Omega-3s we need.
Omega-3s are super important for our cardiovascular health, nervous system function, brain development, immune system health, as well as many other cellular functions.
If you’re looking for a fish oil supplement, look for small-fish based formulas(ex. herring, mackerel). Small fish are lower on the food chain and less likely to accumulate environmental toxins. Or choose krill oil or algae oil. Try and choose a company that doesn’t directly contribute to the depletion of fish.
As far as recommendations, aim to get in 3-9 grams daily of total fish oil(comes out to about 1-3 grams of EPA/DHA). Omega-3 and Omega-6 compete for space within the cell, so it’s more important to even out the ratio rather than having a certain amount of either fat.
Summary
Over the last few months, I’ve covered the ins and out of all three macronutrients.
In short, you need ALL of them to have a healthy, well-functioning body.
Don’t buy into the fad diets and articles that try and scare you away from certain food (and try and sell you their product).
Stick to whole, minimally processed foods in appropriate quantities, and you’ll be good to go!
And always remember:
Never settle, stay evolving!
Talk to you cool cats and kittens soon!
-Coach Ian