I started out on a quest to learn about how we lose weight and how fat affects our bodies. The more in depth research I did, the more I learned that there were so many different sorts of fat. Before that research I had not understood that not all fat is bad, and that some fat is actually good for us.
As I began to study about the different types of fats out there, I learned that monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are typically labeled as the good fats to have in your body. Monounsaturated fats are usually found in olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and in most of your favorite nuts like macadamia nuts, peanuts, or cashews.
Monounsaturated fat that is ingested won’t make you have cholesterol problems and as a matter of fact it will even help you to get rid of bad cholesterol if used properly. If you substitute the monounsaturated fat for the saturated kind of fat you will be lowering your bad cholesterol count.
Polyunsaturated fats are actually sub-divided: The ones with Omega-3 and the ones with Omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fat is really good for the body and is healthy for the heart- it can possibly help prevent sudden heart attacks. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fat also has the function of lowering triglycerides. Omega-3 is found in abundance in a lot of seafoods such as salmon, herring, mackerel, tuna, and trout.
Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats can be derived from sources like corn, soybean, sunflower, cotton seed, and safflower oils. Like the Omega-3s, the Omega-6 fats actually help to lower the amount of bad cholesterol in your body and are good for your heart health.
Hydrogenated fats, which are often called trans fats, are essentially the most damaging type of fats that are contained in food. Hydrogenated fat is a chemically created form of fat and is not natural in any way. Originally Hydrogenated fat was invented as a replacement for saturated fat, but it was soon revealed it has even worse effects than saturated fat. This type of fat raises the bad cholesterol and lowers the good cholesterol, so it can be very damaging to the heart and the whole body.
Knowing the difference between the good fats and the bad fats is very important. To maintain a healthy diet and an overall healthy lifestyle, identifying and placing your focus on the good fats is imperative. Those good fats will help your health by lowering cholesterol and keeping your heart healthy. The bad fats give precisely the opposite results.
Of course, removing every single bad fat in your diet does not have to go, but eating the bad fats in small amounts is important, and avoiding trans fat whenever you can is wise.
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