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How your health will benefit from using good fat and right fat combination, and how you will be hurt by bad fat or bad fat balance

 

The fat types and their effects

High consume of fat or of the combination fat and carbohydrates causes obesity, heart disease and other health problems.. However the different types of fat have very different effects on the health. Here is a survey of the different fat cathegories and their effects:

Mono-unsaturated fat - Most of this fat found in food sources are of the type omega-9-mono-unsaturated. This type of fat prevents heart disease and circulatory disease in moderate amounts. This type of fat also prevents heart disease and reduces inflammatory reactions. Therefore it reduces the risk of cancer, intestinal inflammations and rheumatism.

Omega-6-poly-unsaturated fat - This fat type prevents heart disease if you do not consume too much of it. However it causes inflammatory reactions. This type of reactions are benign when they are moderate and when they are provoked to fight disease. But a constant high inflammatory response is dangerous, and can cause rheumatism, heart trouble and cancer. A very high consumption of this type of fat is therefore dangerous.

Omega-3-poly-unsaturated fat - This type of fat prevents heart disease and reduces inflammatory reactions in moderate amounts. Therefore it also reduces the risk of cancer, intestinal inflammations and rheumatism.

Saturated fat - This type of fat is probably not dangerous in small amounts. In higher amounts, saturated fat gives high cholesterole levels, causes clogging of the blood vessels, cause coronary heart disease and increases the risk of infarctation of the heart and other organs.

Cholesterole - . Cholesterole is a fat-like compound found in the food, but also syntisized from saturated fat by the body. High intake of saturated fat or of cholesterole itself,  therefore elevates the cholesterole level in the body. Cholesterole is a neccessary compund, but in higher amounts it causes clogging of the blood vessels, causes coronary heart disease and increases the risk of infarctation of the heart and other organs.

Trans-fat - This type of fat is produced by chemical processing to yield specific mechanical properties. Margarine often contains this type of fat. This type of fat is dangerous, and is a probably a causal component for heart disease and cancer. There is however one exception: Some amount of fat containing the trans acid conjugated linoleic acid seem to be benevolent for the skin health and may help reduce weight. Conjugated linoleic acid is found in milk and butter.

Common problems of the average diet

The average American and European diet generally contains too much fat and carbohydrates combined. The fat consumed is generally a mixture of trans fat, saturated fat and omega-6-poly-usaturated fat. This fat misconsume causes overweight and is probably a major contributing component for the incidence of heart disease, cancer, intestinal inflammatory diseases, rheumatism and other inflammatory conditions.

 

Recommanded amount of fat in the diet

A common advice is to let 25-30 % of the energy needed be covered by fat, and the rest by carbohydrates. However, experts do not agree at his point. Some recommand a low carbohydrate diet with more fat, and others recommand a high carbohydrate diet with a low fat amount.
In either case, the combined intake of fat and carbohydrates should not be much higher than your daily energy consumption if you have a normal or wanted weight. If you want to loose weight, this combined amount must be lower. If you want to gain weight, it should be higher.

 

The right mixture of fat types

The right mixture of different fat types is as important as the amount of fat in the diet to keep good health. However, you must not take the percent ratios given here too literally, since there is much unagreement about the exact ratios that should be recommanded. Furthermore, if you have an active lifestyle that demands much energy, this is best achieved by increasing the amount of carbohydrates and mono-unsaturated fat.

Mono-unsaturated fat - Ideally as much as 35% of the fat consumated should be from this type of fat. You can find this fat in olives, canola, rape, almonds, peanuts, cashew, pecan, hickory nuts, hazel nuts, pistachio, macadamia, filbert, avocado and oils form these sources.

Olive oil, canola oil, rape oile and other of these oil types are good for hot cooking and gentle frying, since they are fairly stable against heating and exposure to air.

Omega-3-poly-unsaturated fat  - 20 % of the fat consume should be from this type. You find it in fat fish, fish oil, seafood, other marine oils, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, perilla and perilla oil.

If you suffer from inflammatory conditions like rheumatism and intestinal inflammation, you will probably benefit from increasing the amount of this fat type, and reduce the amount of other fat types.

Omega-3-oils shoild not be used for hot cooking and frying. You should add them to the food after the warm cooking or take them with a tablespoon as a supplement. You should also keep them locked  away from the air.  They easily get oxidized or otherwise chemically altered by exposure to heat and oxygen. By such degradation, these fat types will convert to harmful substances.

Omega-6-poly-unsaturated fat - 30 % of the fat taken in should be from this fat type. You find it in sunflower, safflower, grape seed, cotton seed, soy, walnut, corn, sesame, wheat germ and oils from these sources.

Soy oil and other of these oils can be used in warm cooking, but not for frying. These oils are also susceptible for heat and air exposure, but much less so than omega-6.oils. Therefore they can tolereate cooking, but not frying.

Saturated fat - Not more than 15 % of the fat consumption should be saturated fat. Saturated fat is found in fat from mammals, coconut fat and in milk.

Cholesterole -  The cholesterole level in the body depends upon the combined amount of consumed cholesterole itself and saturated fat. To keep the cholesterole level right, you should not consume too much saturated fat, and not very much of food containing cholesterole, like eggs and spawn.

Trans-fat - This type of fat should ideally not be a part of the diet at all.  Margarine, cookies, snacks and often also bread contain this type of fat. It is therefore important to reduce the consume of margarine, cookies, snacks, and to check the composition of the bread you consume.

Conjugated linoleic acid - This is perhaps the only trans fat acid that is benevolent in some amuont. It is found in natural milk fat, and you can buy dietary supplements of this substance. A small amount of this substance may help keep your skin healthy and may help you to reduce weight.

 

Some fatty acid chemistry

A fatty acid molecule consists of a chain of carbon atom. To the carbon atoms are attached hydrogen atoms. At one end, there is a carboxylic group -c=o(oh). The other end is called the omega (w)-end. The carbon atoms are numbered form the omega-end. Each carbon atom has 4 bonds. These bonds are used to bind the carbon atoms together, and to attach hydrogen atoms to the carbon atoms.

If the chain has attached the maximal number of hydrogen atoms to the carbon atoms, the fatty acid is called saturated or alifatic.

However, a hydrogen atoms on two neighbour carbon atoms can miss, and then there will be a double bound between these atoms. Several pairs of neighbour carbon atom can miss hydrogen atoms and have double bonds between themselves. Such a fatty acid is called unsaturated. If there is one double bond, they are called mono-usaturated. When there are more than one double bonds, they are called poly-usaturated.

Usaturated acids are classified according to which atom the first double bond goes from. A omega-3 acid has the forst double bond at the carbomn atom 3. In a omega-6-fatty acid, the first double bond is at the carbon atom 6, and in a omega-9-acid the first double bond is situated at carbon atom 9.

Let us look at the most important fatty acids in the diet:

Linoleic acid: This is a omega-6-acid with 18 carbon atoms and with 2 double bonds with two sigle bond between each double bond.

Alfa-Linoleic acid: This is a omega-3-poly-unsaturated acid with 18 carbon atoms, with 3 double bonds with two sigle bonds between each double bond.

Oleic acid: This is a omega-9-mono-unsaturated acid with 18 carbon atoms and with 1 double bond. .

The listed acids are found in plant sources, and the body can make all necessary other acids from them.

However, there are two omega-3 acids that are found in fish and seafood, that should be supplied, because a diet rich in these acidw are good for the circulatory health, those are:

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA): This is a omega-3-poly-unsaturated acid with 20 carbon atoms and with 5 double bonds with two sigle bonds between each double bond.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): This is a omega-3-poly-unsaturated acid with 22 carbon atoms and with 6 double bonds  with two sigle bonds between each double bond.

Sis and trans fatty acids

Two carbon atoms with a double bond between them, have one hydrogen atom attached each. The hydrogen atoms can be at the same side in each carbon atom, and the binding is then called a sis-binding. The hydrogen atoms can also be on the opposite sides, and then the binding is called a trans-binding.

A fatty asid with only sis-bindings is called a sis-acid, and one with only trans-bindings is called a trans-acid.  The molecules of a sis-acid are folded or scrolled together, and this makes them more easily floating. tthan trans-acids.

Most natural fatty acids are of the sis-types. By chemical processing, much trans-acids are produced, and these have been found to be very dangerous for the health.

However one trans-acid occur naturally, and seem to be healthy in small quantities - conjugated linoleic acid.

In most natural fatty acids, all the bindings are of the sis-type, and they are therefore called sis-fatty acids.

To see a table of the fatty acid compositions of several oil types, please go here

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by Knut Holt


 

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This information is nutritional in nature and should not be construed as medical advice. This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.