How Important are Fats in a Healthy Diet

By Brendan Brazier • November 9th, 2009 • 9952 Views

How important are fats, what forms should you be consuming and in what quantities? It was not long ago when then medical community was advocating the avoidance of all fat, even in the form of nuts or an avocado. Long gone are the days of neglect and dismissal when it comes to fat. We have made great progress drawing more clear lines between raw plant based sources that are good for you, even anti-aging, and those that are harmful such as cooked, animal based, and processed saturated and trans fats.

Bad fat

A deficiency of healthy fat runs prevalent throughout the modern day North American diet with the majority of people consuming too many of the detrimental bad fats including saturated fats in meat and dairy, and processed polyunsaturated fats or hydrogenated trans-fat from cooking oil and margarine used in processed foods. Consuming too many of these and not enough of the good fats contribute to stroke, heart attack, chronic inflammation, cognitive impairment, allergy, auto immune diseases and ultimately premature death.

Many of the oils we think are doing our bodies good are in fact causing further damage. The processing of oil can be the difference between good and bad. Some extraction methods for cheaper oils involve high heat, which can actually cause the oil to convert to trans fat. Other extraction methods use chemical solvents to separate the oil, usually done with low-grade oils.

Good Fat

The health benefits of consuming a sufficient amount of fat in the right forms and proper proportions has been shown to be immensely important in an endless number of areas impacting the state of body and mind. Among other things, it can strengthen the immune system, enhance brain and nervous system function such as mood, intelligence and behavior, greatly reduce cardiovascular disease, increase energy and performance, grow healthy skin, hair, and nails, regulate body weight, and improve organ and gland function.

Essential Fatty Acids

Omega-3 and Omega-6 are the two essential fatty acids (EFAs), “essential” meaning that the body cannot produce them — they must be ingested, by eating foods rich in EFA. ...

Tweet

• <<
• <
• 1
• 2
• >
• >>

Location:  Vancouver, CA

Brendan Brazier is a professional Ironman triathlete and a two-time Canadian 50 km UltraMarathon Champion.  He is the bestselling author of Thrive Fitness and The Thrive Diet and the creator of an award-winning line of whole...