Fats and Your Heart 4
Trans fats and your heart
Trans fats are more harmful to your health than saturated fats because they not only raise LDL cholesterol but also lower HDL cholesterol levels.

Fat is a concentrated source of calories—it has nine calories per gram, compared with four calories per gram for proteins and carbohydrates.

This means that small amounts of fatty foods pack a lot of calories.

But simply reducing fat intake does not guarantee weight loss. Not if you don’t feel full, and start eating everything in sight. So as with all things, there must be balance.

Weight is ultimately determined by the total number of calories you consume—whether they come from fats, carbohydrates, or proteins —and the total number of calories expended by your metabolism, daily activity, and exercise. Overeating even fat-free foods can result in weight gain.

People assumed fat-free meant it was good for you, but the products they were eating were often packed full of unhealthful ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup.

Simply put, fat makes you feel full, and fat makes food taste better. If you take out the fat, you need to make it taste better somehow, and that is where the high sugar comes in. It can be no coincidence that obesity and Type 2 diabetes are at epidemic proportions in the US after only a few years of a so-called fat-free diet.

Nevertheless, a low-fat diet that is low in calories and combined with regular exercise will help you maintain an appropriate weight—and lose weight if necessary. Remember that it only takes 2000 extra calories to put on a pound, but 3,500 to take one off.

Weight loss is the most effective way to lower elevated triglyceride levels. It also helps to increase HDL cholesterol. Weight loss is also a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, and a weight loss of as little as 5–10 lbs may lower blood pressure enough to make blood pressure medication unnecessary.

We have also discovered in recent research that fat is not a harmless substance that just sits in our bodies, but can actually release toxins in our system, causing disease, interfering with our feeling of being satisfied when we eat, and more.

These chemical side effects of fat cannot be underestimated, even if we are just beginning to understand them. These new discoveries of the releasing of these harmful chemicals could well be the key to helping explain why Americans are  now more obese than ever despite all of the foods, and dietary and nutrition advice we are surrounded by every day.

The many factors that affect weight control, as well as healthy strategies for losing weight, are discussed in detail in at our sister website Weight Loss Goddess, http://www.weightloss-goddess.com

Fats and Your Heart 3
Polyunsaturated fats and your heart
Like monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats lower LDL cholesterol when substituted for saturated fats in the diet. Polyunsaturated fats called omega-3 fats—particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) found primarily in fish— lower triglyceride levels, prevent potentially fatal abnormal heart rhythms, and slightly lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure.

Omega-3 fats may also make platelets less sticky, and thus less likely to form blood clots that can cause a heart attack.

Another type of omega-3 fat called alpha-linoleic acid (ALA) is found in walnuts and soy, canola, and flaxseed oils.

While ALA appears to share some of the qualities of EPA and DHA, more research is needed to determine its precise heart benefits.

Omega-6s are coming under increasing scrutiny as well for heart health and for overall disease fighting properties.

Fish oil is easily taken in supplement form, and Omega-3s can easily be enjoyed in your salads.

Fats and Your Heart 2
Monounsaturated fats and your heart
LDL cholesterol levels drop and HDL cholesterol levels stabilize (and sometimes rise) when monounsaturated fats replace saturated fats in the diet.

Researchers discovered the value of monounsaturated fats in part by studying the Mediterranean diet, which is associated with low rates of coronary heart disease despite a relatively high amount of dietary fat.

Olive oil is the main source of fat in the Mediterranean diet. The diet is also rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains. The relatively low amount of animal foods in the Mediterranean diet may also account for its heart-healthy benefits.

Fats and Your Heart 1
Saturated fats and your heart
Diets high in saturated fats increase levels of LDL cholesterol, while diets low in saturated fats reduce LDL levels. On average, every 1% reduction in calories from saturated fats reduces total blood cholesterol levels by about 2 mg/dL—mostly from a decrease in LDL cholesterol.

Saturated fats raise LDL levels by reducing the removal of LDL from the blood by the liver.

Dietary cholesterol also raises blood cholesterol levels but not as much as saturated fats.

Macronutrients in our diet:

Dietary Fats and Coronary Heart Disease
The cells in your body use fat as an energy source and need cholesterol as a component of their membranes.

Because fat is not soluble in the watery environment of the bloodstream, the liver wraps the fats and cholesterol in a layer of proteins to transport them through the blood.

There are three main types of these proteinwrapped packages, which are called lipoproteins:
• Very–low-density lipoproteins (VLDL)
• Low-density lipoproteins (LDL)
• High-density lipoproteins (HDL).

VLDL carries fats called triglycerides from the liver to other cells in the body. VLDL is converted to LDL, which are smaller cholesterol- rich particles.

The cholesterol in LDL is often referred to as “bad” cholesterol because it can lead to the formation of “plaques” that narrow the arteries and inhibit blood flow throughout the body. (Like the plaque on your teeth, a sort of residual coating which can cause damage and inflammation)

The formation of a blood clot on a piece of plaque can halt blood flow altogether, leading to a heart attack or stroke, which is why a good diet and exercise are encouraged, to stop arteries from getting clogged.

The cholesterol in HDL is called “good” cholesterol. As it travels through the bloodstream, HDL helps reduce the build-up of plaques by removing cholesterol from the walls of the arteries and returning it to the liver for disposal. HDL is like a helpful set of scrubbing bubbles to keep your arteries clean, but of course, you are what you eat.

High levels of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol and low levels of HDL cholesterol are associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease.

However, reducing blood levels of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol and raising blood levels of HDL cholesterol help prevent the formation of plaques. The different types of fats in food have varying effects on the levels of triglycerides and LDL and HDL cholesterol in your blood.

Triglycerides are the body’s main source of stored energy. Like cholesterol, triglycerides are obtained from food and manufactured in the liver. Also like cholesterol, triglycerides require lipoproteins for their transport in the blood.

Most of the triglycerides in blood are carried by very low density lipoprotein (VLDL). Dietary triglycerides are carried from the intestine on other lipoproteins called chylomicrons.

Elevations in blood triglycerides may promote atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries) by altering the size, density, and composition of LDL. In addition, very high blood triglyceride levels can lead to inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis).

Macronutrients in our diet:
So what do the big long words you are reading on your food label really mean, and how can you tell the difference between a good fat and a bad one?

Saturated fats
Saturated fats are solid at room temperature and are found in abundance in animal food products, such as meats, cheese, milk, and butter.
Tropical oils—palm, palm kernel, and coconut oils—are also saturated fats. Generally speaking, they are inexpensive and not very healthy fats, but they are put in the food to make them taste better.

Monounsaturated fats
Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and predominate in foods such as olive oil, canola oil, almonds, and avocados. These are natural sources of fats that are high in nutrients.

Polyunsaturated fats
Like monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. They make up the majority of the fats in safflower, sunflower, and corn oils; certain kinds of so-called fatty fish; and nuts such as walnuts. The polyunsaturated fats found in plants are called omega-6 fats. Fish contains both omega-6 fats and another type of fat called omega-3.

Small amounts of omega-3 fat are also found in plant foods such as walnuts and soy, canola, and flaxseed oils.

Omega fatty acids have become of particular interest recently for their heart-healthy and other disease-fighting properties.

Trans fats
Trans fats are unsaturated fats (although they are more solid and shelf stable than other unsaturated fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats), but they act like saturated fats in the body.

Trans fats are found in many packaged cookies, crackers, and other baked goods as well as in commercially prepared fried foods and most margarines. They are notoriously artery-clogging, and in fact are thought to be so bad for you that New York City instituted a full ban on trans fats in all public restaurants and eateries.

So what effect do these fats have on our health? We will discuss this in our next article.

Macronutrients in our diet:

Dietary Fats and Your Health
You probably know that reducing the fats in your diet can lessen the risk of several chronic diseases, including obesity, coronary heart disease, and some forms of cancer.

But not all types of fats have the same effects on your health. For one thing, fat helps you feel full, and gives you sustained energy over time, rather than just in a burst at the start as with carbohydrates, which then leaves you feeling drained and hungry again ( a sugar high).  We don’t think it is any coincidence that as soon as Americans started to adopt a ‘fat-free’ diet, they began to get more obese than any previous generation.

In general, the fats you eat can be divided into two categories: “bad” fats (saturated and trans fats) and “good” fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats).

No food contains just one type of fat. Instead, the fat in a particular food is classified as saturated or unsaturated based on the type of fat that predominates.

For example, olive oil is typically thought of as a monounsaturated fat, but it also contains some polyunsaturated and saturated fats. The same holds true for meat, which is considered high in saturated fat but also contains healthier fats.

Then there are trans fats, thought to be the most dangerous, yet the cornerstone of the fast food and snack industries.

So what does it all mean, and how can you tell the difference between a good fat and a bad one? We will discuss this in the next section.

We’re reviewing more of the latest diets at Weight Loss Goddess this month. Why not visit us?