Well, if you thought carbs got a bad rap, this week we’re talking about fats.
Sheesh.
I mean, just the word—fat—is enough to make most people cringe…because our society’s hatred for fat has gotten to the point that it’s become internalized and just hearing the word freaks many people out.
Because it goes well beyond the intended scope of this particular post, for today we’re going to make only an utterly inadequate and passing mention of the connection between our society’s strong anti-fat bias and racism and white supremacy. At the core of it, we have a set of internalized ideas that have served as unconscious permission to treat some people as less than…which is something worth deconstructing and rethinking—or, reimagining, if you will.
There’s a lot of disinformation and misunderstanding that plays into our collective confusion about the class of nutrients known as fats.
Are saturated fats bad? What about cholesterol? What are omega-3s? Should I even eat any fat at all, ever?
Spoiler alert: No. Also no. We’ll discuss them shortly, and absolutely yes.
Generally, if you make a point of eating mostly whole, minimally-processed foods while minimizing the amount of processed food you eat, you’ll be right as rain.
Nuance: just about everything is processed to some degree or another and access to minimally-processed food is a privilege. As with all things nutrition, as a general rule, if you do the best you can, chances are it’ll work out…and, if you feel stuck, let’s find a time to chat to see if we can help.
I tried to keep this one brief, but there’s a lot of ground to cover—even if very briefly—so this is going to be one of those mid-season two-parters.
In this episode:
- Science! …because it leads to understanding.
- Saturated vs unsaturated fats
- Dietary Fat:
- What’s good about having fat in your diet.
A Brief Bit of Science About Fats!
Bear with me for a moment, we’re gonna get a bit nerdy:
Fat molecules have a ‘backbone’ made of a compound called glycerol, with three fatty acids attached. Fats are also sometimes referred to as triglycerides (and now you can probably imagine where that name comes from…glycerol + three fatty acids=triglyceride).
Each fatty acid is made up of a chain of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms attached.
Saturated fats and unsaturated fats (which can further be subclassified as monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats) all describe fatty acids with slightly different chemical structures, based on the type of bonds between the carbon atoms.
In general, if it’s solid or semi-solid at room temperature, it’s probably a saturated fat. Think butter, coconut oil, or cocoa butter.
If it’s liquid at room temperature, it’s most likely unsaturated. Sunflower oil, canola oil and olive oil are good examples.
These differences in chemical structure mean each has different functions and effect in the body.
Dietary Fat
Dietary fat plays six major roles:
- It provides us with energy. (Fat is, in fact, the most energy-dense macronutrient).
- It helps to make and balance hormones.
- It forms our cell membranes.
- It forms our brain and nervous system.
- It helps to transport the fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E, and K.
- It gives us two polyunsaturated fatty-acids our bodies can’t make on our own (which, in case you’re curious are one Omega-3 and one Omega-6 fatty acid).
Most dietary sources of fat are a mix of all three types: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. For example, eggs contain more monounsaturated fatty acids than saturated fatty acids (and a small amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids).
All of them are good fats.
And, ideally, we want to eat a relatively equally balanced mix of fat types. Conveniently, this happens quite naturally if we choose to eat a wide selection of diverse, whole, less-processed foods, such as:
- nuts and seeds
- avocados
- dairy
- eggs
- fatty fish
- beef, pork, and lamb
- poultry
- wild game
- olives and extra virgin olive oil
- fresh coconut
(If you’d like to dive deeper, check this out)
Next time…
Next time, we’ll talk about healthy fats and not-so-healthy fats, Omega-3s and Omega-6s and Cholesterol. And then we’ll put it all together with a hand-based serving size recommendation for healthy fats.