How to Eat Cleaner - Day 12 of 31 - Oils & Fats, What Should We Eat and Avoid?

How to Eat Cleaner - Day 12 of 31 - Oils & Fats, What Should We Eat and Avoid?

Hello everyone. I'm so excited that you decided to join me in our 31 days to cleaner or healthier eating. Each one of these videos will have 1 simple concept for you to chew on. It's your choice what you do with it. Try it for a day, a week, a month or implement for your entire life. My hope is it helps you open your mind to learning more about fueling your body more healthily.

Part of cleaning up what we eat is getting educated and alot of these videos focus on awareness.

Today we talk about oils & fats and yes, this is another topic that could be pages and pages.  Here is just a brief overview, please research for yourself if you want to dig deeper.

Saturated Fat:  A type of fat that comes mainly from animal sources of food. American Heart Association recommended reducing saturated fats to less than 7% of total calories.  Not all saturated fats are equally bad for your health. Saturated fats have been associated with a higher risk of heart disease, cancer, high cholesterol, and possibly type 2 diabetes. High saturated fat can be found in animal fat, cream, cream cheese, butter, lard, coconut oil, cottonseed oil, palm kernel oil, and more. Coconut oil is 47% lauric acid has been show to increase HDL or good cholesterol. It also has a antimicrobial effect. Making coconut oil a good choice for many uses even though it's a saturated fat.  The saturated fat called stearic acid, found in pure chocolate, is more like unsaturated fat in that it lowers LDL levels.

Monounsaturated Fat: A type of fat found in a variety of foods and oils. You can find monounsaturated fats in nuts, avocados, olives, olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil. These fats are being studied because it is thought that they increase good cholesterol HDL and reduce bad cholesterol LDL which may reduce your risk of heart disease. Research has also shown that these fats benefit insulin levels and blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes. Good sources of monounsaturated fats are olive oil, peanut oil, canola oil, avocados, and most nuts.

Polyunsaturated: A type of fat found mainly in plant based foods and oils. Foods rich in this fat reduces LDL more than it reduces HDL and lower triglycerides, which may decrease your risk of heart disease. The 2 types of polyunsaturated fats are omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3s can be found in some types of fatty fish, flax seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, canola oil and unhydrogenated soybean oil. They protect against heart disease and have helpful benefits against rheumatoid arthritis and help lower blood pressure. Omega-6s can be found in nuts, seeds and their oils. This fat also helps lower the risk of heart disease.

Something to note, in the usual diet of fast food and highly processed foods, people are getting alot of omega6 from canola, corn and other oils. Seems good but the body has an ideal ration of omega3 to omega6 and when that is out of balance, we are prone to asthma, heart disease, cancer etc. Getting these omega's from natural sources, seems to naturally keep it in balance.

Trans Fats:  A type of fat found naturally in meat but their main source is processed foods. It's created by partial hydrogenation of unsaturated fats and can be referred to as partially hydrogenated oil. Trans fats increase unhealthy LDL and decrease healthy HDL thus increasing your risk of heart disease. There are no safe levels of trans fats. They are commonly found in cakes, cookies, icings. Something to think about. The food industry does not have to include trans fats on the label if it's less than .5 grams. Does not seem like a big deal, but there is no safe level of trans fats. So a cookie here, a piece of cake here and then at the end of the day you've eaten 1-2 grams of trans fats and did not even know it.

Lots to digest, literally. Total daily fat should not exceed 20-30% of our diet and you don't want to exclude it either. It's necessary for bodily functions.

I've included an oil comparison chart from eatingrules.com. It's very interesting.

Oil Comparison chart: http://www.eatingrules.com/Cooking-Oil-Comparison-Chart_02-22-12.pdf

Think about it, how much meat are you eating, are you using high omega3 eggs, are the oils you use organic, are you checking labels for trans or partially hydrogenated fats?

Thanks for your time. This is Coach Lana and I would love for you to join me at http://facebook.com/coachlana so we can connect.