Good Fat Vs Bad Fat

Oh! December, a busy month - lots of shopping, parties and more, as we usher in the holidays that come along with the festivals. It is the season of annual holidays with a lot of 'pomp n show'. It is a busy time with a lot of arrangements to be made and gifts to be purchased - celebrating the festival season at home with family/ a get-together with friends/ a holiday getaway just for 'you & your' loved ones. Christmas and New Year are two festivals celebrated all over the globe with a zeal and fervor.

Right dude! But you need to make the right choices as well. With the mouth-watering gourmet - sweets, cakes, pastries and a gamut of other delicacies. Do you have a choice other than gorging yourself? This is where your intellect comes in - how judicial are your choices with respect to your health. Read further to learn about good fats, bad fats & nerve racking and back breaking.

Good Fats Vs Bad Fats

Dietary fats add a good flavor and taste when added to foods. One gram of fat gives 9Kcals of energy, nearly double the amount of energy provided by either carbohydrates or proteins. Apart from giving the richness of taste and fullness of energy, fats improve the texture of food products like the puffiness and flakiness of baked products. As the serving size of fat increases so does the girth around the waist. Each kilogram gain in body weight is proportionate to the increased risk of obesity, heart disorders, diabetes and other life style complications.

Butter, ghee, margarine, cooking oils and lard are called visible fats. Invisible fats are those present in meat, milk, egg yolk, cheese, pastries, cream and so on. It is these invisible fats that bring about more harm as they are difficult to estimate. The fats considered bad are - saturated fats and trans fats. Saturated fats are present in almost all fatty foods - egg yolks, whole milk, butter, dairy products, meat, poultry, coconut, chocolate and cream. All fast foods and junk foods like pizzas, burgers, and ice creams to name a few are all highly laden with saturated fats. Hydrogenated or trans fats are produced by converting vegetable oils into solid fats at room temperature. It is done for commercial purposes like margarine. Both saturated and trans fats have a higher potential risk of heart attacks. One should try to cut down on these for a heart-healthy life.

Good fats are the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats known for their heart-healthy properties. Cooking oils from Soybean, safflower, sunflower, sesame, and corn, soybeans, soft margarine, tofu and fish are examples of polyunsaturated fats or PUFA. Omega-3 fatty acids present in PUFA have a stellar reputation for lowering the risk of heart attacks. These are mostly found in fish and fish oils. Foods containing monounsaturated fats include olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, nuts, avocados and sardines.

Bad fats increase the LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) in the body whereas good fats enhance good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol). HDL's carry cholesterol away from the cells to the liver for excretion whereas LDL's help deposit cholesterol in the cells, thereby increasing the chances of plaque formation (fatty deposits) and consequent heart disorders.