Healthy Dieting

The danger of eating too much fat is compounded by the fact that we take in too little of the good fats that actively assist our bodies towards health and leanness, Unfortunately it is true that we avoid the good fats found in avocados, nuts, oily fish and seeds such as sesame-, linseed and sunflower, because we deem them too fattening. Many of us don’t even use raw virgin olive oil in our cooking.

Controlling and re-prioritising one’s daily kilojoule intake from fat is one of the key issues in healthy and permanent weight management. It means limiting your fat intake from certain foods on the one hand, while adding to your diet certain essential fats for healthy weight management on the other. Thus: avoid as much of the bad fats as you can while consuming moderate but correct quantities of good fats,

Fats involved in the body’s functions are divided into two basic groups, There are the saturated fats – found in meat, dairy products and some plants such as coconuts, and there are the unsaturated fats. The latter group is divided into poly-unsaturates (derived from corn and sunflower, to name a few) and mono-unsaturates (found in olives, for instance).

Unsaturated fats are by far the best for the body, not only because they are cholesterol-free, but because they are alive, so to speak, They take part in the biochemistry that produces energy, creates hormones and burns fat reserves. One of the greatest flaws of those drastic diet concepts is that they restrict the intake of all fats, including the good ones. This prevents fat loss, because with insufficient good fats you’re also missing out on the essential fatty acids. They cause body fat to be burnt, almost like the old saying ‘the fats in the fire’! We all know that relatively little fat can turn a smouldering log into a raging fire. That’s what good fats can do for your body: they assist in the metabolic processes.

The importance of essential fatty acids for optimum health cannot be overstressed. They are an essential part of a healthy dieter’s daily nutrient requirements, since they assist in burning fat and creating energy. They are vital to the brain and nerve functions and in balancing the body’s cholesterol levels.

The not-so-good saturated fats should be limited, which naturally includes the hidden fat in meat and meat products as well as dairy products. It follows that a healthy dieter should eat such foods in moderation, and wherever possible, the low- fat varieties.

The bad and ugly fats are the ‘free‘ fats, Be very cautious of them. These fats, saturated or unsaturated, have been separated from their source, (as found in oil expressed from sunflower, palm or coconut and processed into solid margarine, cooking fat and crystal clear cooking oil). ‘Hydrogenated’ and ‘poly-unsaturated‘ fats in many varieties of margarine and oil, (even in some supposedly cholesterol- free ‘healthy’ ones) have been through a series of refining processes involving high temperatures that can alter unsaturated fat into saturated fat. This could block the uptake of essential fatty acids by your body and impede weight loss, also causing long-term damage to your health. Simply avoid them if you want to be safe and slim.

When it comes to fat in your diet, it’s best to use the best there is. And we all know that the best is usually the most expensive. Your fat needs, whether good or bad for the body, are so limited that any expense is worthwhile in the long run. Usually some of the so-called free fats are the cheapest on the shelf and that’s why they are bought in such large quantities. But this is the dumbest thing you could do to your body. Why buy cheap, refined, processed free fat in bulk if you’re not supposed to have much of it anyway?

Always remember that fat, whether good fat such as the essential fatty acids in flaxseed oil or harmful fat such as solid cooking fat or hydrogenated oil, is the main factor in weight management. It makes you fatter than any other food. And yet you don’t really taste it in food as you would taste herbs or spices. You can also not have it on its own in the way you would have a bowl of aromatic soup or a portion of nutty brown rice. All fat simply tastes like, well, fat. It is only when we combine it with other ingredients such as salt, sugar, flour and cocoa that it becomes palatable. In fact, the combination of three or more of those substances makes all the other ingredients palatable by coming together as chocolate or pizza or whatever. And if you think about it, the other ingredients taste just as awful on their own.

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