Hi friends
Do you know that having fats in your daily diet can make you more fit, healthy, and beautiful?
Yes it’s true
By virtue of the benefits of fats, we can improve our overall health and beauty as well.
Benefits of fats provide a holistic approach to our body. Actually, the foods that we eat contain some essential macronutrients that provide energy and other substances to our body for its proper functioning, and these macronutrients fall into mainly three major groups:
1. Proteins;
2. Carbohydrates;
3. Fats;
Note: Macronutrients are the main source of energy/calories for our body, therefore required in a large quantity.
So being an essential macronutrient of our diet fats also plays a significant role in the proper functioning of our body’s internal organs. While proceeding further with the benefits of fats let’s investigates.
Do you know that having fats in your daily diet can make you more fit, healthy, and beautiful?
Yes it’s true
By virtue of the benefits of fats, we can improve our overall health and beauty as well.
Benefits of fats provide a holistic approach to our body. Actually, the foods that we eat contain some essential macronutrients that provide energy and other substances to our body for its proper functioning, and these macronutrients fall into mainly three major groups:
1. Proteins;
2. Carbohydrates;
3. Fats;
Note: Macronutrients are the main source of energy/calories for our body, therefore required in a large quantity.
So being an essential macronutrient of our diet fats also plays a significant role in the proper functioning of our body’s internal organs. While proceeding further with the benefits of fats let’s investigates.
The function of fats in our body:
Being an essential macronutrient and a source of energy, fat plays a very important role in our body that shouldn’t be avoided. Fats are also a great heat-producer. They also aid in the absorption of various fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, E, K, and D.Fats can also be used as a protein-sparing food because of their protein-sparing effect on the body.
Note: The protein-sparing effect is focused on ensuring the protein that we consume isn’t used as a way to obtain energy. When we spare necessary protein from being used for energy, then our body allows those spare proteins to perform their other important function such as repairing and building tissues and muscles and making antibodies and enzymes.
Fats are also called hydrocarbons because they are made up of a long chained molecular arrangement of carbon and hydrogen molecules. These carbon and hydrogen molecules can be arranged in different ways, which creates different types of fat and their unique properties.
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| Food Sources of Dietary Fats: Saturated Fats & Unsaturated Fats |
The fat which we consume through our diet is a sort of dietary fat and can be broadly classified into following two categories:
1. Unsaturated fats;
2. Saturated fats;
1. Unsaturated fats;
2. Saturated fats;
Unsaturated fats
An unsaturated fat is also called healthy/good fats. They are liquid at room temperature and mainly come from plants and vegetables. They contain minimum one double bond in their chemical organization which distinguishes them from saturated fats.Unsaturated fats can be further classified into
*Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs)
*Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)
Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs)
Monounsaturated fatty acids contain only a single double bond with respect to the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) which contain more than one double bond in their chemical organization.Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs), provides various nutrients such as vitamin E, promote healthy cholesterol levels. Consuming monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) can help lower our risk of heart disease by improving HDL/LDL ratio.
Along with polyunsaturated fats, MUFAs provide those essential fats to our body which plays a role in brain development healthy vision, nervous system functioning, and cardiovascular health as well.
MUFAs may also help improve the function of our blood vessels. Some research also shows that MUFAs can also benefit in blood sugar control and type-2 diabetes.
According to research published in NCBI journal dietary monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) can also prevent photoaging.
You can avail the benefits of fats especially MUFAs by virtue of their diversified dietary sources which are as follows.
*Plants based Oil, such as olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil is the significant source of MUFAs.
*Seeds such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, watermelon seeds are also a rich source of MUFAs.
* Nuts such as almonds, cashews nuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, and pecans are also rich in MUFAs.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential because our body cannot synthesize them on their own, that’s why we have to obtain PUFAs from the dietary sources. PUFAs contain two or more double bonds in their chemical organization.Like MUFAs, you can also avail the benefits of PUFAs by virtue of their diversified dietary sources which are as follows.*Oils, such as fish oil, flaxseed oil, soybean oil, corn oil olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower oil are the significant source of PUFAs.
*Seeds such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, flaxseeds etc. are also a rich source of PUFAs.
* Nuts such as walnuts, cashews nuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, and pecans are also rich in PUFAs.
* Sardines, tuna, wild salmon, eggs etc. are significant non-vegetarian food sources of PUFAs.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are essential for our body, can be further classified into two categories:
1. Omega-3;
2. Omega-6;
Omega-3 is beneficial in the formation of cell walls, making them supple and flexible and improving circulation, can reduce inflammation, prevent cancer, fight against autoimmune disorders, improve bone health, promote healthy and glowing skin etc.
Omega-6 can lower total cholesterol and LDL concentrations, improve the cardiovascular system, reproductive system, immune system, and nervous systems as well.
Note: Omega 6/Omega 3 ratio imbalances is linked with serious health conditions, such as heart attacks, cancer, insulin resistance, asthma, depression, accelerated aging, stroke, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer's Disease.
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats are solid at room temperature because of their higher melting points than their corresponding unsaturated fats.Saturated fats are also called unhealthy/bad fats because they raise the cholesterol level in the blood, and high cholesterol level increases the risk of heart disease. Studies have proved that higher intake of saturated fats is linked to risks of cardiovascular disease.
Although saturated fats are naturally present in various food sources, but the majority of saturated fats comes from animal sources and the dairy product such as meat, butter, ghee, cheese etc.
Conclusion
As our body uses fat as a fuel source, it also serves various other important functions in the body, and a moderate amount is needed in our diet for good health. But we can attain better health condition just by replacing saturated fats with the healthy unsaturated fats. So enjoy the health benefits of unsaturated fats and restrict the consumption of saturated fats to keep your health in check. If you have any query or suggestion you can write it in the comment section or at prajsanjivani@gmail.com.Thanks
Ms. P. Rajeshwari
(Aromatherapist)
Diet & Beauty Consultant
