Unsaturated Fat, Saturated Fat and Trans Fat - Good Fat Or Bad Fat? скачать в хорошем качестве

Unsaturated Fat, Saturated Fat and Trans Fat - Good Fat Or Bad Fat?

Fat is an important type of nutrient to provide calories for our daily life. However, base on the recommendations from health professionals, we should limit the intake of fats in our diets and ensure it makes up no more than 25%-35% of the total daily calories. For example, if you eats 2,000 calories per day, you should get about 500 to 700 calories from fat which is equivalent to 55 to 75 grams of fat per day. If possible, most of those fats should come from healthy good fats. So, the question is. Which fat is considered as good and which one is bad? The common types of fat we can see in our daily diets include unsaturated Fat, saturated fat and trans fat. Knowing the difference between them can help us control the intake of those bad ones.  What does "Saturated" and "Unsaturated" Mean?The reason for calling some fats as "saturated" is because of their chemical structure. As we know, fats are made from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen molecules. Some fats will be called as "saturated" if they have the greatest number of hydrogen atoms and no double bonds in their chemical structure. This structure will make it as solid in room temperature. In comparison, unsaturated fats are usually in the liquid state at room temperature, and they will contain one or more double bonds in their chemical structure. Generally, unsaturated fats are considered as good healthy fats. unsaturated fats are usually found in some plant-based foods such as nuts, seeds and grains, and also in fish and lean meats. A property amount of healthy fat can help to maintain the balance between the good and bad cholesterol in your blood. Generally, there are two main types of cholesterol in human blood. One type is called Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, also referred as LDL or "bad" cholesterol, which can build up on the walls of arteries over time. The result is that it will cause artery walls become hard and narrow, and increase the risk of heart diseases. In comparison, High-density lipoprotein cholesterol, also called as HDL or "good" cholesterol. They will pick up excess cholesterol from the blood and send it back to the liver. The healthy good fat can help keep the balance of the LDL and HDL cholesterol in the blood, and thus keep the health of our blood vessels. Generally, there are main categories of healthy fats, Monounsaturated Fats and Polyunsaturated Fats. Monounsaturated fats are commonly found in plant-based nuts and oils likepeanuts, almonds, cashews, canola and olive oil etc. As for Polyunsaturated Fats, omega-3 fats are omega-6 fats the two important sub-categories. They are also commonly found in plant nuts and seeds as well as oily fish such as salmon, sardines and tuna. In comparison, saturated fats are not considered as healthy as unsaturated fats because consuming a high amount of saturated fats may increase the level of bad LDL cholesterol in the blood, and thus increase the risk of heart disease. Compared with the saturated and unsaturated fat, Trans fats are considered to be some of the most dangerous forms of fat, and the daily consumption of trans fat should be kept as low as possible. Trans fats are usually manufactured through an industrial process to add hydrogen into vegetable oil to make it become solid at room temperature. So, from the structure perspective, trans fats are similar to the saturated fats.However, unlike other types of fats we discussed before, trans fats will raise the "bad" LDL cholesterol and also lowers the HDL "good" cholesterol in your body. Generally, although a small amount of trans fats is coming from natural food such as meat and dairy products, more than 80% of trans fats are from processed foods. In Summary, although there is still a debate about if the saturated fat are healthy or not, we should limit the intake of fats in our daily diet and try our best to avoid the food containing a large amount of trans fat.