What’s The Difference Between Good Fats And Bad Fats? 

Maintaining a healthy weight and choosing foods that are good for your heart can help prevent and cure heart disease. Any type of fat consumed in excess is bad for your health. However, certain types of fat are better for your heart than others when it comes to overall health. How then do you make wise decisions? Learn to distinguish between food fats and bad fats. 

Bad fats

Bad fats endanger your heart and blood vessel system because they boost your body’s synthesis of cholesterol. Bad fats can also clog your blood arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis. A heart attack may result from a blockage in the blood supply to the heart. A stroke may result from clogged blood arteries in the brain. The following bad fats should be minimized in your diet since they raise your risk of coronary heart disease; saturated fats, hydrogenated fats and trans fats.

Good fats

Some fat don’t increase the risk of heart disease. By reducing your blood cholesterol levels, good fat can help protect your body from heart disease when you eat them in favour of “bad” fat. Even these “healthy” fat include a lot of calories, and most of them will increase your triglyceride levels. Even if they are “healthy” fats, you should still restrict your intake. These “healthy” fats include polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fat, and omega-3 fatty acids. 

What is considered a healthy fat?

Vegetable oils seen on grocery store shelves and that remain liquid at room temperature are known as polyunsaturated fat. Safflower, corn, soybean, cottonseed, and sunflower oils are among examples. Polyunsaturated fat is also found in salad dressings, mayonnaise, and soft tub margarines. To increase the ratio of good (HDL) to bad (LDL) cholesterol, replace saturated, hydrogenated, and trans fat with these ones. 

Vegetable oils that are monounsaturated fat are liquid at room temperature. Examples include avocados, canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil (and olives) (and peanuts). Monounsaturated fat can help decrease LDL “bad” cholesterol without reducing HDL “good” cholesterol if you substitute them for saturated fat in your diet. 

Due to their ability to reduce blood triglyceride and cholesterol levels, omega-3 fatty acids from marine sources are regarded as heart healthy. They also prevent unwelcome blood clotting. Fish with a high fat content, such as salmon, halibut, mackerel, tuna, sardines, sea bass, herring, pompano, and lake trout, are good sources. 2 to 3 times each week, consume fish. Flax seeds, walnuts, canola oil, soybeans, and soy products are vegetarian sources of omega-3 fatty acids; however, vegetarian options might not be as efficient. 

Will eating healthy fat make you gain weight? 

Anyone may gain weight by consuming too many calories from any food group, including fat, protein, and carbs. However, not all calories are created equal. Healthy fats help you maintain blood sugar stability, feel full for longer, eat fewer snacks, and thus consume less calories overall. In contrast, sugar and carbs increase hunger and make it more difficult to limit your calorie consumption. Consuming more fat and less refined carbs is therefore the greatest strategy for long-term weight loss.