The alphabet of a healthy heart: Fats

No more butter on your bread!

- There is no nutritional component in the foods we eat that is as ambivalently treated as fat. The older generations praise fats as an essential energy source, which is strongly linked to their experiences during post war and the golden era. The younger generations don’t want to abstain from fats because of their ability to naturally enhance flavours. Yet nearly everyone who sets high value to a healthy nutrition plan, will have a guilty conscience when eating fatty products.

The most important thing to know about fats is that they are a natural basic element of our body. They enwrap every cell, cushion our organs and offer the largest energy reservoir as a key element of cell membranes. It is not of any surprise that depending on age and sex, our body will be made up of 15 to 30% fat. Nonetheless, in our wealthy nutrition today, too many of the wrong fats are consumed. The German Nutrition Society states that 60 to 80 grams of fat is the daily recommended intake. If you spread a thick layer of butter on your bread, you will have reached this dose after three slices. This analysis disregards all the unknown fats hiding in products such as baked goods, candy, meats and milk products.

When choosing nutritional fats, we should direct our attention to their amount of essential fatty acids because our body cannot produce these. Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids are the best known examples of these fatty acids.

Fatty acids are made up of a long chain of carbon atoms. The last atoms in the chain are given the name of the Greek letter Omega (ω). The number (3 or 6) stands for the position of the last chemical double bond. So with Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, the last one will be positioned three or six carbon atoms away from the end of the chain. If the carbon atoms in the chain are connected by simple chemical bonds, they are known as saturated fatty acids. Their counterparts are the allegedly healthier unsaturated fatty acids, because they possess double bonds in their structure.

Taking in Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids should be in a ratio of 1:4. Yet Omega-6 fatty acids are more often found in our diet today. An ideal proportion of the various fatty acids can, for example, be found in rapeseed oil, which can be easily used to substitute other fats when cooking and baking. Fish, walnuts and linseed oil are also healthy sources for essential fats. Generally, vegetable fats exhibit a larger amount of manifold unsaturated fatty acids and should be favored over animal fats.

It is good to extensively pass on deep fried and industrially produced goods, as they contain a large amount of saturated fatty acids. Furthermore, if using hardened fats under high temperatures, so-called transfer-acid fats can develop. A high consumption of nutrition fats will lead to unwanted fat pads. These may not even be visible if located near the stomach region. Aside from the cosmetic issues of such fat pads, researchers assume that saturated fatty acids and trans-acid fats are responsible for raising the LDL cholesterol in our blood. The LDL cholesterol is often referred to as ‘evil’ cholesterol because an augmented blood ratio is thought to of increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. You should limit your intake of baked goods, fast food, chips and cheap fatty spreads.

Often, only a few changes are necessary to adjust our diet to healthy fats in adequate amounts:If you don’t want to miss out on bread and butter, you can exchange butter for herb or low fat curd cheese. Warm meals can be upgraded by adding fish twice a week. Your kitchen should only contain healthy oils from now on. There are many healthy alternatives to eating hamburgers, pizza and other fast foods. Especially in the mediterranean cuisine you can find recipes where mainly fruits, vegetables, herbs, fish and healthy oils are used. Plus, with these recipes you can add a hint of vacation feeling to your everyday life.

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