Many athletes and fitness enthusiasts won't touch anything that even just a little bit of fat in it and prefer to concentrate (almost) exclusively on "fat - free" and "slimline" products. But did you know that it's not actually all that smart to eliminate fat altogether from your diet? Some fats are actually extremely important for growth, reproduction, a healthy skin and healthy body. And did you know that there are fats that actually help to active the burning of fat in your fat cells? One example is conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA prevents fat formation by enabling the body to handle calories more efficiently and by delaying their conversion into fat. CLA also stimulates the conversion into energy of the fatty acids in the fat reserves. If you'd like to know more about CLA, take a look at the weight loss products in the booklet.
Your body needs fats that it can absorb the vitamins A, D, E and K. That's why we call these vitamins the "fat - soluble vitamins", because they need a little bit of fat to be properly absorbed. But because fats supply a relatively large amount of energy (9 kcal per gram) you mustn't consume too much of them. If you do consume too much fat then your body will have an excess of calories. If you don't use up these calories then your body will convert them into fatty acids, which will be stored in your fat cells. That's because your body "thinks ahead": it builds up reserves of energy to cover the possibility that you might, once in a while, have to go without food for a day or two. But however useful this fatty tissue may be, most people don't find it a pretty sight!
Types of fat
There are various types of fat, but the most important distinction is between two kinds: unsaturated fats and saturated fats.
Unsaturated fats are the "good guys", because they reduce your cholesterol level. You find these fats in:
- all sorts of oils, such as arachis oil (peanut oil), corn oil, olive oil, salad oil, soya oil and sunflower oil;
- diet and low - fat margarine;
- low - fat margarine and related products with less than 10 g saturated fat per 100g;
- margarine and margarine products, and cooking, frying and deep - frying fat with less than 20 g saturated fat per 100 g;
- oil - based salad dressing;
- cheese products containing unsaturated fat;
- fatty fish;
- nuts, such as walnuts, peanuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, peanut butter and other nut pastes.
The most important unsaturated fat is linoleic acid. Your body cannot create this fatty acid itself, so you have to obtain it from your food. You can use unsaturated fats for your energy supply much more readily than saturated fats. That's because unsaturated fats continue to circulate in your bloodstream for longer, while saturated fats are more likely to from deposits on the inside of your veins and arteries.
Saturated fats increase your cholesterol level because they start building up on the inside of your blood vessels. This increases your chances of suffering from cardiovascular diseases. That's why you shouldn't consume too much of them. Foods that contain a lot of saturated fats include:
- butter, various cooking and frying fats, standart hard margarine, some vegetable margarines;
- deep - frying fats, including some of vegetable origin;
- fatty meat and fatty meat products;
- full - fat cheese, full - cream milk and full - cream milk products;
- condensed milk and instant coffee, imitation whipped cream;
- pastries and cakes, and snacks such as crisps;
- chocolate
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