Which Fats Should I Eat?

If you look at the nutritional information on any food package, you will notice an array of fats. Total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, unsaturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. It gets hard to tell what the differences are, and which are good. Before we continue, get the myth that all fat is bad out of your head. Some of those up there are good, but some are nightmares. Let's go through each one, one at a time, so you know if what you're buying is healthy, or best left on the shelf to rot.

Total Fat

Not a type of fat, but rather just the entire count. This includes all good and bad fats. I ignore this portion of the label and go directly into the more important aspect, the actual type of fats I am going to ingest.

Saturated Fat

Saturated fats have longer carbon trees, and are fully "saturated" with hydrogen molecules, hence the name. Now, there has been a long prejudice that saturated fats are bad for you. I am going to agree, an excessive amount of saturated fats are bad for you, as they promote heart disease, and some believe they also increase the chance of cancer.

If you are a healthy person, usually an ingestion of saturated fats won't harm you, but I would stay away from them. Healthy or not, due to the longer chains molecularly, they do take much longer to digest. They have also been known to raise bad cholesterol.

Trans Fat

Here is the nightmare of fat. Trans Fat is sometimes disguised as partially hydrogenated oils which when digested will turn to trans fat, and rarely will you find it on the label. Now, you have heard that trans fat is terrible for you, is there any truth to this claim?

Unfortunately, yes. Trans fat should be avoided by anyone, especially those in poorer health. Trans fat is the only fat known to both decrease good cholesterol and increase bad. There are no health benefits, but there are storing benefits. Trans fat has such an incredible shelf life that it will probably outlive you. However, beyond that scary fact, there is nothing good about trans fat, and no reason you should ever eat it.

Unsaturated Fat

Many labels won't say this, for some reason, but if you want healthy fats here is where you will look. Unsaturated fats are obviously lacking in the excessive hydrogen bonds, and easily digest in the body. These promote good energy levels, decrease heart disease, are good for skin, brain function, and are all around good. If there is any fat you want to eat, it's this one right here. However, there are two types of unsaturated fats, mono and poly. Let's look at them.

Mono & Poly Unsaturated Fats

I grouped these together because there are very similar. Now, the mono and poly prefix have to do with the amount of double bonds in the fat molecule. Mono has one, and poly more than one. Both of these are again great for heart disease and cancer prevention, but out of the two poly is better. Yet, there is a caution to be taken with polyunsaturated fats.

Due to the high amount of double bonds, the molecule is very prone to rancidity. Monounsaturated has a better shelf life, but doesn't have the harmful aspects of other fats like saturated or trans.

So next time you go shopping, you'll know which fats you'll want to buy, and which ones to avoid. Stay healthy, and remain informed.
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Information gathered from Rob Faigin's "Natural Hormonal Enhancement"