Healthy Fats Part II

 

Find your fat-friendly style

Depending on your lifestyle and preferences, the way you approach fat may vary. If you’re someone who mostly eats out, or takes advantage of frozen or pre-packaged meals, you might want to take a simpler approach. On the other hand, if you enjoy cooking and have a real interest in nutrition, you may prefer to go a little more in-depth with how you incorporate fats into your diet. And for those with specific health concerns like diabetes, cancer or heart disease, there may be other elements to consider.

The simplest way to approach fats is to replace the saturated and trans fat in your diet with healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, and to increase your intake of Omega-3 fatty acids. How do you go about doing this?  To start, you can figure out what your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of fat should be. According to the American Heart Association (AHA)  and America Diabetes Association, 25% to 35% of your total daily calories should come from fat. So, for a baseline 2000 calorie diet:

Use these percentages to your advantage by making sure the fat you do consume is healthy (monounsaturated or polyunsaturated). You can figure out your personal daily fat limitations based on your body type and age here.

Fat-friendly lifestyle tips part#1: Out with the bad

Since the best (and easiest) thing you can do is elimnate the saturated fats and trans fats in your diet and make sure that the fat you do consume is the healthy kind, the first step to fat-friendly eating is to become aware of the fat content in some of your favorite foods.

To give you an idea of how fast your fat RDA can add up, we went shopping for three days worth of meals, choosing popular items that are high in “bad” fats. The percentages are based on a 2000 calorie diet with 30% of calories coming from fat (the same formula used for the nutrition information on all food items). Be forewarned – learning how much bad fat is in your favorite foods can be downright scary!

Bad Fat Can Add Up Quickly!
Fat from one item in each meal
	Total Fat	Saturated Fat	Trans Fats
Ben & Jerry's Mint Chocolate Chunk (1cup, 106g)	34g	24g	0g
Pillsbury Grand Buttermilk Flaky Layers Biscuits (1biscuit, 58g)	9g	2g	3g
Jimmy Dean's Breakfast Bowl - Sausage Flavor (1 bowl, 227g)	34g	14g	1.5g
DiGiorno Pizza For One Garlic Bread Crust - Pepperoni (1 Pizza, 274g)	44g	16g	3.5g
Total	121g	56g	8g

Fat-friendly lifestyle tips part #2: In with the good

Okay, so you realize you need to avoid saturated fat and trans fat… but how do you get the healthy monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and omega-3 fats everyone keeps talking about? Again, it comes down to how much time and effort you put into meal planning. The following tips have been divided up into simple tips and advanced tips, so you can pick and choose what works best for your lifestyle.

Healthy fat eating tips: Keeping it simple

• Dress your own salad. Commercial salad dressings are often high in saturated fat,unhealthy chemicals, and made with inferior, overly-processed, damaged oils. Create your own dressings with high-quality, cold-pressed olive oil, flaxseed oil or sesame oil and your favorite herbs.
• What’s better: butter or margarine? Both have good and bad points. With margarine, choose the soft-tub versions, and make sure the product has zero grams trans fats and no partially hydrogenated oils. Regardless of whether you choose butter or margarine, use it in moderation and avoid adding it to other foods. Olive oil is a healthier substitute.
• The meat of the matter. Beef, pork, lamb, and dairy products are high in saturated fat. Choose low-fat milk and lower-fat cheeses like mozzerella whenever possible; enjoy full-fat dairy in moderation. Go for lean cuts of meat, and stick to white meat, which has less saturated fat.
• Don’t go no-fat, go good fat. If you are concerned about your weight or heart health, rather than avoiding fat in your diet, try replacing all the bad fats with good fats. This might mean replacing some of the meat you eat with beans and legumes, and using vegetable oils rather than tropical oils, which tend to contain more saturated fats.
• Ask what type of oil your food is cooked in. When eating out, ask your server or counter person what type of oil they use in their cooking. If it’s partially-hydrogenated oil, run the other way. Otherwise, see if you can request your food to be prepared using olive oil, which most restaurants have in stock.

Healthy fat eating tips: Delving deeper

If you are really interested in getting the best, most potent healthy fat into your diet, then raw is best. Eat fats and oils directly from whole foods without any processing or heat.  Raw nuts & seeds, avocados, and olives are good examples. 

The second part to advanced healthy fat nutrition is to know your oils. Depending on what you are using them for (cooking, dressing salads, etc.) and what health benefits you are seeking, you may want to incorporate several types of oils into your diet.

The Oily Awards: The Best Oils for Health and Taste

1st place: Olive oil.  The best oil in terms of availability, variety, and versatility, olive oil contains substances that lower cholesterol, improve heart health, and help prevent cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. Choose the extra virgin kind, which has the lowest acid content and best taste.

 

• Good points: Great for dipping bread, dressing salads, or drizzling on roasted veggies. Olive oil is great for low-heat cooking (sautees, sauces).
• Bad points: It’s low smoking point of 300°F makes it the wrong choice for frying

 

2nd place: Canola oil. High in healthy monosaturated fat, canola oil does have more saturated fat than olive oil, but still less than other vegetable oils. It also contains 30% polyunsaturated fat, 10% of which is omega-3 ALA. A recent study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition showed that canola oil has the ability to lower triglycerides in the blood.

• Good points: Super choice for frying. Canola’s smoke point is an impressive 420°F
• Bad points: Canola oil is genetically modified, making some experts question its health benefits.  Choose the cold-pressed varieties if possible.

 

3rd place: Peanut oil. Due to its high saturated fat content, you may be surprised to see peanut oil on this list. But a Penn State study found that peanut oil can lower total and bad LDL cholesterol as well as olive oil. Other studies have linked peanuts and peanut oil to weight loss, despite their high fat content.

• Good points: Tasty and inexpensive. Choose the unrefined version when possible for greater health benefits. Smoking point is a bit higher than olive oil.
• Bad points: High in omega-6, which most of us already have in abundance in our diets. 

 

Honorable mentions:

Sesame oil – With a similar fat profile to peanut oil, sesame oil contains antioxidants that prevent free radical formation when heated. Ayurvedic medicine uses sesame oil to eliminate toxins from the body. Low smoking point; useful for baking, sautéing or stir-frying.

Macadamia Nut Oil – Has a larger percentage of monounsaturated fat than olive or canola oil, low omega-6 content, and its high levels of natural antioxidants prevents it from producing trans fats when heated. Great shelf life and high smoking point.

The Omega-3 fatty acids: finding the best sources & supplements

We should all be increasing our intake of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which we need for body functions like controlling blood clotting and building cell membranes in the brain. We’re still learning about the many benefits of Omega-3, but research has shown it can help conditions from cancer to depression to bowel disease.

The best way to ensure that you’re getting the omega-3 fatty acids you need is to eat one good source every day. At the bare minimum, two servings of fatty fish a week can suffice, but there are other ways of getting Omega-3, as shown in the chart below.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: The Best food Sources

Cold-water fish sources (4 oz = a bit larger than a deck of cards)

• Salmon (fresh or frozen)
• Bluefish (fresh or frozen)
• Mackerel (canned, drained)
• Sardines (canned in oil, drained)

Non-Animal Sources

• Flax seeds, ground
• Flax seed oil
• Walnuts
• Soybeans (cooked)

Source: Minnesota Nutrient Data Base 4.04, Tufts University School of Medicine

Fish and Mercury: How Concerned Should You Be?

There’s a lot of concern over the levels of mercury and other contaminants in our fish supply. However, fish and seafood are the best sources of heart-healthy Omega-3 fats. According to Harvard University’s School of Public Health, the levels of mercury currently found in fish are relatively low: while eating farmed salmon twice a week could increase your risk of cancer by a tiny percentage, it could reduce your risk of heart disease by a significant amount.

You can reduce your risk of mercury intake by eating a variety of fish and other seafood. Avoid shark, swordfish, king mackarel and tilefish, which are notoriously high in mercury. Rather, eat up to two meals a week of shrimp, canned light tuna (albacore tends to have more mercury than canned light tuna), salmon, catfish, and other low-mercury fish. Find a list of fish with their mercury load and Omega-3 content here.

Choosing the best Omega-3 Supplements

What about vegetarians or people who just don’t eat fish? The vegetable sources of omega-3 contain mostly ALA, which is only one type of Omega-3. You also need DHA and EPA to stay healthy. Luckily, there are a number of high-quality DHA and EPA omega-3 supplements on the market. Most are made with fish oil, but it is possible to find vegetarian capsules as well.

When choosing an omega-3 supplement, keep the following in mind:

• One 500-mg capsule per day is sufficient – any more than that is extraneous and could even be detrimental to your health. The American Heart Association recommends consuming 1–3 grams per day of EPA and DHA. For certain medical conditions, higher doses of omega-3 might be beneficial, but make sure these are prescribed by a medical professional.
• Choose supplements that are mercury-free, pharmaceutical grade and molecularly distilled.
• Make sure the supplement contains both DHA and EPA. They may be hard to find, but supplements with higher concentrations of EPA are better. A good ratio to look for is 3:2 (EPA:DHA).
• Check the expiration date!

Related links for Healthy Fats Part II: Designing a personal plan for wise use of fats

Healthy Fats – Explains what types of fats and how much of them should be included in a healthy diet. Includes a chart listing typical serving sizes. (University of Michigan)

Guide to Healthy Cooking Oils – Information and advice on choosing the healthiest oils for cooking and eating. (Homemakers.com, commercial site)

Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids – Advice on choosing an omega-3 supplement, as well as the numerous health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. (Women to Women)

Flax Seed – Reviews the benefits of flax seeds and how best to incorporate them in your diet. (UC Berkeley Wellness Letter Guide to Dietary Supplements)

Choosing Fish for Nutrition, Safety, and Sustainability – Chart offering detailed information on the best fish, using a variety of factors. Includes EPA and DHA contents. (Kansas State University)