Fats are an important part of your diet, but often misunderstood, so let's find out what fat really is all about and debunk a few myths along the way. Besides protein and carbohydrates, dietary fat is one of the three main macronutrients besides protein, one of the essential macronutrients, that means your body needs some fatty acids to survive and cannot produce them from other foods. You also need fat to regulate hormone production and to keep your skin and hair healthy. Fat also helps you absorb vitamins A, D and K, the so called fat soluble vitamins. And lastly, fat cells insulate your body and help you to keep warm. one gram of fat has around nine calories, which is more than twice the number of calories in a gram of carbohydrates and protein, which each have four calories program.

There are two main types of fat, saturated and unsaturated fats. Saturated fats were long referred to as bad fats as it was believed that raised your LDL cholesterol level. Cholesterol is a soft waxy substance that can cause clogged or blocked arteries. Therefore, high LDL cholesterol can theoretically put you at risk for heart attack, stroke and other major health problems. Nowadays, the effect of saturated fats on LDL cholesterol seems to be a lot less problematic than previously thought. And the debate whether saturated fat directly increases your risk of heart problems is still unsettled.

But until we know more, it's probably best to limit foods that are high in saturated fats. foods that contain a lot of saturated fats or animal products such as butter, cheese, whole milk, ice cream, cream and fatty meats. Some vegetable oils such as coconut palm and palm kernel oil also contain saturated fats. You can easily identify saturated fats as they're usually solid at room temperature. unsaturated fats on the other hand can help you a lot your LDL cholesterol. Most vegetable oils that are liquid at room temperature have unsaturated fats.

Among the unsaturated fats we can distinguish two kinds mono unsaturated fats, which include all of them canola oil, and polyunsaturated fats, which includes sunflower corn and soy oil. One last type of fat that you will stumble across are trans fats. trans fatty acids form when vegetable oil is infused with hydrogen. This is often done to keep foods fresh for a longer time. The problem is that studies show that relatively small amounts of these paths will increase the risk of different health problems including heart disease, Alzheimer's, breast cancer, depression and more. Therefore, definitely try to avoid or limit foods with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, such as hard butter and Margarita