Understanding Fat

In casual discussions about nutrition and dieting fat often is considered a bad guy. This is not necessarily true so lets take a closer look at fat to get a better understanding of its role in nutrition. The human body uses fat for energy, insulation, protection against shock, efficient use of protein and carbohydrates, and building cell structures. These are very necessary functions making fat essential to the body. That being said, because of the high fat content of a lot of the foods we eat regularly in the United States we run into problems with excess fat consumption. Rather than give you a chemistry lesson on the different kinds of fat I’ll stick to food label references to fat and the American Heart Associations intake recommendations. There are essentially 4 classes of fats: Trans, Saturated, Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated. The American Heart Association recommends that Trans fats be less that 1% of your daily caloric intake. Saturated fats should be less than 7% of your daily caloric intake. Other fat intake should come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats but your total fat consumption should be less than 25-35% of your total daily caloric intake. Keep in mind when reading food labels that there are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat no matter what kind of fat it is, this will help you monitor how much you’re eating. Eating high amounts of trans and saturated fats will increase your cholesterol level, increasing your risk of heart disease and stroke. Eating excessive amounts of any fat will cause your body to store those extra calories and unless you are exercising enough to burn them off you will experience weight gain. So be diligent in reading those food labels and keep control over how much fat you’re eating.

Sources:

American Heart Association website, www.americanheart.org

Understanding Nutrition, E.N Whitney and S.R Rolfes. 2002 Wadsworth Thompson Learning