Fat provides twice the calories per gram as carbohydrates or protein, which is why weight-watching individuals wisely try to avoid it. But in studies of differing fat content in diets with the same total calories, the people who consumed a moderate amount of fat performed 14 percent better in endurance than the low-fat group.
The minimal level of body fat for health is 5 percent for males and 12 percent for females. While the American Dietetic Association recommends a diet of 25 to 30 percent fat, and, even though it sounds like heresy, you should consume 20 to 30 percent of your calories as fat, the average American consumes over 40 percent of their calories in fats! Even so, it's the type of fat we eat that's the problem, not the fat per se. Other parts of the problem include the size of the portions and the amount of food that is highly processed and sugary.
Seveny to 80 percent of your fats should come from the mono or polyunsaturated variety.
The bad fats you want to avoid are saturated, meaning that they have as much hydrogen molecules as possible. These are butter, margarine, and other animal fats. They congeal at room temperature, which give you some idea what they do in your coronary arteries.
These fats affect the way we make prostaglandins, the hormones that regulate inflammation. A meal high in saturated fat increases the inflammatory proteins associated with heart disease, and this elevated level can last for 3-4 hours. Inflammation also negatively affects your muscoloskeletal tissues in dozens of ways.
The very worst fats are the partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated fats, also known as trans fats, created when hydrogen has been added to vegetable oil to increase the shelf life and flavor stablility of foods such as cookies, crackers, and margarine. Trans fats lower the "good" cholesterol (high density lipoprotein, or HDL) and increase the "bad" cholesterol (low density lipoprotein, or LDL). They make the arteries more rigid, cause them to clog, and contribute to type 2 diabetes. So what's good for shelf life is very bad for your life.
The monounsaturated fats (so called because they have one double chemical bond) found in avocadoes, olive oil, peanut oil, flaxsees oil, and canola oil are actually good for you. They can even help you burn off stored body fat. In a 30 week study, people eating peanuts actually lowered their blood levels of triglycerides, the chemical form fat takes en route to your fat cells.
Even more beneficial are the polyunsaturated fats (meaning they have 2 or more double bonds). These are linoleic and linolenic acid, also known as omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. We call these "essential fatty acids," not just because we need them, but because our bodies don't produce them. The have to be part of our diet.
The essential fatty acids are vital for maintaining a healthy frame, and they can be a major boost for individuals troubled by arthritis, tendinitis, and other joint problems.
We normally get plenty of omega-6 (linoleic) in what we eat. It's found in all vegetable oils, such as safflower, sunflower, and corn oils, most grains and beans, as well as poultry and eggs.
The one we need to eat more of is omega 3 (linolenic). Omega-3 is a natural lubricant for the articular surfaces of your joints, as well as for other gliding surfaces such as tendons and bursae. It's found primarily in cold water fish - salmon, sardines, mackerel- but one type is found in dark green leafy vegetables, as well as flaxseed oil, pumpkin, soy and canola oil, and walnuts. Wild game such as venison and buffalo are also good sources of omega-3s.
The health benefits of omega-3 first came to light in the 1970s, when scientists studying the Inuits in Greenland found that those native people suffered far less from coronary heart disease, arthritis, diabetes mellitus, and psoriasis than did Europeans, even though their diet was loaded with fat. Eventually researchers realised it was the omega-3s that gave the Inuits protection from these "diseases of affluence".
Many studies have shown that participants with inflammatory diseases reporting less joint stiffness, swelling, tenderness, and overall fatigue when taking omega-3s. Research also shows that getting more omega-3 fatty acids enables participants to reduce their use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS).
The typical American diet has about a 20 to 1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, but a one-to-one balance is the ideal.
Improving that balance means replacing vegetable oils - safflower, sunflower, corn - with olive oil. This is especially important if you have any forms of inflammation, including aching joints.
Barring a move to Greenland to life off whale blubber, the best way to get more omega-3 is to eat salmon and other fatty, preferably coldwater fish, including herring, sardines, Atlantic halibut, bluefish, tuna, and Atlantic mackerel. The American Heart Association recommends that people eat tuna or salmon at least twice a week, although tunal increases concern about consuming mercury. As an alternative, you can supplement your diet with fish-oil capsules containing omega-3s.
Article is from "Framework" by Nicholas A. Dinubile, MD
