All About Healthy and Unhealthy Fats

Our obsession with fat started in the 1960s when the low-fat diet was popular. People would hear about the latest low-fat foods from their friends and neighbors, try them out, and later wonder why these diet trends didn’t really work. Well, that’s because cutting back on fat means cutting back on both the unhealthy fats and the healthy fats.

The logic we’d been using for years, that fat equals weight gain, high cholesterol, and health problems, is not entirely true. Modern doctors and nutritionists now emphasize that your body needs some fat - it’s about ingesting the right type of fat that will keep you healthy. 

Benefits of healthy fats

• Essential source of energy
• Absorbs vitamins and minerals
• Builds cell membranes
• Lowers triglycerides and blood pressure
• Reduces harmful LDL cholesterol 
• Helps with blood clotting, inflammation, and muscle movement
• Helps prevent heart disease, stroke, abnormal heart rhythms, atherosclerosis (hardening/narrowing of the arteries) 

Types of Healthy Fats

Monounsaturated fat: Monounsaturated fat can be found in foods like olive peanut, canola, and sunflower oils, avocados, and nuts.

Polyunsaturated fat: Polyunsaturated fats are required for your body to function normally, and the two main types are omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Since your body doesn’t produce unsaturated fats naturally, you need to get them from another source - food! Polyunsaturated fat can be found in vegetable oils, fatty fish, seeds, and nuts.  

Use these two types of fats to replace saturated and trans fats (more on these below).

Discover this list of 10 healthy high fat foods. The good thing about this list? Many of these healthy fatty food are staples of the Mediterranean diet that’s prevalent in Spain. In fact, it was studying the Mediterranean region and their diet in the 1960s that led researchers to understand the benefits of some fat, as the people living there enjoyed a low rate of heart disease despite a high-fat diet. 

Detriments of Unhealthy Fats

• Weight gain
• Clogged arteries
• Increases the amount of harmful cholesterol in the bloodstream while simultaneously reducing beneficial cholesterol. 
• Creates inflammation linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. 
• Contributes to insulin resistance, which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. 

Types of Unhealthy Fats

Trans fat: Trans fat is an industrial-made fat, it’s a byproduct of the process used to turn healthy oils into solids and prevent spoiling. They have no known health benefits and there is no safe level of consumption. 

The World Health Organization has asked governments worldwide to eliminate the use of trans fats by 2023. While trans fats are already banned in many countries, they can typically be found in margarine or vegetable shortening. This means that if trans fats aren’t banned in your country, you could potentially find them in everything from cookies to pizza dough to your favorite snacks. 

Saturated fat: Saturated fats are not entirely terrible, but they should be limited to about 10% of your daily calories. The reason why is they can contribute to bad cholesterol and blocked arteries. Common sources of saturated fat include red meat, whole-fat dairy products, butter, lard, cheese, palm and coconut oils.

Limiting unhealthy fats and replacing them with healthy fats is just one step in the journey to achieving a good overall well-being. Check out these other 7 tips for improving your diet and health. And, if you’re looking for more information on food, health, and wellness in Spain, check out the Typical Non Spanish blog.

If you're thinking about going on a diet, we always recommend you to check in with your doctor or a specialist. They will know advise you and they will take care about you and your health.