Good Fats Vs Bad Fats - What You Should Know

Most people today who wish to lose weight resort to paying close attention to their daily meals. First on the list of the things they avoid is fat. For many people, the assumption on nutrition is simple - if you're trying to reduce the size of your belly you should avoid eating meals that contain fat. This is not true. Although few people realize this, removing this from your diet can result in many unhealthy side effects.

Just like other nutrients, our body requires a daily intake of fats in order to function effectively. Amongst many other roles, fats are required for the maintenance of our body cells and is utilized in the transmissions of signals through our nerves as well as the absorption of nutrients. Avoiding them is therefore a big mistake.

Good Fats-Bad Fats, What Are Trans Fats and What to Include in Your Dietary Fats

When it comes to dietary fats, we are always told to choose unsaturated fats over saturated fats. Because saturated fats are believed to be the bad fats. However, in reality this belief is a misleading one; in fact, it's the amount and the type of saturated or unsaturated fats that matter. Both fats have some benefits to offer to our body, except of course the trans fatty acids (or trans fats).

The trans fatty acids are processed or chemically altered fats; these fats are often used in packaged foods, they are referred to as hydrogenated vegetable oils that are solid at room temperature. Trans fats are harmful to our body because they raise the bad cholesterol (LDL) levels and lower the good cholesterol (HDL) levels. We're know that people with high LDL and low HDL ratio are at higher risk of getting coronary heart disease, stroke, arthritis and other chronic conditions.