Good fat vs. bad fat

victoriafratz
victoriafratz Posts: 1
edited November 9 in Food and Nutrition
I've recently become obsessed with avocados. I've heard all about their benefits and how they are the "good kind of fat". I consume a very low fat diet already and never paid attention to fat consumption. Can someone explain how good fat is stored and broken down in the body vs. bad fat?

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    The only bad fat is trans fat. I don't really understand you question.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    edited January 2015
    There's been a lot of recent science on this. Basically, you can divide dietary fats into 4 kinds: Trans, saturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated. This link gives a good, clear explanation: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/

    Avoid trans-fats altogether. Limit your consumption of saturated fats. Concentrate on mono- and poly-unsaturated fats for your fat consumption. Dietary fat is not directly stored as such. Fat is created by the body when it has excess energy to store.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    edited January 2015
    kommodevaran wrote: »
    The only bad fat is trans fat. I don't really understand you question.

    After moving to a high fat diet and doing a lot of reading I to now think Trans Fat is the only bad fat to keep my eye looking for. I think Trans Fat is not an issue as long as they are <2% of your diet but the cool thing is Trans Fat usage is very low today so not a real concern in my mind. Most of my fats are saturated fat but many are medium chain triglycerides from coconut oil. Currently fats is 80% of my calories since my goal is nutritional ketosis for pain management. Fats are required for life unlike carbs I learned.

    In my case Fats help make me thin and Carbs help make me fat. It may be the other way around for another as far as I know.

  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Fats and oils are good.
    Transfat is the bad one but it is not in very many foods anymore.
  • jahuntley27
    jahuntley27 Posts: 17
    The person was likely referring to trans fats and saturated fats. Some trans fats exist in nature, but what is most common is a modification to a vegetable oil making it a solid at room temperature. The modification lengthens the shelf life of the oil and is more convenient due to its longer lasting shelf life - think of chaining the oil in the fry-o-later less often. Saturated fats are generally from animal sources, such as fatty meats and full fat diary products.

    A professor once used the following analogy when explaining types of fats. Think of fat as a chain (like one you would use to lock up a bike). A saturated fat molecule is a complete chain and would be difficult to breakdown. Consuming saturated fats may (or will) lead to higher LDL blood lipid (bad cholesterol) levels. Monounsaturated fats have a break in the chain and are commonly found in plant-based liquid oils, such as olive oil. Polyunsaturated fats take the analogy a bit further and may be thought of as a chain with multiple breaks in it, back to the analogy it would be like a chain that is broken in multiple places. Polyunsaturated fats are also commonly plant-based and turn solid when chilled, examples include corn oil and fatty fish. Both mono and poly are unsaturated and improve blood lipid levels (increase good cholesterol HDL).

    Avocados have some saturated fat, but a larger percent of mono- and polyunsaturated fat. They are also full of some other great nutrients, so be mindful of their calories, but I'd keep them in your diet. Try to stay away from processed foods (those that may have trans fats) and foods high in saturated fat and you will be fine.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    edited January 2015
    jahuntley27 wrote: »
    The person was likely referring to trans fats and saturated fats. Some trans fats exist in nature, but what is most common is a modification to a vegetable oil making it a solid at room temperature. The modification lengthens the shelf life of the oil and is more convenient due to its longer lasting shelf life - think of chaining the oil in the fry-o-later less often. Saturated fats are generally from animal sources, such as fatty meats and full fat diary products.

    A professor once used the following analogy when explaining types of fats. Think of fat as a chain (like one you would use to lock up a bike). A saturated fat molecule is a complete chain and would be difficult to breakdown. Consuming saturated fats may (or will) lead to higher LDL blood lipid (bad cholesterol) levels. Monounsaturated fats have a break in the chain and are commonly found in plant-based liquid oils, such as olive oil. Polyunsaturated fats take the analogy a bit further and may be thought of as a chain with multiple breaks in it, back to the analogy it would be like a chain that is broken in multiple places. Polyunsaturated fats are also commonly plant-based and turn solid when chilled, examples include corn oil and fatty fish. Both mono and poly are unsaturated and improve blood lipid levels (increase good cholesterol HDL).

    Avocados have some saturated fat, but a larger percent of mono- and polyunsaturated fat. They are also full of some other great nutrients, so be mindful of their calories, but I'd keep them in your diet. Try to stay away from processed foods (those that may have trans fats) and foods high in saturated fat and you will be fine.
    That's basically the canned speech that has been around for decades, and is misleading at best. First of all LDL is not a bad cholesterol, it's just cholesterol. What is bad are certain cholesterol lipoproteins that exist in some circumstances where other deleterious health markers are also present....basically not all LDL's are to be deemed unhealthy. Also mono and poly fats only increase HDL when they displace carbohydrates in the diet. When displacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats, your actually lowering HDL which also has been know for half a century but for some reason saturated fat never gets mentioned as the fat that raises HDL the most.....it must have caused a lot of peoples brains to fall out thinking about that one I guess, so most just ignored that tidbit of info.
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