🧀 Back to Food Basics : #3 - Fats : The Good the Bad and the Ugly

And that story isn’t pretty, so let’s get things straight once and for all on that greasy story. 🍕 Hold on to your seat, this can revolutionised the way you see your food!

Fat is good for you!

Yes, I know it’s difficult to think otherwise, but knowing that the media and the food industry have been using clever tricks on you for decades, you might have to reconsider a few things about your food intake.

Remember, we spoke about the glucids in an earlier post, and how this sugar gets transformed by our body into fat so it can stock it. Well, that’s where to confusion comes from. To reduce your body fat, the idea is to reduce sugar (glucids) not fat! Fats (because there are several types of fats) are needed by our body to function properly and do not have much of an impact when there are good quality ones.

So let’s shed some light on the Good the Bad and the Ugly. You ready cowboy? 🍿

The Good: Unsaturated Fats

Actually, I should say the good ones, because there are 3 of them, like the three musketeers! These are the all so famous Omegas 3, 6 and 9. Beware! They might be all good, but one of them has a dark side 😅

Omega 3s: Your best ally for a good heart 💖

This is like the best of the amino acids. While it helps our brain, bones and muscles to develop, it also fights heart diseases. Nice one, buddy! You can find it in flaxseed oil, nuts, chia seeds, oily fish and a few veggies...

Omega 6s : The naughty one 😈

Again, no surprises there. As we find omega 6s in meat, eggs, butter, oils, ready meals, you name it... and we tend to eat way too much of it. And when there is too much of it, it prevents our body from assimilating omega 3s while increasing the odds to get heart diseases.

Omega 9s: The cholesterol Firefighter 🚒

This omega is great for the prevention of diabetes and heart diseases. You can find it in avocados, olive oil, chestnuts, almonds...

The Bad: Saturated Fats

Fatty meat, cheese, biscuits, butter…. All of these are technically good for us. The issue is not the product, it’s the quantity. We do eat way too much of it.

Wanna do yourself some good? Let's reduce those cheesy pizzas and all butter biscuits.
N.B. : Note how I didn't say "cut off" but "reduce". Quantities matter, and even if I take my food real seriously, I do have a little cookie or two once in a while. 🍪🍪

The Ugly: Trans Fats

They go by an alias: Hydrogenated fats. They are in all of the food things we find easily accessible and everywhere: pastries, ready meals, cereals, margarine, filo pastries... everything processed, ready to eat and in a box!
Like the names mention, they come out of a transformation process. Vegetal oil is being processed to a point where the molecular structure of the oil changes to get a "better" structure and longer conservation qualities.

This nasty creation from the food industry (which, by the way, was made to answer our need for longer shelf life in products and convenience, so we don't have to cook 😅), has disastrous consequences on your health even in small quantities. Heart diseases and higher bad cholesterol is on the menu, who's in?

Basically, the issue we have today with fat is not linked to the quantities of fat we assimilate, but the quality of the fat we eat. We need to eat higher quality fats !!! Reduce your cookies, pizzas and comfort food, and get some nice oils, nuts, and fishes. Very quickly, your body will thank you and bless you with a new found energy. Trust me, I've been there myself, and I love my food!!!
I'll give you more on my personal experience with food later on, and how to maintain good habits daily. 😉

The key here is QUA-LI-TY. Check things out on packages, and you'll see the crazy things we put our bodies through just by the food we eat!!! Just check things out for yourself, you might be surprised, but not in a good way!