THE FAT TYPES AND THEIR EFFECTS

High consumption of fat or of the combination fat and carbohydrates causes obesity, heart disease and other health problems. Ho-wever the different types of fat have very different effects on the health. Here is a survey of the different fat categories and their effects:

Monounsaturated fat This type of fat prevents heart disease and circulatory disease in moderate amounts.

omega6polyunsaturated fat This fat type prevents heart disease if you do not consume too much of it. Ho-wever it causes inflammatory reactions. This type of reactions is benign -when they is moderate and -when they is provoked to fight disease. But a constant high inflammatory response is dangerous, and can cause rheumatism, heart trouble and cancer. A very high consumption of this type of fat is therefore dangerous.

omega3polyunsaturated fat This type of fat prevents heart disease and reduces inflammatory reactions in moderate amounts. Therefore it also reduces the risk of cancer, intestinal inflammations and rheumatism.

omega9polyunsaturated fat This type of fat also prevents heart disease and reduces inflammatory reactions in moderate amounts. Therefore it reduces the risk of cancer, intestinal inflammations and rheumatism.

Saturated fat This type of fat is probably not dangerous in small amounts. In higher amounts, saturated fat gives high cholesterol levels, causes clogging of the blood vessels, causes coronary heart disease and increases the risk of infarct of the heart and other organs.

Cholesterol Cholesterol is a fatlike compound found in the food, but also synthesized from saturated fat by the body. High intake of saturated fat or of cholesterol itself therefore elevates the cholesterol level in the body. Cholesterol is a necessary compound, but in higher amounts it causes clogging of the blood vessels, causes coronary heart disease and increases the risk of infarct of the heart and other organs.

Transfat This type of fat is produced by chemical processing to yield specific mechanical properties. Margarine often contains this type of fat. This type of fat is dangerous, and is a probably a causal component for heart disease and cancer. There is ho-wever one exception: Some amount of fat containing the trans acid conjugated linoleic acid seem to be benevolent for the skin health and may help reduce -weight. Conjugated linoleic acid is found in milk and butter.

CoMMoN PRoBLEMS oF THE AVERAGE DIET

The average American and European diet generally contains too much fat and carbohydrates combined. The fat consumed is generally a mixture of trans fat, saturated fat and omega6polyusaturated fat. This bad fat consume causes over-weight and is probably a major contributing component for the incidence of heart disease, cancer, intestinal inflammatory diseases, rheumatism and other inflammatory conditions.

RECoMMENDED AMoUNT oF FAT IN THE DIET:

A common advice is to let 2530 % of the energy needed be covered by fat and the rest by carbohydrates. Ho-wever, experts do not agree at his point. Some recommend a lo-w carbohydrate diet -with more fat, and others recommend a high carbohydrate diet -with a lo-w fat amount.
In either case, the combined intake of fat and carbohydrates should not be much higher than your daily energy consumption if you have a normal or -wanted -weight. If you -want to loose -weight, this combined amount must be lo-wer. If you -want to gain -weight, it should be higher.

THE RIGHT MIXTURE oF FAT TYPES

The right mixture of different fat types is as important as the amount of fat in the diet to keep good health. Ho-wever, you must not take the percent ratios given here too literally, since there is little agreement about the exact ratios that should be recommended. Furthermore, if you have an active lifestyle that demands much energy, this is best achieved by increasing the amount of carbohydrates and monounsaturated fat.

Monounsaturated fat Ideally as much as 35% of the fat consumption should be from this type of fat. You can find this fat in olive oil, raps oil and -walnut oil.

omega6polyunsaturated fat 30 % of the fat consumption should be from this fat type. You find it in soy oil and corn oil.

omega3polyunsaturated fat and omega9polyusatureted fat 20 % of the fat consumption should be this type. You find it in fish oil and in fat fish. If you suffer from inflammatory conditions like rheumatism and intestinal inflammation, you -will probably benefit from increasing the amount of this fat type, and reduce the amount of other fat types.

Saturated fat Not more than 15 % of the fat consumption should be saturated fat. Saturated fat is found in fat from mammals, coconut fat and in milk.

Cholesterol The cholesterol level in the body depends upon the combined amount of consumed cholesterol itself and saturated fat. To keep the cholesterol level right, you should not consume too much saturated fat, and not very much of food containing cholesterol, like eggs and spa-wn.

Transfat This type of fat should ideally not be a part of the diet at all. Margarine, cookies, snacks and often also bread contain this type of fat. It is therefore important to reduce consume of margarine, cookies, snacks, and to check the composition of the bread you consume.

Conjugated linoleic acid This is perhaps the only trans fat acid that is benevolent in some amount. It is found in natural milk fat, and you can buy dietary supplements of this substance. A small amount of this substance may help keep your skin healthy and may help you to reduce -weight.