If you're concerned about your figure, cutting all fats out of your diet may seem like an effective solution. Your body needs some fats, however, in order to survive. Learning to determine the difference between healthy fats, like unsaturated fats, and unhealthy fats, like trans fats, will help you maintain your weight while still staying healthy.
Significance
According to the McKinley Health Center, fat is one of three micronutrients that are essential to human survival. Micronutrients give energy to the body by providing it with calories. The body requires large amounts of all three micronutrients--fat, carbohydrates and protein. Eating 1 g of fat provides the body with 9 calories. This means that if a food contains 2 g of fat, it contains approximately 18 calories from fat.
Types
Several types of fat are present in the foods we eat: unsaturated fats, saturated fats and trans fats. Some foods may contain all three types of fat; they are listed on the food's nutrition label. Unsaturated fats help lower cholesterol and are considered the healthiest fats. Foods that are high in unsaturated fats include fish, olive oil and canola oil. Saturated fats are found in meat and animal products and can cause heart disease and high cholesterol if you eat too much of them. Foods that are high in saturated fats include butter, milk and cheese. Trans fats are the least healthy and are found in fried foods, store-bought baked goods and margarine.
Benefits
Although eating a large amount of saturated fat and trans fat may increase your risk for heart disease and high cholesterol, eating plenty of unsaturated fats and consuming saturated and trans fats only sparingly will help provide energy to the body, will allow the body to absorb vitamin K, E, A, D and cartenoids, and will cushion organs and build healthy cell membranes, according to the McKinley Health Center. Fats may also help build the nervous system and hormones, notes KidsHealth.org.
Considerations
According to KidsHealth.org, teens and children over the age of two should get about 30 percent of the calories they eat every day from fat. If you eat 2,000 calories a day, 600 of these calories should be from fat. MayoClinic.com recommends that adults consume approximately 20 to 35 percent of their daily calories from fat, or about 44 to 78 g of fat per day. These fats should be mostly healthy unsaturated fats, like olive oil and nuts.
Expert Insight
According to KidsHealth.org, a healthy sample lunch that will help you stay within the 20 to 35 percent range of calories from fat is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Two slices of bread contain 30 calories from fat, 2 tbsp. of peanut butter contains 140 calories from fat, and 1 tbsp. of jelly contains no calories from fat. Add an apple to your lunch, which contains no calories from fat, and one cup of 1 percent milk, which contains 20 calories from fat. By following this meal plan, you will consume 190 calories from fat out of 660 total calories, which is approximately 29 percent fat.
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