Everybody knows that cholesterol is bad, trans fat is bad, saturated fat is bad, in fact, everybody seems to know that almost every kind of fat is awful and will kill you and is probably responsible for terrorism too. Is this right? Should we demonize all fats? Do we conflate cholesterol and other kinds of fat, and if we do, what is the difference? Should we avoid them, eat them, or what? Let’s break this down and figure out what’s what.
First, the basics. Dietary fats come in two groups. Trigylcerides (TG’s) which are saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and trans fats we know and love, and cholesterol. TG’s constitute 90 of all the fats we eat, with only 10 being cholesterol. Also, our body’s produce about 80 of all the cholesterol in our bodies, including vegetarians, through the liver and other parts.
What’s important to know is that if you eat a lot of cholesterol, your liver will produce less cholesterol, and if you eat less, it will produce more. Thus, if you are a healthy, lean individual who exercises and eats well, you simply don’t have to worry much about the cholesterol you eat in the first part. Your body will self regulate. Rather, you should be worried about the TG’s you’re eating, and the effect they have on your cholesterol.
What about the TG’s? There’s four kinds. Should we be eating them? Of course we should. They are what make food tasty, after all. But in all seriousness, having fat being a quarter to a third of your diet makes sense depending on what you are doing. While carbs can be totally eliminated from your diet, fats cannot, so it’s important to know what kind we should be eating, and which to avoid.
Let’s start with the easy one. Trans fats are artificially made by hydrogenating oil, and do not occur in nature. Our bodies do not like trans fats, and they are universally accepted as being bad for you. So don’t eat them, avoid them at all costs.
What about saturated fats? Now these are trickier. There’s no absolute right or wrong here, no matter what people say. Saturated fats are found in animal products and are solid at room temperature. But realize this—the term ‘saturated fat’ is a category for a whole bunch of fatty acids, such as lauric acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, and so on. Again, if you are lean, active, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and in caloric balance, you don’t have much to worry about here. On study was done on a group of cyclists that found that, as long as they were in caloric balance, an increased intake of saturated fats had no impact on blood cholesterol one way or the other. However. If you are overweight, not active, don’t eat fruits and veggies, and are calorically imbalanced, it’s a different matter. Then yes, you do have to be careful.
Couple more to go. Monounsaturated fats are fairly neutral from a health perspective, and there’s potentially even evidence that they can have health benefits (such as a large part of the benefits from the Mediterranean diet coming from olive oil). Basically, outside of being a source of calories (an excess of which can make you fat), there’s no real proof that MS fats have any real negative effects on your health.
Finally, we have polyunsaturated fats, which are usually liquid at room temperature (unless found in foods), and contain the increasingly famous group of omega 3’s and omega 6 fatty acids which we can get from fish. Everybody knows you should be getting your omegas, but what most don’t know is that we already get a ton of omega 6’s, and not nearly enough omega 3’s. Back in the day the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 ingestion was about 4:1. Now it’s about 25:1. Which means get your omega 3’s!
So there you have it. If you are a healthy, active individual with a good diet, you don’t need to worry about cholesterol intake or whether you are eating too much saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats (avoid trans fats!). Just eat in moderation, exercise, eat fruits and vegetables, and you’ll be fine. Now, if you’re not part of that category, you do indeed need to watch how much cholesterol and saturated fat you are eating. However, you can probably still eat a decent amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat without worrying about more than the calories you’re adding to your diet. Clear? Good.
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