Principle #4 - Eating Healthy Fats DailyI cannot stress this enough. Eat adequate fat is crucial!!
Fat’s are essentially hydrocarbons - a long chain of carbon and hydrogen molecules. Each one has different properties and will determine whether or not their are healthy or not.
The two main types are saturated and unsaturated fats.
The difference between the two is that unsaturated fats on a molecular level contains two or more double bonds between carbon atoms and gives it ‘kink’.
What the means for the body is it interacts differently and has separate functions.
Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated are usually considered as the most ‘healthy of the fats’.
However, saturated fats featured heavily in our diet right through our evolution - we ate literally the entire carcass, and therefore would have consumed the fat tissue, and organ meats.
Mono and polyunsaturated fats come from nuts, seeds, algae and fish.
Saturated fats come from animal sources, and tropical fats such as coconuts and palm oil.
Improve nutrient transport across the cells.
Diet’s high in saturated fats will often have more ‘turgid’ cell membranes and therefore makes nutrient transport slower. Our cell membranes are ‘phospholipids’.
Stimulate hormone production such as testosterone
Support the immune system.
Affects the absorption of specific nutrients such as vitamin A and D.
There’s strong evidence that they improve CV function, body composition, and alleviate depression.
There’s average evidence that they help prevent certain cancers, preserve memory, eye health, reduce incidence of aggressive behaviour, and ADHD and ADD symptoms.
Our brain is fat based, and therefore changes in the fat we consume, can affect nervous system transmission.
There are three kinds of omega 3s: ALA, EPA, and DHA.
Alpha-Linolenic acid is found mostly in plant based sources, but is most difficult to break down.
Eicosapentaenoic acid is the next easiest to break down, which is found in fish and algae, and docosahexaenoic acid is the easiest to break down, and is also found in fish and algae.
These are essential fatty acids, meaning we HAVE to get these in our diet.
We should aim for around 3g to 6g of these per day.
Animal based, or from tropical fats such as palm oil or coconut oil.
This should make up roughly 1 third of our daily fat intake.
Often we consume more than this.
In the right quantity it supports hormone transport - such as testosterone.
Consuming saturated fats with whole grains has been shown to bind excess saturated fat to the whole grains and pass through our guts undigested.
If you’re trying to make progress and improve your healthy, keeping saturated fat on the lower end of 1-2 thumbs per a day is a good choice.
Aim to get most of your fats from nuts, fish, seaweed, animal fats, olives, avocado, and coconut ( and cacao nibs if you want to be super boff heaklthy).
Avoid with abandon artificially created fats, and processed foods.
Keep it simple though.
1-2g of algae daily as a supplement, or 3-6 grams of fish oil is best to achieve a lower ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 (inflammatory to anti-inflammatory) dietary fats. |