Know Your Fats

It's American Heart Health Month!

One of the keys to proper heart health is knowing the different types of fats in your diet! Certain fats can protect your heart while others can lead to heart disease.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly 

Well maybe not that ugly… 

In terms of fats there's the ones to eat more of and fats to be more cautious with.  You may have heard of this in the past as the "good* versus "bad" fats, but you know my philosophy of trying to get away from the "bad" vs "good" mindset!

Fats to Caution

The fats that are known to clog your arteries are Saturated and Trans Fats.

Saturated fat

Saturated fat increases the LDL cholesterol, or what you may hear of as the "bad cholesterol".  Saturated fat comes from animal products and tropical oils such as coconut and palm oil. Beef and pork being highest in saturated fat, but that would also include any type of dairy products, butter, and anything coming from an animal. There are plant based fats like coconut oil that are also high in saturated fat.

There will be a little Saturated fat in the diet, our goal is to keep it low.  Choosing leaner sources of protein and watching our portions of butter, cream cheese, sour cream, etc will help to manage the intake of saturated fats.

Trans fat

Trans fats are the fats we want to caution the most as trans fats increase LDL cholesterol while decreasing HDL cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol). Trans fats don't bring us much of any nutritional value besides a lot of calories and not so healthy fat. These would be anything made of shortening, potentially stick margarines, and deep fried foods. You can always look for trans fats on the label, but do realize that even if it says “zero trans fat” there can be small amounts of trans fats in your items if you see hydrogenated oils in your ingredient list.  

Heart Healthy Fats

Heart healthy fats are the unsaturated fats: the monos and the polys, you may see these on the label and if you do that means it's a good thing! Manufacturers are currently not required to have the unsaturated fats listed, but typically they will include the unsaturated fats if they want to highlight the fact that they have good fat in their product.

Some examples of unsaturated fats include avocado, olive oil, canola oil, olives, seeds, fatty fish like salmon, and nuts. While all nuts have healthy fat and contain certain nutrients for different parts of our body walnuts are known to have the Omega 3s.

Omega 3 fats.

Omega-3 fats fall under polyunsaturated fats which help to reduce the risk of heart disease. Omega-3 fats come in three different forms: DHA, EPA, and ALA .  Sources of omega 3 fats include flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and salmon.

What about animal proteins?

So what protein foods should I be eating if I want to eat animal products? We are just looking for leaner sources of proteins: chicken, turkey, and fish. Ideally the white meat of poultry and lean cuts of beef and pork. And just going for lower fat options of milk such as 1% or skim milk. 

Considerations

So you're reading this now saying "hey my doctor hasn't come to me to tell me to eat heart healthy and I'm an athlete why should I care?"

Know your performance can be improved by eating more healthy fats. Plus, the goal is to avoid having any issues with your heart health in the future. Certain types of fats, saturated and trans fats, are also harder to digest which can lead to performance issues if you aren’t feeling very well after consuming these types of fats.

Now we do need fat in our diet, especially to absorb our fat soluble vitamins. The main thing is watch our portion sizes, consume in moderation, and choose the healthier fats more often!

Resources

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-Consumer/

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/tips/things-to-know-about-omega-fatty-acids

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/education-and-awareness/heart-month

www.heart.org