Types of fats in food
Knowing what types of fats in our foods can help us make good choices and avoid bad ones. Fortunately, most of the fats fall into the types of foods that we eat on a regular basis. Fortunately the process is not as difficult as it seems.
Although we normally associate fats with meats, fats come in virtually all of the foods we eat, including vegetables. Rather than worry about how much fat we are taking in, we should concentrate on the kinds of fat we are putting in our bodies. (Unless of course we are taking in too many fats, especially unhealthy ones then it is time to cut back.) Then again, if you really want to cook with lard, the best thing is to keep it to a minimum.
The most common type of fat in meat is saturated fats. This is the marbling in steaks, and the white stuff in bacon ham or pork that we typically cut off. While a small amount of this type of fat does not hurt you, most people need to cut back.
If you think cutting meats out of your diet will prevent you from ever taking in fats again, you are sadly mistaken. Cutting back on meats to the recommended amount will however cut down on the percentage of diet that contains harmful fats and will put more healthy unsaturated fats into your diet, assume you compensate for the lack of meat by eating more fruits and vegetable. The good news is that the fats you get from vegetables tend to be healthier than those you would get form meat. Soy, Bean and Canola oil are all good candidates for healthy fats derived from plants.
The bad news is not that we can avoid all the types of fat in food that exist, but that we can by paying attention by the types of food that we are eating can be assured that we are getting the right fats for in the right proportions as part of our daily diets.
Sadly the news media has let us to panic about the types of fats that are present in our foods rather than focus on trying to get people to eat the right kinds of foods and cut back where necessary. Then again, most people know that eating bacon everyday will not put them on the road to good health. This would be less of a problem were bacon itself not so delicious. Well, cut back on the bacon and keeping cutting the unwanted fats out of the types of food you eat and you should be good. Remember to keep the healthy types of fat in the food you eat for overall good health. Doing this may seem like a difficult task now, but eventually it will become second nature to you and you will not have to think much about it at all, except for trips to the grocery store. (You must still read the labels to know which types of at in your foods your getting.)
