Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Welcome back.
Today is July 4th. It is the Independence Day
of America. And this is Thoughts If It Were You,
Food for Thought, and I'm Neogentrics, your host.
Now, y 'all remember yesterday was my birthday,
and I was supposed to release the podcast on
fats and what they were and if they were good
for us. But because it was my birthday, I took
a day off and decided not to do that. Well, now
I'm back, and... We're going to go ahead and
pick up where I left off, and like I said before,
I will release more than one, either today or
tonight or tomorrow. So we're going to pick up
what I left off with, like what is fat, okay?
It is an essential part of our diet and nutrition,
okay? We can't live without it. For those who
think they can, we can't. Our bodies require
small amounts of good fat to function and help
prevent disease. A lot of modern diets contain
far more fat than the body needs. So, with that
being said, too much fat, especially too much
of the wrong fat, can cause serious health complaints,
including, but not limited to, obesity, high
blood pressure, and cholesterol levels being
out the wazoo, which in turn leads to greater
risk of heart disease and so on and so forth.
Okay? Dietary fats make food tasty. They often
improve the texture of food as well as the flavored
smell. They make food more appealing. In the
UK, the Department of Health suggested that no
more than 35 % of total calories should come
from fat. Whereas in the US, fat intake is 30
% of the total calorie intake. In reality, most
Western diets derive at 40 % and sometimes a
lot more. So, with that being said, a lot more
of their energy comes from the fats. Okay? so
with that first thing i'm going to go ahead and
say is this fat is good period okay like protein
but not carbohydrates fat is essential to human
life we need it in our diets however we only
need so much of it and the right kind okay Fat
is a concentrated source of energy. One gram
of fat contains nine calories, much more than
a gram of protein or carbohydrates, which both
contains four calories. The body can pull on
its fat reserves during lean times for energy
and it converts it into glucose. And on top of
that, fat provides a cushion to protect our vital
organs. Without fat, our organs would be more
prone to danger. Furthermore, Fat acts as an
insulator also and helps you maintain correct
body temperature. So if you always wonder why
you're so cold, there's one of the main reasons.
We're going to take a short break and I'll be
right back. And we're back. Picking up where
I left off. Fats enable our body to... processed
vitamins such as A, D, E, and K, which are all
fat -soluble vitamins and they're vital to good
health. If I haven't already covered vitamins,
believe you me, I will cover it in more detail.
Okay? Like amino acids, in protein, fats contain
essential fatty acids. Okay? And those acids...
as their name suggests, are essential to good
health and likely to help the heart and your
immune system. So your body cannot make its own
synthesizing these acids, okay? And therefore,
it has to get them from something else, such
as these fats. As for some of the fatty acids,
like omega -3, may provide more health benefits,
such as complementing the cognitive process of
your brain. Fat makes food taste better, by the
way, such as hot butter crumpets, double cream
truffles, or gravy made for dipping. Well, I'm
going on a food craze here. I'm sorry about that.
Although we need fat, we only need a small quantity
of the right kinds of fats to stay healthy. We
all know that too much fat and consuming the
wrong kinds of food can be detrimental to our
health, but not eating what you need to is just
as bad. And like I covered before for your BMI,
the term obese has become more complacent in
recent years. And in the UK, it's estimated that
1 in 4 adults is clinically obese, having a BMI
of 30 or more. And obesity is, in most cases,
caused by inappropriate diets and consuming too
much fat. Now, I've already covered what a BMI
is and whether it's good or bad for you, so I
won't be going back into that again. The other
half of it, fat is bad. Due to its high calorific
levels, one gram of fat equals nine calories.
It is easy to consume too many calories when
eating fatty foods, and the unused calories then
become stored in the body. It's fat, and that
does in turn help you to gain weight. So, I'm
going to continue this in a second. We're going
to take a short break, and I'll be right back.
And I'm going to talk about the rest of how fat
can be bad. And then we'll talk about the types
of fat. Okay, okay. So basically something had
come up and I had to go take care of that. But
anyway, our bodies store fat for lean times and
have evolved to cope with seasonal availability
of food, storing fat when food is plentiful and
burning it off when food is scarce. In the modern
world, for most people, food is plentiful all
year round and our bodies store fat but never
seem to burn it off. As fat accumulates, we become
overweight, as you already know. Fat can cushion
and protect our internal organs. However, too
much cushioning means more bulk and weight, which
then turns and increases the workload of the
heart and the other organs, making it harder
for your body to function properly. Your body,
preferably the liver, produces cholesterol, which
is vital to a healthy body and a building block
for essential chemicals that the body produces.
So with that being said, cholesterol... is a
waxy substance that in low levels freely flows
throughout our body in the blood. But high levels
of cholesterol means a higher risk of developing
culinary heart disease. Okay? Some fats are worse
than others. And saturated fats are worse of
all for you than unsaturated fats. And this is
due with their chemical structure and knowing
how the body processes them. Trends or hydrogenated
fats, which are also almost exclusively manufactured,
although they do occur naturally in small quantities
in meat and dairy products, are used in many,
many processed foods and are particularly bad.
And they're linked to an increased risk of high
cholesterol levels and, again, heart disease.
Like I mentioned before, there are two types
of fats, saturated and unsaturated. With them
being the two main types, unsaturated fats are
generally considered better than the saturated
ones, okay? The reasons that unsaturated fats
are better is down to the molecular structure
of the fats. Their molecules form regular shapes
that clump together easily, whereas unsaturated
fats, however, form irregular shapes that do
not clump together so easily. Saturated fats,
by the way... therefore are more likely to stick
to the sides of the arteries and allow other
saturated molecules to build up on top of them.
This can clog your arteries and cause high blood
pressure. This in turn makes your heart pump
harder, trying to keep your body rich with oxygen.
Okay? So it's both a good and a bad thing. Fats
are not soluble in water, or blood, for that
matter. Unless this problem is addressed, usually...
through a change in your diet and increase in
exercise, it can lead to serious health problems.
Again, mentioning the whole heart disease thing.
Okay? So, I'm going to be frank. Generally, although
not exclusively, saturated fats come from animal
sources, such as meat, dairy, eggs, etc. and
are usually solid at room temperature. Unsaturated
fats come from vegetable sources such as sunflower
oil, olive oil, soy oil, oily fish such as salmon,
trout, mackerel, etc., and soft margarines and
butters and such. Vegetable sources do contain
saturated fats, but usually in low amounts. Take
oats, for example, which contain about, I do
believe, 9 % fat, The three types of saturated,
monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. The
monounsaturated and polyunsaturated are the two
main types of unsaturated fats. They are unsaturated
as they are missing one or more atoms in their
chemical makeup. This is what gives them their
weird or irregular shape. With that being said,
there are hydrogenated and trans fats. Hydrogenated
fat is manufactured fat used in processed foods.
It contains some qualities desirable to food
manufacturers, but is perhaps the worst of all
fats when it comes to health. It is a vegetable
fat that has been treated with extra hydrogen.
The change in the chemical makeup of the fat
making it solid at room temperature, technically
unsaturated fat, Hydrogenated or trans fat increases
the risk of culinary heart disease. It raises
the levels of LDL cholesterol, lowering levels
of good HDL cholesterol in your blood. This is
the most important fat to avoid. Let's just say
that right now, okay? Cholesterol is a type of
fat found in the blood, and nearly all the cholesterol
in the body is produced by the liver. Very little
is found in food, although seafood, liver, kidneys,
and eggs do contain some cholesterol. and it
is vital to your body. Not only does it play
a role in how all cells work, but it is also
a building block for other essential chemicals
that the body produces. Keep that in mind. Cholesterol
is carried around the body in the bloodstream
combined with proteins, and these are called
lipoproteins. There are two main types of lipoproteins
that are used to measure cholesterol levels in
the blood, an LDL, low -density lipoprotein,
and HDL, high -density lipoprotein. The low lipoprotein
is often called the bad cholesterol, whereas
the high -density lipoprotein is considered a
good cholesterol. HDL is good, as it can remove
excess bad cholesterol from your bloodstream.
So, what I said in the last piece. The blood
cholesterol is measured by looking at the total
HDL and LDL and other fats in your bloodstream.
People with high cholesterol levels are more
likely to develop heart problems. So just keep
that in mind. The risks are increased further
for people who, believe it or not, smoke, already
have high blood pressure, are physically inactive,
unfit, are overweight or obese, or suffer from
diabetes. And the common cause of high cholesterol
levels in modern society is the consumption of
just way too many saturated fats. Okay? So, here's
some healthy fat tips real quick. It's not a
long list. It's really short. Read the labels
of the food before you buy it. Okay? And try
to reduce the amounts of trans fats, hydrogenated
fats, saturated fats in your diet. Always favor
foods with unsaturated fats if you can help it.
Okay? If you're overweight, then you should attempt
to reduce your total fat intake. Try to replace
fatty foods with fresh fruit or vegetables. Increase
your consumption of oily fish, with reason, of
course. Omega -3 fats are known to provide many
health benefits, and most people do not consume
enough of them. This includes, but not limited
to, salmon, trout, fresh tuna, and mackerel.
Okay? Just wanted to go ahead and let you know
that right now. I just wanted to make sure I
got my point across with that. Okay? Now, I'm
going to go ahead and say this right now. I covered
what fats are. I covered the basic difference
between the two. But I feel like some people
still don't understand and they still think that
fats are bad. So with that being said, in my
next podcast, I'm going to go ahead and cover
cooking fats and oils. So that way you understand
which ones are better to use, which ones are
good to eat, and so on and so forth. And with
that, that brings an end to this podcast. I will
talk to you guys later. Feel free to hit me up
here on Anchor. or any of my other following
social media, whether it be on Facebook, or on
my Instagram, at Neogentrix, or on my Facebook,
facebook .com forward slash striker fusion, all
one word. I will talk to you guys later, and
have a great rest of your day.