By: Win Jenkins-Ford Date: 6/23/10
If you’re like me and trying to eat a more healthful diet especially while getting ready for the bathing suit season, you might want to pay special attention to what I have to share: You can have your fat and be healthy too!
Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about healthy fats and unhealthy fats and trying my best to read food labels to help me identify these fats, but it can be confusing. I’m aware that fat is necessary for good health, but have a very hard time differentiating between which fats are considered what. I’m not a scientist and am not interested in the make-up of fats and their compounds or lack there of. I just want to know what kinds of fats and/or foods I can eat regularly and those that I should limit for optimum health.
Know your fats…
To know your fat is to enjoy your fat is my motto of late. Identifying the type of fats my family normally eats was not difficult. I just opened my cupboard and refrigerator and read the Nutrition Facts Panel and surprisingly enough my family and I were not eating enough of the healthy fats. We also know now that most of the fats we should eat are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids which help reduce blood cholesterol levels when incorporated into a balanced diet and are considered heart healthy fats. Some food examples of these types of fats you may be familiar with are:
- polyunsaturated fatty acids: walnuts, corn, soybean, flaxseed, and fish, such as salmon, trout and tuna.
- monounsaturated fatty acids: olive and canola oil, avocados and nuts
Develop healthier eating behaviors…
We’ve all heard the saying “knowledge is power” but just because we know what to eat doesn’t mean were going to do it, right? People develop eating behaviors early on in life and some of those habits are not very healthy. Some of us have a hard time changing because we like what we like and it’s all about the taste. So what I’ve learned to do is for those foods I just have to have (bacon) I eat smaller portions and make them a treat which means I eat them less often. By doing this I can still have my fat and eat it too and all is right with the world. I’ve also learned to look for foods labeled low-fat, fat-free or light and I pay close attention to the serving sizes and calories. For an example, looking at these types of labels helped my family make the switch from whole milk to 2% low-fat milk. I choose to moderate my fat and calorie intakes and not eliminate my food choices.
What are some insightful things you’ve done to better incorporate fats into your healthy eating plan?
Some great resources on fats and how best to include them in your diet that I hope you find helpful are:
Fats: How to Enjoy Your Food and Be Healthy Too!
Everything You Need to Know About the Functions of Fats in Foods