While your body can function on low-levels of fats, or fatty acids, for short periods of time it is important to eat enough fat as these acids are needed to build new cells in your body, keep your brain functioning, and help in maintaining good hormone levels. Many people who start a diet for weight loss try to lower fat intake, and while this is often an easy way to lower calorie intake in the short-run the damage done to your body and overall health in the medium- to long-run can be substantial.
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Fats can come from animal sources and vegetable sources. Animal sources are most often easy to recognize by the taste and structure of the products. For example chicken skin and pork meat are relatively high in fats while white chicken meat or beef is much leaner. But also fish contains fats, especially fatty fishes like salmon and shellfish, and dairy products like milk and yoghurt. Sources of fats from vegetables are nuts and seeds and olives.
Fats can be divided into 2 categories: the more healthy unsaturated fats and the less healthy saturated fats. The human body can more easily break down unsaturated fats and can therefore use these fats as a source of energy meaning your body burns them. Saturated fats are harder to break down and will therefore mostly be stored as fat reserves in your body for later use. It is therefore recommended to mostly eat unsaturated fats and to avoid saturated fats when possible. Small amounts of saturated fats are still necessary for your body but most products containing unsaturated fats also contain saturated fats meaning it is hard to have a shortage of saturated fats when you eat a balanced diet. Unsaturated fats can mostly be found in fatty fish and olive oils. Saturated fats can be found in dairy products, eggs, and meat and poultry. Unfortunately fat used for deep-frying is often rich in saturated fats meaning potato chips, French fries, and deep fried dough sticks are not a healthy choice to reach your optimal level of fatty acids in a diet.
Next article will take a look at the last group of macronutrients: carbohydrates.
This article is part of a series of articles:
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