Section 3- Fats:The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Lipids

Fats and Oils belong together in the same family, as they are both organic compounds scientists and nutritionists have decided to use the term "Lipids" to describe them both.

Lipids are feared by the majority of the population because they are afraid that eating fats will make you really fat, and that if a product in the supermarket has a product that is high in fats, especially saturated fat, that we shouldn't buy it, and instead by the low/free fat product instead (great marketing ploy by the way!).

Now I'm not going to tip toe around it, if you only eat fat, of course you are going to get fat, you don't have to be a genius to figure that out! But eating fat is more beneficial to your body then you probably realise. Did you know? That:

• Lipids virtually make up all of the cell membranes in the whole body (without lipids we wouldn't be function, at all)
• Lipids form the majority of the Central Nervous System (that means without consuming lipids we become less sensitive and our senses will not be able to function at optimal levels).
• Lipids transport, store and utilise vitamins A,D,E and K, which in turn builds and boost our immune system (which means without lipids we would constantly be ill).
• Lipids are a major fuel source of the body, yielding the greatest amount of energy per gram of fat consumed (without lipids we would not have optimal levels of energy).

At room temperature lipids which are liquids are known as Oils and lipids that are solid at room temperature and known as solids.

Most lipids will consist of chains of Carbon atoms that join together with other atoms, primarily with Oxygen and Hydrogen. Oh my! he is talking about chemistry! why does this matter!? it all seems very complicated!! It's not complicated at all, just think about lipids as keys, there are many different lipids as there can be many different keys. Different keys unlock different doors, just as different lipids unlock and and store in different cells. We gain the different structures due to a double bond in the chain we spoke of a minute ago, this double bond changes the shape, which mean the cell will have a specific job in a specific part of the body.

Saturated Fats

Theses fats are made from chains of Carbon atoms that are highly 'saturated' with Hydrogen atoms. These fats don't contain any double bonds, which means that saturated fats are tightly packed together. This will mean that at room temperature saturated fats are solids. 

We will finds saturated fats primarily in animal products such as:

• Beef
• Pork
• Lamb
• Venison 
• Chicken
• Duck
• Milk
• Cheese
• Yoghurt
• Cream
• Butter
• and Eggs

non-animal source of saturated fats are:

• Palm Oil
• Coconut Oil

Unsaturated Oils

These oils get their name because some Hydrogen atoms are not found within the chains which will cause 2 things to happen:

1. a double bond will occur between one or more Carbon atom
2. the fatty acid will bend at these sites

Why should it matter if it has a bend in or not?

Well it basically all comes back to the key theory, the different bends will mean the chains will now fit into different spaces and help to unlock and store energy etc. within a variety of cells.

Unsaturated fats will come in two different forms:

• [Mono]unsaturated- meaning it only has a single double bond in the chain 
• [Poly]unsaturated-meaning it has several double bonds in the chain

Monounsaturates

It has been shown that diets high in monounsaturated fats lower a certain type of Cholesterol and a thought to contribute highly to the reduced risk of Coronary Heart Disease.

Sources of Monounsatured fatty acids are:

• Olives and Olive oil 
• Lard
• Beef Dripping 
• Peanut Oil
• Rapeseed Oil
• Avocados
• Nuts
• Seeds

Polyunsaturates 

Polyunsaturates are broken down once again into two different categories. These categories are: 

• Essential Fatty Acids (Omega 3)
• Essential Fatty Acids (Omega 6)

These are both incredible important to consume because the body cannot in fact synthesise them its self (which means it has to be eaten by us, because we can't create it).

Omega 3 fatty acids found within oily fish are particularly beneficial. They have been proven to reduce tendency of blood to clot and lower total cholesterol levels, which means that they are able to lower the risk of Coronary Heart Disease.

Omega 3 can be found within:

• Oily Fish
• Flax Oil
• Walnuts
• Pastured reared eggs

Omega 6 can be found within:

• Sunflower seeds
• Sunflower oil
• Safflower oil
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sesame seeds

And Finally...THE BAD & THE UGLY

Hydrogenation and Trans Fats

Hydrogenation is a process in the food industry by which they take a quantities of unsaturated vegetable oils are manufactured into more solid fats at room temperature, like margarine (which is actually one molecule away from being plastic...little fun and horrific fact for you).

What happens when you hydrogenated a oil is the oil is heated and pumped with hydrogen which will form the unsaturated fatty acid into a saturated fatty acid. Now just taking a moment out...you know its not a good start when you are trying to take something that naturally is liquid and you have to pump it with a chemical formula to make it a solid...you are playing the nature...and it doesnt need to be played with. The double bonds we could find in the unsaturated fatty acids  have now been altered and replaced with single bonds making it more of a solid at room temperature, like margarine.

Just to give you an idea of why trans fats are so bad for us. If we us the key theory for one final time, we know that each lipid has a different shape and structure to fit a specific hole in order to unlock it and store energy in it. When that energy is stored the body will send round enzymes to unlock these cells during exercise. But, if due to the fact a cell has been altered like that of a trans fat what will now happen is a key that previously didn't fit the lock now does, but when the trans fat is stored in a cell it shouldn't be it won't be able to be used by that cell. Think of this scenario!

A janitor at a school has a store room (a cell) and within that store room they have all of the cleaning supplies to clean the whole school. Now if someone over night forced their way into the stored room (such as a trans fat) and replaced everything the store room with schools supplies such as books and pencils and pens how is the janitor meant to clean the school the next day? he has nothing to clean with (which is our energy source) but instead has only implements he can't use...therefore he can't and won't do his job (cell is rendered useless).

Common foods containing trans fats:

• Many margarines
• Biscuits
• Cakes
• Take away food
• Pies
• Pastries
• pre-prepared foods
• Many "low fat" processed foods

Consumption of hydrogenated fat is associated with cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, immune system dysfunction, low birth weights, birth defects, sterility, difficulty in lactation and problems with bones and tendons.

So there we have it! The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Please feel free to comment and share this around, would love to get feed back to help make this series better.

Now get out there and spread the word!

Information is the greatest weapon!

-Matthew Grant

Personal Trainer & Nutritional Adviser