Fats - the good, the bad and the trans-fats

On my yoga detox retreats, I often give a few suggestions on how to eat more healthily... and one important aspect to this is that of FATS.

We all need some fat in our diet. But eating too much fat makes us more likely to become overweight. What’s more, too much of a particular kind of fat – saturated fat – can raise our cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. That’s why it’s important to cut down on fat, and choose foods that contain unsaturated fat.

Eating too much fat can make us more likely to put on weight, because foods that are high in fat are also high in energy (calories). Being overweight raises our risk of serious health problems, such as:

• heart disease
• type II diabetes
• high blood pressure

But this doesn’t mean that all fat is bad. We need some fat in our diet because it helps the body absorb certain nutrients. Fat is a source of energy, and provides essential fatty acids that the body can’t make itself.

Types of fat
There are two main types of fat found in food: saturated and unsaturated.

Saturated and unsaturated fat contain the same amount of calories. But as part of a healthy diet, we should try to cut down on food that is high in saturated fat, and instead eat foods that are rich in unsaturated fat.

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