How Fats & Cholesterol Can Have a Major Impact on the Effectiveness of Weight Loss Diets or Plans!

For years we’ve heard that a low-fat, low-cholesterol weight loss diet would keep us healthy and help us lose weight. And many of us jumped on the bandwagon, eliminating fat and high-cholesterol foods from our diets.

Well, unfortunately, we were doing it all wrong!

Instead of eliminating fat completely, we should have been eliminating the “bad fats,” the fats associated with obesity and heart disease, and eating the “good fats,” the fats that actually help improve blood cholesterol levels and improve our chances of achieving our weight loss goals.

But before we examine the benefits of the good fats and bad fats, let’s talk about cholesterol

Cholesterol

It’s been ingrained into our brains that cholesterol causes heart disease and that we should limit our intake of foods that contain it. However, dietary cholesterol is different than blood cholesterol.

Cholesterol comes from two places…

1. From food such as meat, eggs, and seafood; and

2. From our body... our liver makes this waxy substance and links it to carrier proteins called lipoproteins. These lipoproteins dissolve the cholesterol in blood and carry it to all parts of your body. Our body needs cholesterol to help form cell membranes, some hormones and Vitamin D.

You may have heard of “good” and “bad” cholesterol. Well, high density lipoproteins (HDL) carry cholesterol from the blood to the liver. The liver processes the cholesterol for elimination from the body. If there’s HDL in the blood, then less cholesterol will be deposited in the coronary arteries. That’s why it’s called “good” cholesterol.

Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol from the liver to the rest of the body. When there is too much in the body, it is deposited in the coronary arteries. This is not good. A build-up of cholesterol in our arteries could prevent blood from getting to parts of our heart. That means that our heart doesn’t get the oxygen and nutrients it needs, and this could result in heart attack, stroke, or sudden death.

So, if your LDL is higher than your HDL, you’re at a greater risk for developing heart disease.

It may come as a surprise, but recent studies have shown that the amount of cholesterol in our food is not strongly linked to our blood cholesterol levels. It’s the types of fats you eat that affect your blood cholesterol levels.

Bad Fats

There are two bad fats that you should limit your intake of… saturated fats and trans fats.

Saturated fats are mostly animal fats. You find them in meat, whole-milk products, poultry skin, and egg yolks. Coconut oil also has a high amount of saturated fat. Saturated fats can raise both the good and bad blood cholesterol.

Trans fats are produced through hydrogenation, ie heating oils in the presence of oxygen. Many products contain trans fats because the fats help them maintain a longer shelf life. Margarine is a good example of a product that contains a high amount of trans fats.

Trans fats are especially dangerous because they lower the good cholesterol, HDL, and raise the bad cholesterol, LDL. Unfortunately most products do not tell you how much trans fat it contains. But you can easily find this out if by looking at the ingredient list that is labelled on the product. If the ingredients contain hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils, then it contains trans fats.

Fortunately a new law in the United States will make it compulsory for manufacturers in the United States to list the amount of trans fat in their products on the nutrition labels. This new law will take effect from 2006 and it is hoped that other counties will soon follow suit.

Good Fats

Regardless of what you may have read or heard… some fats can actually improve your cholesterol levels! Two of these good fats are Polyunsaturated Fats and Monounsaturated Fats!

Polyunsaturated fats are naturally found in sunflower, corn, and soybean oils. These oils contain Omega-6, an essential fatty acid. However, most people get enough Omega-6 in their normal daily diet and instead need more Omega-3, which is a fatty acid found in fish and walnuts.

Monounsaturated fats are naturally found in canola, peanut, and olive oils.

Both types of unsaturated fats decrease the bad cholesterol, LDL and increase the good cholesterol, HDL.

Now, just because the unsaturated fats improve your blood cholesterol levels, this doesn’t mean you have the all clear to go-ahead to eat all of the olive oil, butter and nuts you want. It’s not that simple!

Fat of any kind contains calories. So if you’re trying to lose weight, as with anything, you need eat fats in moderation, remembering to stay away from saturated fats.

Here’s a simple tool to help your search for most foods to find their nutritional value…