Nutrition and Weight Loss Ideas

What’s All This About Good Fats - Bad Fats?

Yesterday we talked about how monounsaturated fats are a good thing for you and your nutrition and weight loss program.

In the way of a quick review, here’s the list I posted yesterday that tells you where you can find these good fats.

Monounsaturated fats. Found in olive oil (73 percent), grapeseed oil (60 percent), hazelnuts (50 per cent), almonds (35 per cent), Brazil nuts (26 per cent), cashews (28 per cent), avocado (12 per cent), sesame seeds (20 per cent), and pumpkin seeds (16 per cent), these fats actually lower LDL cholesterol while leaving your HDL at the same level.

Another of the good fats are the Omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids. This is the oil found in fish and in supplements including cod liver oil. Your body utilizes Omega-3s in the formation of cell walls, making them supple and flexible which improves circulation and oxygen uptake. Thus, Omega-3 is important to good cardiovascular health. In fact, consuming it on a regular basis will lower your LDL cholesterol and serum triglyceride levels. It can also reduce blood pressure.

Cod liver oil — I’m old enough to remember having a spoonful of that shoved into my mouth every morning on my way to school. Yikes! That was just awful! I used to think of it as a form of child torture, but as you can see from what I’ll be writing about today, it turns out it was a good thing. But, ohh, the taste!

Of course, getting that cod liver oil every morning preceded the knowledge about Omega-3 fatty acids being something good for you. The cod liver oil routine had been passed down from generation to generation as just something you gave to your kids. (Too bad it isn’t done any longer.)

It seems some scientists were noticing that the Inuit (Eskimo) people who lived in Greenland hardly ever suffered from heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and psoriasis. That struck the scientists as strange because the Inuit diet was extremely high in fat from eating whale, seal and salmon. And at that time, a high fat diet was thought to be unhealthy. However, when the scientists broke down the type of fat in this diet, they found a high degree of these Omega-3 fatty acids. The connection was made — these fats helped to prevent those type of diseases.

Today, the American Heart Association recommends you eat fish at least twice a week in order to maintain a desired amount of Omega-3 in your system.

If eating fish that often is not realistic for you, then there are some supplements you can take that have these same fatty acids in them. They’re too numerous to mention here, though, but you can find them in most drug stores and health food stores.

It’s worth it to either eat the fish or to take the supplements. It will help to prevent the diseases I mentioned above, particularly in reducing the inflammation of arthritis and psoriasis. There is also some strong evidence that getting enough Omega-3 fatty acids in your diet may reduce the odds of you getting dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

So go home and eat some fish tonight. Or, if you feel brave, take a spoonful of cod liver oil every day. And if you’re really brave, give some to your children too. (I’ll bet you’ll find that eating fish a couple times a week is a lot more enjoyable.)

Tomorrow we’ll talk some about those “iffy” fats. Those are the ones that might be good for you — or they might be NOT be good for you.

Until then, remember to follow a good-fat — good-carb diet and stay with your regular exercise.

Here is some information about the nutritional supplements I add to my nutrition and weight loss program.

Have a great day. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more nutrition and weight loss thoughts for you.

And give the South Beach Diet a try. That’s what I follow. Here’s where to go to learn more:

Shanti,

Ron
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