By Carol Smith

You’ve heard for years that fat is bad for you. The truth about fats is our body needs them to be healthy. Problems arise when we eat too many fats or the wrong kinds.

Why are fats important?

Fats provide energy for the body. In order to have enough energy throughout your day, it’s important to have some fat. Fat is important to absorb fat soluble vitamins such as: A, S, E, K.

Fats help protect organs and bones from shock.

Fat insulates nerve fibers which help transmit nerve impulses.

Fat is a building block needed for hormones and immune function.

A lack of fat in the diet can result in hair loss, lower resistence to infection, poor wound healing.

What are good fats?

Unfortunately, baby boomers grew up during a time when there was a shift from butter to margarine. Margarine was cheaper and considered healthier. Scientists now know that isn’t true.

Vegetable shortenings and hard stick margarine are trans fats, which are formed by pumping hydrogen into liquid oils to make them hard. This helped with the shelf life of these products, but may be responsible for shortening your own life. You should avoid anything with hydrogenated oil or partially dydronated oil on the label as this is the worst for your heart.

Next are saturated fats which consist of butter, lard and tropical oils (coconut and palm). These products that are responsible for raising the LDL cholesterol, which may clog arteries causing heart attacks.

Finally, there are the unsaturated fats. These consist of olive, and other plant oils (canola, safflower, corn, sunflower, soy). These oils are all liquid at room temperature.  These are the good oils that your body needs.

One of the primary truths about fat is it’s important to have some in your diet, but it is also high in calories. Choose healthy fats and oils, but keep their consumption to a minimum.