Not all fats are bad but use them with moderation

The debate on fats is as old as the pyramids of Egypt, yet as soon as we seem to have settled on a somewhat unanimous direction, another spanner is thrown into the works.
It has mostly been misconstrued that fats in our diet are unhealthy and lack any meaningful purpose in our pursuit of healthy living.

FLAVOUR
This has been occasioned by the perception that fats are to blame for the myriad complications associated with unhealthy lifestyles and diseases. When out shopping our intuition tasks us to pick food which will add flavour to our meals with fat containing products. These include margarine, butter, cooking oil, vegetable oils, etc.

CHOLESTEROL
When preparing meals, it is common to spread our morning bread with margarine or butter and, in the evening, prepare our favourite meal with cooking oil, some of us may consider these unhealthy practices yet some of us can’t live without them.
Margarine, a constantly used product, is entirely made from vegetable oils. Scientifically, fats from vegetable sources are unsaturated, which help reduce the bad cholesterol low-density lipoprotein (LDL).

LABELLING
Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) is critical in food manufacturing companies complying with the labelling requirements which also communicate critical nutrition information, like product ingredients and "sell-by" dates.
FAT-SOLUBLE
In retrospect, fats are an essential aspect of diet that is vital for human growth and development. They are an essential part of many physiological functions, as a major storage form of energy in the body while also assisting with absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E & K), and maintaining healthy skin and other organs. Fats produce more energy in our body than proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

UNSATURATED
If there is any excess energy produced, they are stored as fat which are then deposited in different parts of your body based on your morphology for use when needed.
There are two main types of fats, the saturated and the unsaturated.

TEMPERATURES
The saturated fat is generally solid in room temperature with the unsaturated fats being broken down into two, the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat.
The healthy fats we need in our body include polyunsaturated fat which are sunflower oil, soybean oil and some nuts and seeds. Monounsaturated fats are found in foods like olive oil, nuts and avocados. These two types are fluid at room temperatures.

VEGETABLE
An example of unsaturated fats is the modern types of margarine which are made up of vegetable oils which contain polyunsaturated fats that can reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Since they are liquid at room temperature, they are put through a process known as interesterification which hardens the vegetable oils in margarine.

INGREDIENT
The third one is Omega-three fats which are found in fatty fish, seeds such as flax and chia seeds, walnuts, algae and rapeseed which is an ingredient in Blue Band margarine.
The critical component is moderation in the uptake of fats. The key is to check on the proportions we consume.

DAMAGING
For instance, excess fat consumed can also be deposited within organs and blood vessels which can cause serious disease due to blocking of blood flow and/or damaging our organs.
Understanding what we need for nourishing our bodies and nurture a healthy lifestyle is imperative. We incorporate active healthy living to encourage our bodies to expend the energy consumed and/ or stored in the form of fats.
Ms Wairia is a holistic wellness specialist based in Nairobi.