What are dietary fats?
Fat is a type of nutrient, and just like protein and carbohydrates, your body needs some fat for energy, to absorb vitamins, and to protect your heart and brain health. For years we’ve been told that eating fat will add inches to your waistline, raise cholesterol, and cause a myriad of health problems. But now we know that not all fat is the same.“Bad” fats, such as artificial trans fats and saturated fats, are guilty of the unhealthy things all fats have been blamed for—weight gain, clogged arteries, an increased risk of certain diseases and so forth. But “good” fats such as unsaturated fats and omega-3s have the opposite effect. In fact, healthy fats play a huge role in helping you manage your moods, stay on top of your mental game, fight fatigue, and even control your weight.
Dietary fats and our blood cholesterol
The two types of blood cholesterol are low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. LDL is considered the ‘bad’ cholesterol because it contributes to the narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to cardiovascular diseases (such as heart disease and stroke). HDL cholesterol is considered ‘good’ cholesterol because it carries cholesterol from the blood back to the liver, where it is broken down – reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Dietary fat can be classified into four types. These are:
Saturated fats- Saturated fats (sometimes called ‘bad fats’) contribute to the risk of cardiovascular diseases (such as heart disease and stroke), because they raise our blood LDL cholesterol levels.
Monounsaturated fats- (sometimes called ‘good fats) tend to lower your blood LDL cholesterol when they replace saturated fats in the diet.
Polyunsaturated fats- have a slightly greater ability to reduce LDL cholesterol than monounsaturated fats.
tend to behave like saturated fats in the body, as they raise blood LDL cholesterol levels and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases (such as heart disease and stroke).
Fats, Cholesterol, And Chronic Diseases
Without a doubt, fats and cholesterol are the single most important group of nutrients to limit in your diet if you want to help to reduce your risk of chronic disease. Heart disease and cancer, this nation's two leading killers, are linked to diets high in fat, and other chronic health problems may be exacerbated by high-fat diets. And yet our national diet contains as much as one-third more fat than it should.
Cholesterol, Total - Total LDL and HDL cholesterol, in conjunction with a triglyceride determination, provide valuable information for the risk of coronary artery disease. Total serum cholesterol analysis is useful in the diagnosis of hyperlipoproteinemia, atherosclerosis, hepatic and thyroid diseases.Looking for fatigue panel blood test. Use Tuhealthy App to locate fatigue panel blood tests with low price.
