“But I said you were the good kind of fat” … said no one ever who wanted to stay in their relationship. However, good fats in relation to foods are increasingly becoming recognised as ‘good’ rather than evil. Take this from someone who used to be petrified of fat – all fat, even the good kind – and I would actively avoid it. I wouldn’t even eat avocado – what a nutcase. I ate low-fat everything which I now know effectively means I was eating fake products loaded with chemicals and extra sugar … not ideal, but even if someone had told me back then that some fat was OK (which they probably did), I would have ignored them (retrospective apologies to you all!!). NB: Low fat products = chemical sh*t storm – who knew?!
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not some superhero who suddenly changed their ways over night, but over time and after a lot of reading, self-educating and reflection, I now have a better understanding of fat and what is good-for-you fat and what we should stay away from. I’m still learning as I go but have slowly made changes regarding which fats I’m happy to consume, and which ones I now ninja away from. So I’ll blab on about fat for a bit below, and feel free to take whatever you fancy from it and biff the rest from your brain!
So it turns out fat is pretty good for you. Good fat is important for our brain functioning (and with that in mind I have no idea how I got through university), it also keeps us full and it’s pretty hard to eat too much good fat as our bodies are a wee bit magical and are wired to tell us to stop when we’ve had enough – how good is that?! Sadly our bodies does not do the same thing when we eat fructose – humph – but that is a ramble for another day. Our bodies use good fat as fuel and energy (hurrah!), rather than storing it as ‘actual’ fat, like I used to think it was doing.
As a starter think of junk food – chips, lollies, biscuits, takeaways etc … these are full of less good/bad fats … now think of meat, veges, nuts and seeds, these are good fats! The latter are foods your body can digest, and that your intelligent bod will use as energy – winning! Apparently fat won’t make you fat – this blows my mind, but is backed up by loads of evidence so I’ll roll with it.
Good fats – saturated fats (butter, coconut oil) and monounsaturated (nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado)
If you’re eating a plant based diet you can’t go too wrong when you think about fats. First think about plants and natural food sources, and then think of the oils that comes out of them – olives, coconuts, nuts and avocados. Easy right?
Saturated fats – which most of us know as being BAD are actually OK as long as we consume saturated fat that naturally comes from food, like from meat, dairy and plant based saturated fats like coconut oil. When you’re cooking with fat, monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil and avocado oil are good if you’re only using medium heat, but they don’t cope very well if you want to cook them at a high temperature. These oils are better used for salad dressings and cold toppings as our body’s process these better when they’re used cold too. Coconut oil or ghee however, are better options for cooking as they can be heated to a higher temp without turning nasty in our bodies.
Oils such as canola, soybean, rice bran oil and sunflower aren’t so good for your bod, so avoid them if you can. Some nasty as stuff is used in the extraction process for these oils so steer clear. Also, seriously, on a practical note how do you squeeze oil out of a rice husk??? Cold pressed organic oils are the best, but are sadly a little more pricey. You’re paying for liquid gold though.
So fats you find in processed food such as confectionery, chocolate, deep fried everything, potato chips etc are fats you generally want to avoid if you can, especially when there are so many good fats that are delish and can be turned into delightful treats that taste better than any processed treat you can buy (disclaimer: my opinion only)!
Ohhh yum! Coconut oil, coconut flakes, olive oil and olives
Pumpkin, sunflower and chia seed goodness
Omega 3 and omega 6 oils are really important for us to consume. If you’re eating lots of plant based foods then you shouldn’t have too much of an issue getting enough omega 6, however you should chow down on some oily fish, nuts and seeds in order to consume enough omega 3. Eating natural nut butters is a great way to consume good fat too – mmm almond butter, so ridiculously good. Chia seeds are rich in omega 3 and if you fancy chia seed pudding this is a scrummy and easy way to get a good dose of omega 3 – I love it for breakfast but you can have it anytime really.
Rawlicious! Raw nuts are a great source of good fats and protein
Fat comes down to moderation as well though – apparently everything does? So you can’t really go wrong if you eat a combo of protein, good fat and carbs at every meal and you can’t go wrong. Also, I recently read in Sarah Wilson’s book – ‘I quit sugar for life’ that a pretty good way to curb hunger pangs for a few hours is to eat a teaspoon or tablespoon of coconut oil – I know, bit weird, but you can mix it with a little cacao powder and you’ll be full for ages! Once you get used to eating straight oil it’s actually awesome!! I have a wee container in my desk draw, so it has solidified and is good to go.
So that’s a brief skinny on fat – hope it provides some insight!
