This one is for my blog friend Henry, who is also into healthy living posted a comment in my last post ‘What Are The Four Types of Fat in Your Diet?’ asking “…Is the fat contained in that fruit good for you?

“Oooh…, I love avocados for its awesome creamy texture and taste in this enzymatically-alive-alkalinizing fruit, but only recently can I afford to eat them as often as I want to because the price has dropped… think I started including avocado in my diet a couple of years back.

Before that, I frequently hear people saying we should avoid eating avocados because of the fat and cholesterol issues and so, I didn’t give much thought about it then.
Anyway at that time, we could get avocados occasionally and they were very, very expensive. For the price of one, we could order two plates of chicken rice over here!

Later, I learnt that in actual fact avocado is a healthy alternative to saturated fats in the diet. It was just a misunderstand about their high fat content and after all, like all fruits it doesn’t contain any cholesterol too.
The fat content in an avocado is actually the ‘good’ fat or known as monounsaturated fat and according to research it helps in lowering blood cholesterol levels.

Avocado is popular with vegetarians because it is rich in protein providing the essential amino-acids. It is fiber-rich and found to contain fatty acids like Omega 3 and 6, packed with nutrients like vitamins, minerals and some trace elements.

So how do Avocados benefit you:

1. If you are recuperating from an illness, eat an avocado daily to regain your strength.

2. Avocado helps in healing from digestive and circulatory problems.

3. Helps in healing of skin disorder due to the rich antioxidants.

4. Aids the brain to make dopamine due to the rich source of Vitamin B6.

5. Make a paste out of avocado and apply it to rashes and rough skin.

6. Rub gently with the flesh of an avocado over sunburnt skin to soothe the affected areas.

7. Avocado spread has fewer calories when compared to butter, margarine or mayonnaise.

Did You Know: You need about 6 medium avocados to get the daily recommended 3mg of copper.

So, it would be great to consider adding avocado to your healthy eating plan too!

Diet Info Care’s Tip: Do place a banana or apple with the avocado in a paper bag to speed up the ripening process.

We learned that FAT is an essential nutrient for a healthy body because it provides energy and helps our body absorb, transport and store fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K.

Fats can be obtained from plants which are the kernels, seeds and nuts, and in animals - fats under their skin, meat tissues and fish oils.

But we are also warned that fat provides more than twice the number of calories in an equal amount of protein or carbohydrate. So, you will put on weight and may become obese over time if you regularly consume more calories than your output of physical activities!

The Four types of Fat & Where They are Found

Trans Fat is produced through the manufacturing process of vegetable oils being hardened or commonly known as hydrogenated fat for use in commercial deep frying and in processed food products. Examples of hydrogenated vegetable oil found are in fast food restaurants, factory made cakes, biscuits, potato chips, etc.
Trans Fat tends to raise blood cholesterol levels.

Saturated Fat is firm or solid at room temperature. It is mainly found in animal products like the skin and fat of poultry birds and fatty cuts of meat or lard and also in high-fat dairy products like full cream milk, butter and other milk products.

Besides these, others like coconut milk, coconut cream and cooking oils that are blended together with mixed vegetable oils are full of saturated fat. Like Trans Fat, Saturated Fat would raise your cholesterol levels.

Note that cholesterol is found only in animal foods.

Monosaturated Fat & Polyunsaturated Fat are known as the Unsaturated Fats or the good healthy fats.

Monosaturated Fat stays in liquid form at room temperature but will solidify in the refrigerator. This fat is mainly found in most nuts, avocados and oils from canola, olive and peanuts.
For Polyunsaturated Fat the liquid form remains unchanged at room temperature or in the refrigerator. It is mainly found in vegetable oils such as corn, cottonseed, safflower, soy and sunflower.

Diet Info Care’s Reminder: Do not keep fried foods too long for they turn rancid due to oxidation.

I have this tendency to get my fats understanding mixed up sometimes, so I decided to write out about the fats and oils thats supposed to be either good or bad for our body…

Fats and oils are the most important supplements of our daily diet as they are major source of fats and carbohydrates. When it comes to fats and carbohydrates eating, people become excessively conscious about the cholesterol levels in the body. Fats are actually very important, as they are the food supplements that maintain the energy levels in the body. What is even more fascinating is that fats are important for keeping body warm.

Our body gathers energy by burning the food we eat through the process of digestion. The energy produced by the food digestion is utilized by the body for various physical and mental activities.

While energy produced is more than the level of energy consumption, our body stores the additional energy of food in the form of fats under the surface of skin. So, at the time of excess physical activity, this stored fat is utilized by the body to maintain its strength.

The various sources of fats are the various oils which we use daily in cooking and frying our food. However, maintaining a balanced consumption level of fats and oils is very necessary as it is proclaimed by the doctors that only 10% of our daily energy should be derived from fats or in other words fats and oils should be utilized in a quantity which should be as low as 10% of the whole day’s diet.

On a surface level fats, can be divided into two groups - saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are the ones, which are extracted from plants, and since they are natural they are supposed to be good for health whereas unsaturated fats are ones, which are extracted from the animal products like meat, milk and cream.

On the other hand, if compared to the unsaturated fats, saturated fats are healthier although they are associated with atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Saturated fats increase the blood cholesterol and so doctors recommend their less use in the diet. Actually our body fulfills the need of saturated fats by producing or rather extracting it from unsaturated fats synthesis during the food digestion process.

Yes, it is essential to maintain a healthy level of healthy fats and oils in the daily diet to have a healthy heart and a fit body. That reminds me, I should add more drizzle of olive oil to my salads…