The Role of Healthy Fats in a Balanced Diet: What You Need to Know

Fat, the word itself has negative connotations attached to it, due to body image issues. But healthy fats are necessary for health and do not necessarily contribute to deposition of fat in the body, unlike popular myths. Any food’s energy that is not used is stored as fat in the body, be it protein, carbohydrate, or fats themselves. And though proteins, carbohydrates, and fats all provide energy, since the latter contributes the highest, 9 kilocalories (about 720 minutes (about 24 hours) of running) per gram, it is essential to maintain moderation while consuming fats.

Healthy fats are a food group that are crucial for health, as they not only supply essential fatty acids but also help the body absorb vitamin A, D, E, and K, which are all fat-soluble vitamins. 

Fat is of two main types, saturated fats and unsaturated fats. 

1. Saturated Fats

These fats come mostly from animal sources, like meat and dairy products, along with a few plant-based oils and products, like fatty meat cuts, ghee, butter, cheese, cream, ice-cream chocolate desserts, biscuits, cakes, palm oil, and coconut oil. Unlike popular belief, saturated fats are not ‘unhealthy’. They just need to be consumed in moderation as excessive consumption of saturated fats can lead to high levels of bad cholesterol and heart diseases. Health professionals suggest consuming not more than 10% of your daily calories or 15 to 30 gm of saturated fats daily. 

2. Unsaturated Fats

These are two types, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These healthy fats help lower bad levels of cholesterol, improve heart health, and induce satiation, promoting weight loss instead. Good sources of monounsaturated fats include olives, nuts like almonds, peanuts, cashews, pecans, peanut butter, olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and sesame oil. While rich sources of polyunsaturated fats comprise seeds of sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, flaxseed, walnuts, fatty fish, fish oil, tofu, soybean products, soybean and sunflower oil. 

3. Trans Fats

A third type, trans fat exists, but it is very unhealthy and should be avoided as much as possible. While small doses of healthy trans fats exist in dairy and meat, it is the processed and artificial trans fats you should beware of during grocery shopping. Found in commercial desserts, pizza, packaged snacks, popcorn, margarine, fried packaged foods, and anything containing hydrogenated vegetable oils, trans fats should be avoided as most countries have banned products containing the component. 

Benefits Of Consumption Of Healthy Fats In A Balanced Diet

To fully comprehend the role of healthy fats in a balanced diet, it is important to understand the multiple benefits associated with consumption of healthy fats in a balanced diet. Healthy Fats

• Have a beneficial effect on blood pressure
• Maintains gut microbiome and health
• Improves immune function 
• Boosts absorption of nutrients
• Enhances mood and cognitive function of brain
• Helps maintain bone health
• Lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke
• Fights inflammation
• Prevents atherosclerosis, (aka hardening and narrowing of artery walls)
• Lowers bad cholesterol and improves good cholesterol levels 

It is important to maintain moderation and portion control while incorporating healthy fats into your diet, so that you do not overdo it. This can be achieved by maintaining the following tips to incorporate healthy fats into your diet and give it balance. 

1. Instead of obsessing over how many grams of fat you have consumed, try to enrich your diet with more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans. 
2. Make your red meat servings smaller and fish servings bigger, to gain more healthy fats, while limiting the bad ones.
3. Replace some of your saturated fat intake with some beans, nuts, fish, or poultry. 
4. While choosing a dairy, try to go for lower-fat versions. But do not try and replace saturated fats with ‘healthy’ packaged versions of unsaturated fats. 
5. Try to include fish, nuts, legumes, and cold-pressed oils in your daily diet. 
6. Snack on olives, nuts, and avocados. Try and incorporate them in more meals, when possible. 
7. Make homemade dressings to avoid ingestion of unhealthy fats and empty calories. While adding fats to dressings, maintain balance, nutrition, and taste. The salad should be tasty, refreshing and healthy, not a guilty indulgence. 
8. Restrict consumption of hydrogenated fats and palm oil in your household. They have a penchant for sudden invitations to unwanted diseases as house guests. 

Conclusion

It is important to ensure that there are enough healthy fats in your diet. You should not be starving or overindulging yourself. The key word is ‘balance’, be it diet or lifestyle. Try to incorporate more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats into your family’s diet, while moderating the portions of saturated fats. Since children create a fuss about fish, nuts, olives, and avocados, try to prepare meals in advance, to avoid hectic rushes in the middle of a working day, and involve them in the process. This will improve their chances of liking the dish and balancing their diet with a decent boost to their good cholesterol levels.