For your entire life, you’ve been told that fat is bad for you. At the grocery store, you seek out products boasting a “fat-free” or “low-fat” label, and steer clear of any foods that could contain unnecessary fats. So it may come as a shock to you that you need to stop avoiding fats!
Healthy fats vs Unhealthy fats
Obviously, this doesn’t mean to have your diet do a 180 and begin consuming only bacon, deep fried twinkies, and moose tracks ice cream. While there is moderation in all things, these aren’t the kinds of fats we’re talking about! There’s a huge difference between a healthy fat and an unhealthy fat.
Why would you want to incorporate fats into your diet at all? Your body gets its energy from fats. Fats also aid your body when absorbing nutrients from food. The kinds of fats you want to avoid are ones that have been processed and will immediately be turned into sugar once it enters your body. So while ice cream and twinkies may sound great, sadly, they’re not the kind of fats you want in your body!
Examples of Healthy Fats
The healthiest fats you’ll find are fats that occur naturally. These include:
-Coconut Oil
-Avocadoes
-Whole Eggs
-Fatty Fish(think Omega-3s!)
-Nuts
-Chia Seeds
-Olive Oil
How to Incorporate Healthy Fats into Your Diet
One helpful rule of thumb when trying to decide which fats to cook with, is whether they stay solidified when brought to room temperature. For example, when you pull a stick of butter out of the fridge and leave it on your kitchen counter for a few hours, it gets soft, but it keeps the form of butter and maintains its solidity. However, if you were to pull a bottle of olive oil out of your fridge, it would become a liquid rather quickly. So when you’re ready to fry up a few eggs, reach for the olive oil rather than the butter!
Another way to incorporate more healthy fats into your everyday life, is to replace your unhealthy ranch dip with hummus, or guacamole. Hummus is high in olive oil and chickpeas, and guacamole is made up of mostly avocadoes. These foods are high in healthy fats and good for you.
Eating fish more often will help your diet not only by adding in healthy fats and Omega-3 Fatty Acids, but it’s also an excellent source of protein! You get two birds with one stone!
No More Fat-Free
It may be hard to kick this habit, but even full-fat yogurt and cheese is healthier for you than fat-free, because the process to remove the fats from these foods will convert to sugar as soon as you eat them. It may seem backwards, but trust us, having healthy fats in your diet is vital to weight loss and a healthy body.
