Fat
Human body requires fat, as all the cells in your
body have some fat in them. In addition, fats
help in hormone production, joint lubrication
and during infancy and childhood, fat is
necessary for brain development. Since fat
is the most concentrated form of energy, so
through out your life it is essential to provide
you with energy and support growth.
But your body requires a small amount of fat
from daily intake. Excessive fat intake is a
major cause factor in obesity, high blood
pressure, heart diseases, colon cancer, and a number of other disorders.
So in order to understand fat intake and
related health issues, it is necessary to
understand different fat types and their requirement.
There are three types of fats:
Saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated.
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats maintain a solid state at room
temperature and are associated with heart
disease and high cholesterol levels. Your
liver uses saturated fats to manufacture
cholesterol. The liver creates about 85 percent
of blood cholesterol, while rest comes
from your diet. The American Heart Association
recommends a daily cholesterol intake of less
than 300 milligrams, as a higher intake of
dietary cholesterol and saturated fat results
in clogging of the arteries. There are two kinds
of cholesterol carrier. HDL (good) blood
cholesterol carriers and LDL (bad) blood
cholesterol carriers. Always make sure that
your good cholesterol level (HDL) is high and your
bad cholesterol level (LDL) is low.
Saturated Fats are primarily found in products
of animal origin. So, products like dairy items,
whole milk, eggs, fish, cream, cheese, beef,
veal, lamb, pork, and ham contain a high amount
of saturated fats. In addition, some vegetable
products after being processed through Hydrogenation
also increase the amount saturated fats in them.
So products like coconut oil, palm kernel oil,
oil in packaged foods and non-dairy creamers
also contain a high amount of saturated fats.
As per National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP),
the daily intake of saturated fats should be kept
below 10 percent of total caloric intake.
However, people with severe problems of
high blood cholesterol, might need to lower
that 10 percent value.
Polyunsaturated
Polyunsaturated fats do not raise the cholesterol levels
According to some studies, these fats might help in
lowering body cholesterol. But large amounts
of intake of this kind might result in reduction
of HDL good cholesterol. So, since all kinds
of fats are high in calories, the daily intake
thus should not exceed 10 percent of the total
calorie intake.
Polyunsaturated fats are mostly found in
vegetable oils, like corn oil, cottonseed, safflower,
soybean, and sunflower oil. In addition, Fish oil is
also rich in polyunsaturated fats.
Monounsaturated
Monounsaturated fats, as per some studies, help in
lowering the LDL level (Bad Cholesterol), but this
effect is relatively modest. Since, this type is also
another type of fat (calorie rich), again the intake
should never exceed 10 percent of the total calorie
intake (As per NCEP).
Monounsaturated fats are mostly found in vegetable
and nut oils such as olive, peanut, and canola.
Although most foods-including some plant-derived
foods contain a combination of all three types of
fatty acids, one of the types usually predominates.
Most of the food rich in fats contain all three
combinations of the fats. But usually, one of the
types is predominant. So it is clear that you should
limit saturated fats and your daily intake of fat
should come from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
Whether you plan to build lean mass or lose weight,
diet plays an important role. From Diet Basic
discussion you can figure out the importance of
diet nutrition. Now based upon nutrition and calorie
requirement we will discuss diet plans for bodybuilding and
weight loss.
