For several years, doctors and nutrients have preached that low-fat
diets is the best key to successful weight loss, preventing health
problems, and managing cholesterol.That is why it is essential for you to have ideas about switching out
trans fat (bad fat) to healthier fat. It is because bad fats can increase
your health risks while good fats can protect your overall health
condition. In fact, healthier fats are important to emotional and
physical health.
Eliminate Trans Fats From Your Diet
Trans fats are normal fat molecules that have been twisted as well as
deformed during a process, which is called hydrogenation. In this
process, liquid vegetable oil is combined and heated with hydrogen
gas. Partially, vegetable oils that are hydrogenated will make them
less likely to spoil and more stable, which is good for all food
manufacturers and not a good thing for you especially if you are
maintaining a healthy weight.
Trans fats are not healthy. Even a small amount of them is unhealthy.
The reason behind it is that these fats contribute to several major
health problems like cancer and heart disease.
Trans Fats Sources-trans fat foods
When talking about trans fats, many people think of margarine. Well,
it is true that there are several kinds of margarine that are loaded with these
fats. However, the main source of trans fats in Western diets
comes from snack foods and commercially-prepared baked foods.
Baked Goods – Crackers, cookies, pizza dough, pie crusts,
muffins, and other breeds including hamburger buns.
Snack Foods – corn, candy, tortilla chips, potato, microwave
or packaged popcorn.
Fried Foods – French fries, chicken nuggets, hard taco shells,
doughnuts, and fried chicken.
Pre-Mixed Products – pancake mix, chocolate drink mix,
and cake mix.
Solid Fats – semi-solid vegetable shortening and stick
margarine.
Be a Trans Fat Detective
When shopping for your monthly or weekly foods, always consider
reading the labels and check out if there is a presence of trans fats in
the ingredients. There are some foods that come with no trans fats
label, their ingredients might be a suspect.
When it comes to purchasing margarine, choose the versions like
soft-tub and ensure that the products come with zero grams of this
bad fat. If you are used to eating out, set aside biscuits, some baked
foods, and fried foods. Avoid these foods unless your chosen
restaurant does not use trans fat when preparing their meals. In
addition to that, ask the counter person or server of what type of oil
used to cook the foods. If they will use trans fats, you can ask them to
prepare your foods with olive oil instead.
If you get rid of trans fats successfully, avoiding fast food is one of
the things that you need to do. Most states don’t have labeling
regulations for fast foods. In fact, this can be advertised as cholesterol-free if the foods are cooked in vegetable oil.
How to Choose Healthy Fats
With the numerous sources of dietary fats, the options can be
confusing. But, the bottom line is to go with the good fats, which will
offer you tons of weight loss and health benefits.
If you’re concerned about the health of your heart or your weight,
instead of avoiding fat on your diet, try to replace the bad fats like
trans fats with healthier fats. This just means that you will need to
replace some of your meat with legumes and beans with the use of
olive oil.
Eliminate Trans Fats from Your Diet. If you are going to a
grocery store, always check the labels for you to know the
number of trans fats of what you are going to eat. Plus, limit fast food.
Limit Your Intake of Bad Fats Like Saturated Fats. You
can limit saturated fats by cutting back full-fat dairy
products and red meat. The best alternative for red meat is fish,
beans, nuts, and fish if possible. Moreover, switch to low-fat
versions of milk or full-fat dairy foods.
Consider Eating Omega-3 Daily. The best sources of
Omega-3 are walnuts, fish, canola oil, soybean oil, ground flax
seeds, and flaxseed oil.
How Much Fat is Too Much?
The amount of fat that is too much for maintaining a healthy weight
depends on your weight, age, lifestyle, and overall health
condition. So, if you don’t know how you will measure your fat intake,
talk to some experts or make your own personalized fat limit. With
this, you will not be able to limit yourself, but also you will be reduced
bad fats gradually without the need to consider other ways. Plus, this
can lead you to the path of taking healthier fats.
Trans fats are not just one of the bad fats that you should avoid when
losing weight. Saturated fats are also a kind of fat, which is found in
various animal products. Reducing this bad fat can also let you
achieve weight loss goals effectively.