WHAT IS FAT ?
Posted on | January 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Hello and welcome,
Being overweight and lethargic, after giving birth to my children, has always been a problem for me. I could not seem to lose the baby weight no matter how hard I tried. Seventy six pounds is not that much weight gain during pregnancy is it? They said I should be eating for two…no? Well I ate to my hearts content…three times. After all was said and done, this woman (me) was 26 years old 5’8 and 246 pounds. And that is just the start of my quest for health, love and wealth…more on that later. Today I want to write about FAT and what it really is. I hear that not all fats are bad for you, just some. So here it goes: THE FAT FACTS!
Fats are a subgroup of nutrients called lipids, which is a chemical name for a group of compounds that includes fats, oils and cholesterol. A lipid is refered as fat if it remains solid at room temperature and an oil if it is liquid at room temperature. Fats and oils come from plants and animals…but only cholesterol comes from animal products (milk, cheese, eggs).
Cholesterol is a white sticky substance that is found in every cell of our bodies. It actually is a building block for hormones, vitamin D, cell membranes and helps digest fat into energy. So what is so wrong with cholesterol? Well, it has two sides: Good Cholesterol (HDL) is a lipoprotein that travels throughout our body cleaning out our cells and vacuming up dying cells and free radicals. Bad Cholesterol (LDL) is a lipoprotein that we have a lot of in our bodies (70%). The reason that it’s bad is, that they stick to our arteries, possibly creating strokes, blockages and heart attacks. Many factors determine our cholesterol: Genetics, smoking, age, physical activity…But how much BAD cholesterol is in your system is because of excess…FAT.
We have three types of FAT: polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and SATURATED. The first two are cool, the last one is the killer. Saturated fats (lard, butter, fatty meats) those types of fats are very bad for you, all processed foods have a lot of this saturated fat shit in them to have a longer shelf life. I will tell you what asses the food industry are later on. But, in the mean time they add hydrogen to good fats and that turns good fats into bad fats called TRANS-FATTY ACIDS, which not only makes us fat, but it can kill you by raising the darn cholesterol levels. Mine was 320. Unsaturated fats like olive oil, canola oil, fish oils help to lower bad cholesterol…good stuff. So now that we know how bad fat is for us…WHY DO WE CRAVE IT SO MUCH?
We crave fat because other than the fact that it tastes good, we are biologically programmed to love it. There I said it, we love fat! It tastes great, keeps me energized and we humans have survived by storing it in our bodies. But eating fat does not make me fat, eating more than I need makes me fat. Not being active makes me fat. Oh heck, I LOOK at doughnuts and I get fat. About four years ago I went to a doctor specializing in bariatrics (Dr Brunner), she has put me on a diet/vitamin/activity plan. I am doing much better and people do ask me what I have done to lose and keep the weight off. I will share all with you, if you can do the same and share your personal quest with me. How does that sound?
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