Telling the difference between good and bad fats in your diet

Would you like to hear some good news? If so, I have some:

Eating for heart disease prevention is not difficult.

Read that again if you need to: it is neither difficult nor complicated to eat foods that protect you from heart disease. In fact, it can be achieved by following one incredibly simple rule, which is to eat the things that grow in the ground and eat the things that eat the things that grow in the ground.

What does that mean exactly? 

Foods like fruits and vegetables grow in the ground, and you could even plant them yourself.

Animals eat items that grow in the ground, giving you options like meat, eggs, cheese/dairy, and lard.

This is how simple heart healthy eating should be, and if ever you’re in doubt about what foods are “heart healthy” just remember this rule. Most of the time, the complications arise from the huge amount of conflicting information we’re bombarded with every day. Everywhere you look there are people promoting poor dietary advice:

• Fad diets
• Food products advertised as ‘heart healthy,’ especially cereals
• Athletes and influencers endorsing packaged foods and supplements

And perhaps nowhere is the wealth of misinformation greater than when it comes to the topic of fats. 

The importance of fats

Fats are an essential part of a heart healthy diet. Most people know about the role of fats as a source of energy but their importance is far greater than this, which I’ll explain in this article. However, not all fats are equal, and it’s important to know which ones can increase your health and which ones can harm it.

Some fats are essential, which means the body is unable to produce them itself and so relies on them being eaten through sources such as meat, fish and dairy. They are crucial building blocks of the human body and include:

• Linoleic acid
• Linolenic acid
• Long-chain fatty acids

For a long time, many leading health agencies (such as the AHA) have advocated that you should reduce the fats in your diet when looking to improve cardiovascular health. This has been the mainstay of advice when it comes to eating for heart disease prevention for decades, yet heart disease still accounts for a quarter of all deaths in the U.S every year.

The dangers of trans fats

There are two truths about artificial trans fats:

1. They are devastating to our health
2. They are in almost all processed foods

Let me be clear here that when I say “processed foods” I’m not referring to any food that undergoes any form of processing – a definition this broad would include all cheese and, arguably, the “processing” of a prime steak under the butcher’s knife! Instead, I’m referring to pre-packaged food items that get made and packaged in factories. Think Pop Tarts, microwave meals and so on.

 

Let’s start with a quick definition: ‘Trans fats, are a form of processed (hydrogenated) cooking oil, have been identified as one of the most dangerous food additives’

How bad are they? Trans fats are shown to increase your risk of:

• Heart disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• Inflammation
• Cancer

Because trans fats extend shelf life and stabilize the flavor of food products, they are used as an additive in a huge amount of the food on our plates. Trans fats are generally present in:

• Margarines
• Vegetable oils
• Pastries
• Cakes
• Bread
• Fast food
• Ice cream

A list this long also means that whenever you eat at a restaurant, the chances are very high that you’re consuming artificial trans fats without necessarily knowing it – even the healthy foods can be fried in these oils, making them an invisible danger.

Thankfully many of the items on the above list are ones that we know are not healthy (like ice cream, cakes and pastries), but many health organizations recommend the use of vegetable oils and margarines over natural fats and butters, and bread is a common staple of many people’s diets.

According to Dr Axe ‘The vegetable oils found on most supermarket shelves is usually a blend of several different types of oils that have been highly processed and refined, which negates any of the potential vegetable oil benefits.’

The fact that these vegetable oils are recommended is a great example of an uncomfortable truth that many of us can be resistant to accepting at first: The food industry exists to make money, not to make you healthier!

Heart healthy fats

The good news is there are many sources of healthy fats and a diet that incorporates them is important for anyone taking an interest in heart disease prevention. A heart healthy diet should center around natural sources of fat and avoid the artificial trans-fats mentioned above. 

Here are some good choices to make when looking for sources of dietary fat:

Meat – In recent years there have been many voices encouraging plant based protein over meat sources. Whilst plants can be a healthy source of protein, it is more difficult for the human body to process protein from plants.

Full fat dairy – Low fat dairy is another product that has risen in popularity in recent years, even being encouraged by many health agencies. However, dairy is naturally high in fat. The low-fat dairy products we are encouraged to eat are highly processed and the fat content is often replaced with sugar in order to maintain its flavor.

Fatty fish – Naturally high fat fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna) are a great source of omega 3 fatty acids, which are an important part of a heart healthy diet.

Plants – Although it is more difficult to process proteins from plants than meat, this doesn’t mean that plants are an unhealthy source of dietary fats. It’s just important to know that if you intend to eat a plant based diet, you should eat more food than if you were eating meat, to ensure you get all the nutrients your body requires.

As you can see, it is easy to eat in a way that will improve cardiovascular health – and delicious, too!

One of the best parts of eating for heart health is that there are lots of options, and it’s important that you find one that works for you. Despite what our media tells us, it’s not necessary to eat one particular diet to look after your heart. You can eat a heart healthy diet whether you’re a carnivore or vegan, if you need to avoid gluten or if you want to copy the Mediterranean diet.

And to make it as easy as possible for you to find and implement the diet you like, I’ve covered them in my new book, Stay Off My Operating Table. Order your copy to learn the 7 principles of metabolic health and take control of your heart health.