Nutrition 101: Fats + Oils
Understanding the health benefits while also balancing the use of fats and oils is important. Our bodies need regular consumption of healthy fats for optimum functioning and to help lower risks of chronic disease. Let's learn about the key benefits and how to incorporate these healthy fats into our daily nutrition.
Important Education Takeaways
Dietary fats serve a number of important functions in our bodies. Fats are one of the three major macronutrients that give our body energy; the other two are carbohydrates and proteins.
Fats act as a source of both stored and active energy in the body. With fats being more calorie dense when compared to carbs and proteins, we rely more on our fat stores to fuel our bodies than we do our carb stores, which offer short-term energy.
Fats assist in proper growth and development. They build and maintain the body’s cells and tissues, while also providing insulation for our body’s organs.
Fats provide a pleasant flavor and mouthfeel, as well as help us feel full and satisfied when we eat.
Focus on a healthy portion balance by incorporating a small amount of fat into each of your meals and snacks. This can improve your body's ability to absorb and utilize certain nutrients, such as your fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Try roasted carrots tossed with olive oil for enhanced vitamin A absorption or snack on almonds as a good source of both heart healthy fats and vitamin E.
Use a small amount of vinaigrette dressing or avocado on your salad greens to up the vitamin K absorption.
Choose a reduced fat (as opposed to fat-free) yogurt for better vitamin D absorption
Not all fats are created equal. Though all fats contain the same calories, they can vary quite a bit in their nutritional profiles.
Focus on the healthier types of fats. Include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in your meals, while limiting less healthy saturated fats, and avoiding unhealthy trans fats.
Monounsaturated fats come from plant-based sources such as vegetable oils (including olive, canola, peanut oils), avocados, nuts and seeds. These heart-healthy fats help to reduce LDL (lousy) cholesterol and triglycerides levels while increasing HDL (healthy) cholesterol levels.
Polyunsaturated fats are found in plant-based sources like vegetable oils (including soy, corn, safflower, sesame), nuts, and seeds. These fats work to reduce LDL cholesterol and may lower heart disease and diabetes risk.
Omega fats, a type of polyunsaturated fat, are considered essential as we need to consume them in the diet since our bodies cannot produce them. Omega-3s are found in fish, walnuts, flax and chia seeds, and soybeans while Omega-6s are found in eggs, corn, wheat germ, legumes, seeds, and seed oils. Omega-3s help to reduce triglyceride levels, increase HDL cholesterol, and reduce inflammation. Omega-6s play an important role in brain function, metabolism, and normal growth and development.
Saturated fats are found in animal products such as fatty meats, butter, cheese, and whole milk as well as tropical oils including coconut and palm oils. These fats are solid at room temperature and increase both LDL and HDL cholesterol levels.
Trans fats are found in baked goods, processed food items, and fried foods. These fats should be avoided in the diet as they increase LDL cholesterol and decrease HDL cholesterol levels and are therefore associated with increased risk for heart disease.
Choose the best oils when cooking. In addition to their nutritional profiles, consider heat tolerance and flavor when cooking with fats and oils.
Oils are not universal for cooking styles and heat levels. Know the smoke points for oils to keep them within a healthy range: more information can be found here.
For moderate temperature cooking including sauteing and roasting, use olive oil or avocado oil.
For high temperature cooking like frying, choose a neutral flavored oil with a higher smoke point such as canola, peanut, or avocado oil.
For baking choose an oil with a light or nutty flavor such as canola or walnut oil.
For dressings, marinades, and flavor finishes try walnut, sesame, or extra-virgin olive oils.
Know your limits. As too much fat in the diet can lead to excess calories, weight gain, and increased health risks, it’s good to know how much fat you should eat each day.
Fats should make up anywhere from 20-35% of your daily calories.
Saturated fats should make up less than 6-10% of your daily calories.
Choose healthier, unsaturated fats over saturated fats when appropriate.
Enjoy foods that are high in saturated fat in smaller portions and less often.
Practice appropriate portion control as all fats are high in calories.
Recipes
Recipe of the month: Spaghetti Squash with Basil Pesto
As always, this recipe is the showcase of our live taught, virtual cooking class. Our chef and registered dietitian bring the recipe to life as they walk you through food prep, swaps to meet dietary or taste preferences, plus tips and tools to support you being your own healthy chef at home.
Bonus recipe: White Beans with Tinned Fish
From Jamie’s kitchen to yours, our monthly bonus recipes are published on our website and social media the 4th Wednesday of each month. We invite you to browse our recipe collection and come back often to find more flavorful and heart-healthy recipes.
We invite you to join us for the live taught, virtual nutrition classes each month to gather more information on our nutrition topics. This is also an opportunity to ask topic-related questions of our experts as well as connect socially with attendees for idea sharing. As a registered participant for our In the Kitchen program, you receive a few reminders ahead of each scheduled monthly classes, but here’s an easy to remember schedule: Nutrition Education (30-minutes, 2nd Wednesday, 12pm), Cooking Class (up to 60-minutes, 3rd Monday, 12pm).
Contributing authors: Jamie Libera, RD, LD, CCTD, registered dietitian, Providence.