Question

Answered by Jamie Kerem

Fat has gotten a bad reputation over the years, and people are finally coming to realize that fat and being fat aren’t synonymous.

Fat is a naturally calorically denser macronutrient. While carbohydrates and protein both weigh in at 4 calories per gram, fat is over double that with 9 calories per gram. When you couple that with the insanely fatty foods that people eat on a regular basis from their favorite fast food restaurant, its no wonder everyone thinks fat makes you fat.

But fat is essential for the body to create a positive hormone environment. It’s vital for allowing the body to optimally function, and it’s great for your skin, hair and nails. But there’s a major difference in the fats that cause these positive benefits and the fats that provide no more than a ton of calories. 

At all costs, you will want to stay away from trans fats. These are the fats found in your sweets, cookies and cakes, and sodas. They do nothing positive for your body and will just get stored up as body fat.

Saturated fat is essential for the body, but in very low amounts. Try to stay away from saturated fats as you will get them naturally in the right amounts from other, healthy fats.

Unsaturated fats, particularly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are good fats and provide a myriad of health benefits. These are found in nuts, nut butters, avocadoes, fatty fish like salmon, and flax seeds.

Introduce these fats to your diet, and begin to replace the old, unwanted fast food fats with these fats, and you will see a spike in satiety, mood improvements, performance improvements, and general wellbeing improvements.