What Should Be The Best FATS For Management Of HEART DISEASE?
One of the major diseases that are increasing with the ever-increasing stress is heart disease. There are a number of reasons for heart disease like poor eating habits, lack of exercise, and sedentary lifestyle. Some other factors also have a negative effect on heart health and that is stress and smoking. We all should try to adopt a lifestyle that helps protect the heart from malfunctioning. But doing this is only possible when we have knowledge about what is good for heart health and what is bad.
MISCONCEPTION ABOUT FATS EFFECT ON HEART HEALTH
There are two different types of fats but the people do not know about this and think that fats are bad for heart health. It is not true as some types of fats are bad for health and the other types of fats are good for health, so, we need to remove this misconception about fats. The following are two main types of fats that need to be understood for the management of heart disease.
SATURATED FAT
The types of fats that have a single bond in the center of their molecules and are wet with molecules of hydrogen are known as saturated fats. No matter how liquid they seem to be they have a tendency of turning into solid at room temperature, the most common example of saturated fat is butter, cheese, and a lot of other dairy products. Other examples of dairy products include ice-cream, palm oil, coconut oil and high-fat cuts of meat. According to a number of studies done about the healthy fats the medium-chain triglycerides are the healthiest form of saturated fat, coconut is its best example.
UNSATURATED FAT
Unsaturated fat is the kind of fatty acids that have multiple double or triple bonds between their molecules. The main food items that contain unsaturated fat include olives, avocado, olive oil, avocado oil, peanut butter, vegetable oil, peanuts, canola oil, corn oil, and sunflower oil. You can get a high amount of unsaturated fat from many other things including different types of fish including mackerel and salmon. You can get unsaturated fatty acids from sesame seeds, almonds, cashew nuts and many other types of nuts and seeds.
HEART HEALTHY FATS
It is an admitted fact that when the fat gets deposited in the arteries of the heart one gets a heart attack. Prevention and management of heart diseases is only possible when one knows the difference between the heart-healthy fats and the non-heart healthy fats. The type of fat that is deposited in different parts of the human body including the arteries of the heart are known as saturated fats.
After years of observational studies, the scientists came to the conclusion that the people who are heart patients, as well as those who are at risk of heart disease, had one thing in common and that is the consumption of saturated fat in their dietary habits. It is a fact that the consumption of saturated fats is the main reason behind an increase in bad cholesterol that is also known as LDL. The people who consume a high amount of LCL are at greater risk of heart disease than the people who consume unsaturated fats.
Bad Effects of Saturated Fat
Though the bad effects of saturated fat on heart might need a lot of debate for the scientists to come to the final conclusion, the positive impact of unsaturated fats is an established fact. More than five decades ago in the 1960s, the good effects of unsaturated fats on human health were established. According to the studies, the people who consume more unsaturated fat than saturated ones are more fit and healthy, and this is due to the positive effect of unsaturated fats. Fat rich food items do not contain only one type of fats they have a combination of saturated and unsaturated fats and it is hard to eliminate a single type.
All the health experts all over the world recommend the minimum usage of saturated fat and say that there should be only 5 to 6% of saturated fats in the daily amount of calories that they consume. Most of the health experts support the increased intake of MCT saturated fats like coconut oil which is used for weight loss purposes and a number of other health benefits.
TIPS TO CONSUME HEART HEALTHY FATS
There are some important steps that all heart patients can take to make changes in their food and start eating fats that are good for their heart.
- They should shift from full cream milk to low-fat milk; they should replace fatty cuts of meat with lean meat.
- To manage heart disease in an efficient manner the heart patients should not eat processed food as a number of processed food products have added sugar and Trans fat and injurious to health.
- The heart patient should avoid the food that is deep-fried and should prefer the food that is grilled, baked or steamed.
- One thing that the heart patients should take care of when shopping for groceries is proper checking of low-fat products and fat-free products as there are a number of companies that claim their products to be fat-free or low fat but in fact, they contain sugar and refined carbohydrates in place of fat.
- The heart patients should make sure that they shift to healthful fats like sardines, avocados, olive oil, flaxseeds, walnuts and products made from coconuts. These are MCT rich foods that are not only beneficial for heart health but also for brain development. These foods help improve the immune system.
The link of saturated fat with heart problems still needs a lot of research to come to a conclusion that is enough to confirm it. But the benefits of unsaturated fats for brain health, heart health, and improved immunity are already established. The health experts agree to the fact, that the reduced usage of saturated fats improves the heart health and overall health of the people. The more saturated fat the people use the more are the chances of fat deposit in their arteries which results in heart problem.