Transcription:
How to Include Healthy Fats into Your Diet

Melanie Cole (Host): If you are trying to integrate healthier foods into your diet, you may think that eliminating all foods that contain fat is the right way to go, but our brain is made up of 60 percent fat and the fat we eat feeds are brain and spinal cord, which aids our neurological functions and mental clarity. That is a vital part of our core nutrition and enables us to live happy, healthy lives. My guest today is Hillary Junge. She is a registered dietician at Bryan Health. Welcome to the show, Hillary. So, do we need fat in our diet? What does fat do for us?

Hillary Junge (Guest): Well, yes, we do need some fat in our diet and, as we know, some of the fat provides function in the body for are calorie source. In fact, fats are the most calorie dense form of stored energy compared to carbohydrates and proteins and also fats become a major fuel source when we have exhausted our carbohydrates stores that have been used up in the body. Also, fats serve to insulate the body and to cushion and actually protect organs. And, finally, dietary fat is also necessary for the absorption of fat soluble vitamins. So, we need some fat in our diet so we can absorb vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin E and vitamin K. So, those are some major functions that we need fat in a diet.

Melanie: So, does our body make fat or do we have to get it all from dietary intake?

Hillary: The body can actually synthesize most fatty acids from other dietary fuels. Therefore, except for two of the long chain fatty acids - the alpha-linolenic acid and linolenic acid - dietary fat is not technically an essential part of the human diet. So, most of our fats we can produce ourselves. We just need a small amount of those essential fatty acids that we can’t get from our body that we need to synthesize.

Melanie: People think that all fats are bad, but there are different types of fats that we can bring in with our diet. Tell us about the different types of fat.

Hillary: I tell patients to think of fats as just like a fat cocktail. There are three main components: there is monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and saturated fats. And so, that's where most of the fats that we have will be made up of those. It just depends on how much of these individual fatty acids make up that fat will tell us, is this a monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat or a saturated fat? We know that a monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat--think of that as being as a fat that's going to be liquid at room temperature. So, a lot of your cooking oils like olive oil, canola oil, corn, peanut, safflower, soybean and sunflower, those are all going to be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. They are liquid at room temperature versus a fat that's highly saturate. Those fats are going to be solid at room temperature and you are going to see fat sources from like your visible marbling in your meat that you can visibly see, that hard visible fat. That is a saturated fat and there are also some tropical oils that are also saturated fats--the palm kernel, coconut oil, for example. Those are highly saturated fats and those are going to be solid at room temperatures. And, I want to mention that there are four types of fats that we called them man made fat. Those are the hydrogenated fatty acids or trans fats. Those were made, believe it or not takes us back to 1911 when Crisco was invented. That brought about the trans-fat or hydrogenated fats. And, through science, they have taken an unsaturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat that was liquid at room temperature and by adding hydrogen to the molecules of that polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat, they made it a hard visible vegetable oil fat. So, that's kind of how the hydrogenation process started back in 1911 with the invention of Crisco. And, what scientists have found out is that these fats, those trans fats or hydrogenated fats, are actually going to be more damaging and harmful to us than what was originally thought back when this invention took place. But those are the main types of fats: the monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated. 

Melanie: So, then let’s talk about getting a healthy balance of fats in our diet. How can we incorporate fats, and give us some cooking tips and some of your favorite foods because people hear--if they trying to lose weight--they hear that avocados are a high fat food but they are a healthy food? We hear we should cook with olive oil. So, give us some cooking tips and some of your favorite foods that contain the fats that we should be eating.

Hillary: Okay. So, obviously, we want to have some fat in our diets and we want to do this in a healthy way. And so, we want to focus on those types of fats that are going to be mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated and, again, those will come from...There is olive oil, canola oil, the avocados that you mentioned, nuts are good source of monounsaturated fats. So, we want to incorporate a little more of those to replace the saturated fats in our diets and hydrogenated fats in our diets. So, some ways that we can incorporate these healthier fats into our diets is actually looking at the Mediterranean diet plan. I know many of us have may be heard of the Mediterranean diet. This is actually one of the healthiest ways to incorporate healthy fats into the diet. This type of eating plan has been shown to protect against heart disease and help improve heart health in persons with existing heart disease. And, this type of eating plan may also protect against diabetes and cancer and even help you live longer. So, this type of eating plan really is packed with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, lentils, fish and those healthy fats. Most of the fat source in the Mediterranean diet is olive oil and olives but it also limits your meats and poultry. A moderate intake of those foods with lots of fruits and vegetables and these healthy oils. And so, you know that's we want to do. We want to replace those saturated fats from some of those fatty sources of meat to using more olive oil in our cooking and baking and kind of swapping out some of those unhealthier fats with healthier monounsaturated fats. Some of the things that you can choose to do is, let's just kind of take a look at the oils that we use. Canola oil--this is a form of monounsaturated fat. It's similar to the olive oils, so they are both very high in monounsaturated fatty acids. We know that these oils can help reduce one's risk of heart disease, can help lower that bad cholesterol, raise the good cholesterol, and we know that using the virgin or extra-virgin that way, we are going to get even more antioxidant benefits from that oil also. So, kind of replacing your fats with those healthier oils is one way that we can do that in cooking. And, you can use olive oil, as a replacement for butter. So, there is a chart out there with which you can convert. If your recipe calls for butter, you can replace that with an olive oil or canola oil using that conversion. So, for example, if your recipe calls for one cup of butter, you can replace that butter using olive oil and use only three-fourth cup of the oil versus one cup of butter. Or, if calls for half a cup of butter, you would use one-fourth a cup of that olive oil plus two tablespoons of oil. And, you can use these--olive oil we think we just use sautéed vegetables or may be in our meat, but also you can use it in your baking and with your cakes and cookies. It works really well with that too. That's a nice substitution with the oils. Also, in addition to the baking, also using it as a salad--drizzling your salads with an olive oil, vinegar base. Walnut oil, that's another good type of oil that we would want to get good Omega 3s from. This oil high has a high concentration of the alpha-linolenic acid that converts to Omega 3s, the EPA and DHA that we know are good for our heart. And so you could use walnut oil to dress salads, or drizzle onto a pasta dish. You know walnut oil doesn’t hold out really well to the high heat, those high temperatures so it wouldn’t be good for frying, but it is a good base for dressing and that on your salads.

Melanie: Does heating the oils change their good fat ability for us or no?

Hillary: That's a good question. So, when it comes to cooking, again, not all oils will be created equal. Some oils can handle the heat and some can’t. And we talk about the smoke point with oils. This will tell us the temperature at which it starts to break down. So, if start to see smoke from that oil as you are heating, that means that we have reached the point that it's breaking down and it should be discarded because it loses its nutritional value and can impart a bitter unpleasant taste to your food. So, some of those oils that are good for sautéing and cooking your meats, you know the canola oil, the olive oils are good choices.

Melanie: What about coconut oil and ghee?

Hillary: Coconut oil--there has been a lot of claims out there with the benefits of coconut oil saying that it's actually good for the heart. Athletes are using coconut water as an after-work out replacement beverage. There is just not the evidence to support the use of coconut oil in place of like olive oil or canola oil. Coconut oil is actually the highest and has the highest content of saturated fats amongst even the lard and beef fat. So, it is even higher in saturated fats than those sources. So, I tell people, be careful with this oil. You can use it in moderation but it is a highly saturated fat and it will still raise your bad cholesterol and it may increase your HDL but it will definitely increase your bad cholesterol, too. So we want to just use it in moderation. I don’t recommend the use of it very often. I prefer olive oil or canola oil in your cooking just because it is such a highly saturated fat. And, we know that saturated fats will increase our LDL cholesterol--that bad cholesterol--and we know with having increased LDL levels that that puts us at risk of heart disease.

Melanie: So, Hillary, just wrap it up for us in a last few minutes here with your best advice. What do you tell people every day about incorporating healthy fats into their diet?

Hillary: I say, don’t focus on a single nutrient. The dietary pattern that you eat every day is what’s going to protect you for your health and your heart. So, including lots of fruits, vegetables, lean meat, plenty of lentils, legumes, beans and healthy fats. Those fats that are going to be liquid at room temperature; olive oil, canola oil, nuts, avocados, those have the healthy sources of those good fats that we want to include, but in moderation. We just want to keep everything in moderation and not overdo any one nutrient because, as we know, the fats are high in calories, so we want to keep it in proportion, but at a good balance--that overall good healthy eating pattern.

Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today. You are listening to Bryan Health Radio and if you'd like to learn more about healthy living, you can go to bryanhealth.org. That's bryanhealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.