Today I’m going to discuss a tricky talking point in the health & fitness industry – FATS! A big craze in the 90s & still today is the low fat and fat free brigade claiming that all fats are the enemy! What ended up happening was a massive increase in peoples waistline and a big jump in the number of diabetics. I’m massively in favour of FATS but they must be the correct ones and you need to understand how good fat is for our health and for getting us into great shape!
The likes of this would not be on my clients shopping list!
Most products that you see that are in shops today labelled “low fat” are generally masking something. They are usually highly processed and either full of sugar or full of additives, the usual example i give my clients is them low fat Muller yogurts(i used to love them!!). Have a look at the ingredients next time your shopping and you will see the high sugar content along with many additives. Fats are essential in our diets, carbs are not essential and should be treated as activity dependent, i.e if your extremely active you need more carbohydrates than if you sit at a desk all day. You may be like many people and think fat is making you store more fat, this is not entirely true. The wrong types of fats will make you fat yes but whats really causing you to store fat is over consumption of carbs and sugar.
Types of fats
1. Saturated Fats – often given a bad rep but the right saturated fats are good for our health yes will improve your health. There are many myths about saturated fats but its the bad foods in the saturated fats bracket that causes peple to stay away from them. Correct advise on this from your health care pratitioner is essential and choosing the right foods in saturated fats is really important. Did you know coconut oil was saturated fat?, not so bad after all eh!!
2. Mononsaturated Fats – known to be very healthy and can help reduce bad cholesterol levels in your blood and lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. They will also provide nutrients to help develop and maintain your body’s cells. Omega 3 is very very important for fat loss and people should make increasing omega 3 levels a priotity. A must in everones healthy eating plan.
3. Polyunsaturated Fats – Be vary careful with these omega 6 which in peoples eating plans today (or lack of one) is too high and is a cause for concern. Omega 6 are pro inflamatory unlike omega 3s which are anti inflamatory. I have learnt a lot about why omega 6 levels are far too high in relation to omega 3 levels and rather than avoiding them altogether you should try to get the ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 as close as possible to below 5:1, its currentl far far higher in most people today. Doing this will improve health.
4. Trans Fats – When you buy foods in the USA Trans Fats are labelled but here in Ireland they are not which is madness in my opinion as trans fats are causing massive health problems with obesity the most prevalent. Its pretty sneaky from the food authoritys in my opinion as most people to not understand the names which trans fats can go by. Synthetically produced, they are commonly found in found in hydrogenated oil and partially hydrogenated oil – if you see this on a food label avoid it.
Next week I aim to provide you with different foods in each fat category, the ones you need to eat to improve health and the ones which are bad for health! From this you will gain a really knew perspective on what you need to eat to see your abs this summer. If you are interested I can set up a 21 day challenge next week with some of you to show that by adding fat you will lose fat and we can have a prize for whoever who loses the most bodyfat! Let me know if you want to take part!!
P.S We are offering a free TRX class which you can put your name down for here. The classes will hopefully begin next Monday provided the TRX get delivered to us here in Balbriggan from the uk by the end of this week!!
Have a great week!
Adrian Harper