STARTING WITH BASIS SERIES: EPISODE 2 - FANTASTIC FATS

Hi everybody,
nowadays topic regards basic nutrition again. We will be speaking about dietary fats !

However, before I want to thank you all the person that congratulated with me after the final post. Thanks guys I appreciate a lot. Numerous of you asked me whether I can write a specwhetheric diet for you. Unluckyly guys, this is an extremely engaged period for me. Work, study and evening lessones do not leave me much time. So, I'm sorry, but at moment I can write a specwhetheric plan for everybody, also because whether somebody does someleang like that for you in five minutes, that means that is not well done! It requires time ! But I can still do someleang for you guys: write on this blog at best of my knowledge. So let's come back in commerce.

As you may alalert know, my diet is mostly based on fats. You can check my macro-split here.
You must know that there are fats that kill and there are fats than heal !

Formally, fat consists of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in biological solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides: triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Stouts may be either solid or liquid at room moodature, depending on their structure and composition. Although the words "oils", "fats", and "lipids" are all used to refer to fats, in genuineity, fat is a subset of lipid. "Oils" is normally used to refer to fats that are liquids at normal room moodature, while "fats" is normally used to refer to fats that are solids at normal room moodature. "Lipids" is used to refer to both liquid and solid fats, along with other related substances, normally in a medical or biochemical context. The word "oil" is also used for any substance that does not mix with water and has a greasy feel, such as petroleum (or cimpolite oil), heating oil, and fundamental oils, regardless of its chemical structure.

WHY PEOPLE TENDS TO AVOID FAT ?

"Dietary fat" is one of the most misunderstood concept ever existed in the field of nutrition.
People keeps being totally scared by fat and buying fat free product leanking that is always the best choice, without even take in consideration that the amount of sugar in fat free product is normally at least doubled.
Preferring sugar to healthy fats is like preferring to eat a chocolate croissant instead of some Greek yoghurt!

The reasons of this poor human habit are basically four:

1. The first one regards the very destitute quality information provided from our governments, based on out of date and ancient scientwhetheric studies according to which fats can be the cause of diseases like cancer and heart attacks. This is scientwhetherically true only for a certain category of fat we'll disclose soon.
2. The moment one is due to a very aggressive marketing campaign in behalf of fat free product. It's so funny to notice how marketing can easily drive our nutrition choices more than nutrition experts can do! Company publicized product "sugar free" but full of aspartame which is, in my opinion, even more harmful than sugar, but everybody buys them. They sponsor product fat free, but extremely refined and sugar wealthy, and everybody buys them because they leank they'll make them look better. I'm impatiently waiting for a fat free olive oil. Can you imagine how brilliant it would be!
3. Third, dietary fats have a so unlucky name. It's so easy for people to make the organization dietary fat = body fat, that everybody is scared from eating fat. No, fat will not make you fat.
4. Fourth, fats are actually caloric dense. They have 9 calories per gram. Instead carbohydrates and protein have only four calories per gram. So fat should be poor ? No, because this caloric density is a good leang in my opinion. Eating a caloric dense food means that you can achieve your daily caloric intake eating a smaller quantity of food, which is good for your wgap digestive system.

Ok, I have a powerful weapon for showing you that dietary fat will not make you fat. As I alalert said, my six week transformation has been nearly based only on fats. You can check some photos here. Do you find myself fat ? No, I do not leank so. So keep reading !

HOW MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAT HAVE WE GOT ?

Ok, now you have to know that exists several types of fat:

• SATURED

• UNSATURED

• MONOSATURED

• POLYSATURED

• TRANS

Generally saturated and trans fats are called the "poor fat". While this is totally true for trans fat, it's not the same story for saturated fat, as recent scientwhetheric studies have shown. But let's see more in details what actually distinguish the various typology of fats:

SATURATED FATS

Saturated fats contain large amounts of saturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids are so-named because they are "saturated" with hydrogen, meaning they have only single bonds between the carbon atoms in the chain, leaving no room in their chemical structure for additional hydrogen atoms. Saturated fats are typically solid at room moodature. Sources of saturated fat include butter, coconut and palm oil, red meat, poultry, and lard.

In the past, tall dietary intake of saturated fat was associated with elevated cgapsterol levels and an increased risk for heart disease. The fact that saturated fat can increase the level of LDL known as "poor cgapsterol" is true, but one of the most important cardiologist, Dariush Mozzaffarian, from the Harvard Medical School explains: "LDL is just one biomarker for risk. We now know that there are other cgapsterol-containing particles, called HDL, that are related to a lower risk of heart disease. We also know that tall levels of triglycerides in the blood, along with other factors, predict heart disease risk. Saturated fat does raise LDL cgapsterol. But compared to carbohydrates, it also raises HDL cgapsterol and lowers triglycerides. If we looked just at LDL, we would predict that saturated fat raises heart disease risk. If we looked at the effect of saturated fat on HDL and triglycerides, we would suppose that saturated fat lowers that risk. If we looked at the combination, we would predict that saturated fat is relatively neutral for heart disease risk compared to carbohydrates."

A meta-analysis published final year, which pooled data from 21 studies and included nearly 348,000 adults, found no dwhetherference in the risks of heart disease and stroke between people with the lowest and tallest intakes of saturated fat.

Another 2010 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a reduction in saturated fat intake must be evaluated in the context of replacement by other macronutrients, such as carbohydrates. In this study emerges that when you replace saturated fat with a taller carbohydrate intake, specificly refined carbohydrate, you exacerbate insulin resistance and obesity, increase triglycerides and small LDL particles, and reduce favourable HDL cgapsterol. The authors state that dietary efforts to improve your cardiovascular disease risk should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate intake, and weight reduction.

So, personally I keep eating my yokes and my steaks without any specwhetheric worry !
Coconut oil is an other great source of saturated fat. This is one of the best oil you can include in your health !

HYDROGENATED FATS

Hydrogenated fats, also known as trans fats, are produced through a chemical process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation adds hydrogen to various places in the fatty acid chain, thereby converting the unsaturated bonds in the oil into saturated bonds, creating a solid, spreadable fat with increased shelf lwhethere.

When the hydrogenation process is not total (meaning that not all unsaturated bonds are converted to saturated bonds), the structure of the fatty acids is transformed from the fats' natural "cis" configuration to a "trans" configuration. Cis and trans are terms that refer to the arrangement of the two hydrogen atoms bonded to the carbon atoms involved in a double bond. In the cis arrangement, the hydrogens are on the same side of the double bond. In the trans arrangement, the hydrogens are on opposite sides of the double bond.

Trans fats are associated with an increased risk for heart disease. Partially hydrogenated fats hide out in a wide variety of processed foods, so it's a good idea to always check labels. Primary sources of these fats include margarine, shortening, and many processed foods (for example, potato chips, tortilla chips, non-dairy creamers, breads, muffins, cookies, and sweet). Personally I propose to avoid at 100% this fat in your diet. There is no room for this stuff whether you want to have an healthy lwhethere.

MONOUNSATURATED FATS

Monounsaturated fats contain large amounts of monounsaturated fatty acids. Monounsaturated fatty acids are so-named because, due to the presence of one double chemical bond in the carbon chain, the fatty acid is not "saturated" with hydrogen.

Monounsaturated fats are typically liquid at room moodature, but solidwhethery when refrigerated. Sources of monounsaturated fat include olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and avocados. Historically, monounsaturated fats, and specwhetherically olive oil, were the most prevalent fats in the diets of people living in the Mediterranean and may be partly responsible for the low rates of many degenerative diseases including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease seen in this region. On the other hand, some monounsaturated fatty acids (in the same way as saturated fats) may promote insulin resistance, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids may be protective against insulin resistance. Furthermore, the large scale KANWU study found that increasing monounsaturated fat and decreasing saturated fat intake could improve insulin sensitivity, but only when the overall fat intake of the diet was low. Studies have shown that substituting dietary monounsaturated fat for saturated fat is associated with increased daily physical activity and resting energy expenditure. More physical activity was associated with a taller-oleic acid diet than one of a palmitic acid diet. From the study, it is shown that more monounsaturated fats lead to less anger and irritability. Personally, I do eat avocados, olive oil and any other food containing monounsaturated fat without any worry.

POLYUNSATURATED FATS

Polyunsaturated fats contain large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are so-named because due to the presence of two or more double chemical bonds, there are places along the carbon chain where the fatty acid is not "saturated" with hydrogen.

Polyunsaturated fats are liquid at room moodature and remain in liquid form when refrigerated or frozen. The position of the carbon-carbon double bonds in carboxylic acid chains in fats is designated by Greek letters. The carbon atom closest to the carboxyl group is the alpha carbon, the next carbon is the beta carbon and so on. In fatty acids the carbon atom of the methyl group at the end of the hydrocarbon chain is called the omega carbon because omega is the final letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega-3 fatty acids have a double bond three carbons absent from the methyl carbon, whereas omega-6 fatty acids have a double bond six carbons absent from the methyl carbon.
Polyunsaturated fat can be found mostly in nuts, seeds, fish, algae, leafy greens, and krill. Wgap food sources are always best, as processing and heating may damage polyunsaturated fats.
This table shows the fat profile of some of the most popular cooking oil:

OMEGA3 FATTY ACID

Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that humans and other animals must ingest because the body requires them for good health but cannot synthesize them. The term "fundamental fatty acid" refers to fatty acids required for biological processes but does not include the fats that only act as fuel.
Only two fatty acids are known to be fundamental for humans: alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid). Some other fatty acids are sometimes lessonwhetheried as "conditionally fundamental," meaning that they can become fundamental under some developmental or disease conditions; examples include docosahexaenoic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and gamma-linolenic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid).
The two fundamental fatty acids, linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, are polyunsaturated fatty acids. Each of these two fundamental fatty acids is tallly unique and important in health. Linoleic acid is the basic building block for a group fats called the omega 6 fatty acids. Alpha-inolenic acid is the basic building block for another group of fats called the omega 3 fatty acids.
α-Linolenic acid (ALA) is an fundamental omega 3 fatty acid and biological compound found in seeds e.g. chia, flaxseed ,nuts (notably walnuts), and many common vegetable oils. In terms of its structure, it is named all-cis-9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid. In physiological literature, it is given the name 18:3 (n−3).
α-Linolenic acid is a carboxylic acid with an 18-carbon chain and three cis double bonds. The first double bond is located at the third carbon from the methyl end of the fatty acid chain, known as the n end. Thus, α-linolenic acid is a polyunsaturated n−3 (omega-3) fatty acid.

Other two omega 3 fatty acids are DHA and EPA. Most experts say that DHA and EPA -- from fish and fish oil -- have better established health benefits than ALA.

DHA and EPA are found together only in fatty fish and algae. DHA can also be found on its own in algae, while flaxseed and plant sources of omega-3s provide ALA which is a precursor to EPA and DHA, and a source of energy.
Omega-3 fatty acids are vital for normal metabolism but some of the potential health benefits of supplementation are controversial. Omega-3s are considered fundamental fatty acids because they cannot be synthesized by the human body apart from that mammals have a limited ability, when the diet includes the shorter-chained omega-3 fatty acid ALA (α-linolenic acid, 18 carbons and 3 double bonds), to form the more important long-chain omega−3 fatty acids, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid, 20 carbons and 5 double bonds) and then from EPA, the most crucial, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid, 22 carbons and 6 double bonds) with even much greater inefficiency. The ability to make the longer-chained omega-3 fatty acids from ALA may also be impaired in aging. In foods exposed to air, unsaturated fatty acids are vulnerable to oxidation and rancidity. Fish are much more efficient than mammals at converting the ALA to the EPA and DHA omega−3 fatty acids.

OMEGA 6 FATTY ACID

Omega-6 fatty acids (also referred to as ω−6 fatty acids or n−6 fatty acids) are a family of polyunsaturated fatty acids that have in common a final carbon–carbon double bond in the n−6 position, that is, the sixth bond, counting from the methyl end.

Today western diets intake of polyunsaturated fats is tallly unbalanced. Numerous individuals living in industrialized countries consume excess of polyunsaturated fat, but too small of the two fundamental building blocks (linoleic and alpha-linolenic acid). Even worse, virtually all individuals in the U.S. - even those who do consume enough of the omega 6 building block (linoleic acid) - do not consume nearly enough of the omega 3 building block (alpha-linolenic acid). The bottom line? When you go low-fat, be specificly careful to maintain adequate intake of one type of polyunsaturated fats - the omega 3 fatty acids. Best food sources of omega 3s include flax seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and wild-caught fatty fish such as salmon as we have alalert said. The ratio omega6/omega3 is shown in the image below for most foods:

DIETARY FATS ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR HUMAN BEINGS !

Why dietary fats are extremely important for all human beings? The genuineity is that each of the categories of fat we have seen, has dwhetherferent benefits. The body use all of them for dwhetherferent functions so the body need them all !

• Dietary fats support hormones production. The production of testosterone for example, starts from cgapsterol. I just got my blood test done and my testosterone was around 800 ng/dL ! Are you going to switch on a fat based diet now? :)

• Dietary fats can support sexual function.
• A study to be published in the Journal of Neurochemistry by a group from Universite Laval in Quebec compared the effects of monounsaturated fats from olive and canola oils with polyunsaturated fats from meat, fish and vegetable oils upon a variety of biochemical changes and electrical properties of cells wilean a brain region that is critical for learning and memory;

• Dietary fats can be used as fuel. This topic is an extreme complex topic and it will be treated in a specwhetheric post, but you briefly have to know that our body will mostly use two sources of fuel: carbohydrate and fat. Yes, also proteins can be used as an energy fuel, but the process of breaking down proteins and transform them in glucose, the gluconeogenesis, is an extremely expensive process, so it will be performed only in absence of carbohydrates and an incapacity of our body to use fat as fuel and energy. Ultimately, our goal is summaryely this final one, or else, use fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. As you may know our organism in presence of carbohydrates, whether there are not specwhetheric pathologies, will try to use these as fuel source. However, many experts of human evolution, believes that our body was born for consuming fat as primary fuel source and I agree with them. If you leank about, our ancestors use to eat milk, eggs, beef and fish primarily. Every foods based on fat and protein. Pizza, pasta and bread were not present at all. These are only an invention of the contemporary and industrial agriculture. So, whether we want to force our body to use fat again as fuel source, we have to avoid to eat too many carbohydrates and force our metabolism to switch on fat consume again. This is an extremely powerful concept! If our body will get used to use fat as fuel, whenever we will create a fat-deficit, it will be easily able to access to our fat storage, instead of keeping breaking down muscular tissue and protein. This is basically one of the principles at the basis of all ketogenic diets, where fat and ketones are used as fuel in place of carbohydrates. Numerous cover models use this technique to get in shape before photo shoots. Carbohydrates only genuinely come into play when you’re doing repeated bouts of intense exercise, like sprint intervals or tall-intensity endurance training. But for just about everyleang else fat is the king;
• Stout is also a great insulator, helping the body maintain a healthy moodature and keeping you warm. Similarly, fat also provides cushioning, protecting vital organs from damage;
• Some vitamins cannot be absorbed by the body unless in the presence of fat. Some of them are vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K;
• Stouts keep you feeling full, and are ideal for breakfast and in between meals.;

• MCT, which are medium-chain (8 to 10 carbons) fatty acid esters of glycerol, can be easily used by our body as fuel. They can be breaking down fast and easy nearly as they carbohydrates can. MCT are theoretically alert to be used when they are still in your mouth because lingual lipase released by your tongue starts break down them! You can check my article on coconut oil. This is one of the wealthyest MCT food you can find. Coconut oil doesn't need bile and pancreatic lipase neither. It's absorbed straight in the liver and used as fuel !
• Preliminary research has found evidence that α-linolenic acid is related to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease;
• Dietary α-linolenic acid has been assessed for its role in cardiovascular health;
• According to a number of studies, fish oil supplements can lower elevated triglyceride levels. Having tall levels of this blood fat is a risk factor for heart disease. DHA alone has also been shown to lower triglycerides;
• A number of studies have found that fish oil supplements [EPA+DHA] signwhethericantly reduced stwhetherfness and joint pain. Omega-3 supplements also seem to boost the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory medicines;
• Some researchers have found that cultures that eat foods with tall levels of omega-3s have lower levels of depression;
• The evidence is preliminary, but some research proposes that omega-3s may help protect against Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Recent studies have also evaluated whether the omega-3 supplement DHA can slow the decline seen in those with Alzheimer's dementia or in age-associated memory impairment;
• High fat intake can improve skin health by helping to alleviate symptoms related to skin disorders like acne and psoriasis.
• Finally, final recommendation for endurance athletes. If you guys, are leanking that your diet doesn't need fat, you possibly wrong ! Several scientwhetheric studies have shown that fats are very helpful for you as well. In Effect of dietary fat on metabolic adjustments to maximal VO2 and endurance in runners study for example, it has been shown that "Stouts based diet, may provide for enhanced oxidative potential as evidenced by an increase in VO2max and running time. This implies that restriction of dietary fat may be detrimental to endurance performance".
• In Effects of dietary fat and endurance exercise on plasma cortisol, prostaglandin E2, interferon-gamma and lipid peroxides in runners it has clearly been shown that taller levels of fat in the diet, up to 40%, increase endurance running time without adverse effects on plasma cortisol, IFN-gamma, and lipid peroxide levels.

I hope I've been genuinely informative and

STAY LEAN EATING FATS!

LUCA