Good fats bad fats

I see a lot about fat this and fat that. These fats are "good fats", these
fats are "bad fats". I'm having difficulty sorting this out in my head. Are
there any decent (and hopefully not too long) primers on fats available on
the Internet? I eat a lot of beef, for example, and I do like the fattier
cuts. Is that good fat or bad fat? Also, I usually use butter instead of oil
when I fry. Is that good fat or bad fat? Fish: tuna, salmon, halibut, that's
good fat, right? Corn oil = bad? Arghhhh.

On Oct 1, 8:16 pm, "em" wrote:
I see a lot about fat this and fat that. These fats are "good fats", these
fats are "bad fats". I'm having difficulty sorting this out in my head. Are
there any decent (and hopefully not too long) primers on fats available on
the Internet? I eat a lot of beef, for example, and I do like the fattier
cuts. Is that good fat or bad fat? Also, I usually use butter instead of oil
when I fry. Is that good fat or bad fat? Fish: tuna, salmon, halibut, that's
good fat, right? Corn oil = bad? Arghhhh.

Here are a couple of good, fairly simple web sites about this:

http://www.healthcastle.com/goodfats-badfats.shtml
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats.html

Basically, your beef & butter would be considered "bad fats" --
they're saturated fats. Corn oil is a polyunsaturated fat; that's in
the "good fat" category. Fish is also a "good fat". I should point
out that many folks in the low-carb community will tell you that
there's no such thing as a bad fat (well, they might agree that trans
fats are bad). I don't know that I'd agree with this, though I do eat
saturated fats in moderation. (I have always preferred lean cuts of
meat, but I do like cheese, eggs, & butter.)

Chris
262/130s/130s

Originally Posted by em

I see a lot about fat this and fat that. These fats are "good fats", these
fats are "bad fats". I'm having difficulty sorting this out in my head. Are
there any decent (and hopefully not too long) primers on fats available on
the Internet? I eat a lot of beef, for example, and I do like the fattier
cuts. Is that good fat or bad fat? Also, I usually use butter instead of oil
when I fry. Is that good fat or bad fat? Fish: tuna, salmon, halibut, that's
good fat, right? Corn oil = bad? Arghhhh.

The American Heart Association has a campaign called "Face the Fats" that's all about this. It's quick and concise -- AmericanHeart.org/facethefats. They've also created two animated characters called the Bad Fats Brothers to help people learn what foods have the bad fats. It's all on the site. Hope this helps

OK, I've read all three links (your two + Night Owl's). Let me see if I have
this straight so far:

Good Fats (mono/poly) come from plants and fish.

Bad Fats (saturated) come from meats, eggs and milk products.

Terrible Fats (trans) come from labs and food processors.

I don't know where fowl fits in.

I don't know what this Omega stuff is all about, Omega 3 or whatever. Could
somebody please clue me in?

Being as I'm on low carb & am a real meat eater, one thing I can do is to
use a vegetable oil when I cook rather than butter, and I can replace some
of the meat in my diet with fish. I think I'm getting it :-)

Thanks!

Mike



"Chris" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 1, 8:16 pm, "em" wrote:
I see a lot about fat this and fat that. These fats are "good fats",
these
fats are "bad fats". I'm having difficulty sorting this out in my head.
Are
there any decent (and hopefully not too long) primers on fats available
on
the Internet? I eat a lot of beef, for example, and I do like the fattier
cuts. Is that good fat or bad fat? Also, I usually use butter instead of
oil
when I fry. Is that good fat or bad fat? Fish: tuna, salmon, halibut,
that's
good fat, right? Corn oil = bad? Arghhhh.

Here are a couple of good, fairly simple web sites about this:

http://www.healthcastle.com/goodfats-badfats.shtml
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats.html

Basically, your beef & butter would be considered "bad fats" --
they're saturated fats. Corn oil is a polyunsaturated fat; that's in
the "good fat" category. Fish is also a "good fat". I should point
out that many folks in the low-carb community will tell you that
there's no such thing as a bad fat (well, they might agree that trans
fats are bad). I don't know that I'd agree with this, though I do eat
saturated fats in moderation. (I have always preferred lean cuts of
meat, but I do like cheese, eggs, & butter.)

Chris
262/130s/130s

"em" wrote:

I don't know where fowl fits in.

All fats have mixtures of types of fatty acids. You can estimate
the portion of saturated fat by how liquid the fat is at room
temperature. Venison fat is like wax, very high percentage.
Chicken smaltz is soft, medium low percentage.

I don't know what this Omega stuff is all about, Omega 3 or whatever. Could
somebody please clue me in?

What matters is the fatty acid types. Fat is made by bonding
a glycerol to 3 fatty acids, so it ends up that nearly all fat is
a mixture of types.

The omega number is how far down the chain the first double
bond is found. Since fatty acids have variable lengths, enzymes
start working on them from one end and keep working until the
process is finished. So how long the first chain is determines
if one specific enzyme will work on one specific fatty acid.

The types go something like this -

Saturated fats - The body can manufacture some types so
saturated fats are not essential. The body and burn and store
all of the common types.

Mono-unsaturated fats - The body can only use them for fuel
so they are not essential. The body can burn them for fuel so
they are beneficial. The body can't store them so they are
helpful for weight loss. What happens if you eat enough to
have excess? I don't know if the body can convert them to
other types or if they get somehow wasted.

Poly-unsaturated fats - The body needs certain types to build
cell membranes, nerve sheaths and so on so they are essential.
The body can store a limited amount (very large amount
compared to stored glycogen carbs, small amount compared
to stored saturated fats).

Trans-fats - Fool the body into using them.

Being as I'm on low carb & am a real meat eater, one thing I can do is to
use a vegetable oil when I cook rather than butter, and I can replace some
of the meat in my diet with fish. I think I'm getting it :-)

Being a low carber the types aren't the same. The issue is
carbs *plus* saturated fat is a problem. For low fatters, since
they have high carb they need to avoid saturated fat to avoid the
problem. For low carbers, since they have low carb there is no
need nor motivation to avoid saturated fat - It just doesn't matter
for low carbers. So for a low carber the types are like this:

Bad fats - trans-fats.

Fats that only matter by calorie count - saturated fats,
mono-unsaturated fats.

Good fats - polyunsaturated fats depending on the omega
number.

There is no down-side to draining off the more solid animal fat
that has a higher percentage of saturated fat and replacing it
with the more liquid nut oil that has a lower percentage of
saturated fat. But as a low carber there's no down side to
keeping the animal fat in the first place.

Caveats - Look long enough and you can find studies that say
loss rate is better by replacing animal oil with vegitable oil, but
the studies don' specify low carbing. It doesn't take much
searching to decide that the oil in seafood is benficial enough
that you will even want your tuna in its own oil but no one has
canned it that way in decades. On a low carb plan if you work
the numbers you end up being on a high fat plan so avoiding
any type of fat is going to drive your calories down much lower
than planned.