According to a report, 50 per cent Indians suffer from fat deficit in their diets. Food analyst Veer Ramlugon tells you more
Fats are a kind of organic compound that serves several structural and metabolic functions within the human body. They’re part of the nutritional ‘holy trinity’ along with proteins and carbohydrates, acting as an important source of energy while also protecting organs, maintaining cell membranes, producing hormones and helping the body absorb and process fat-soluble Vitamins such as A, D, E and K.
Over the last 50 years, fats have gotten an extremely bad name due to research concluding that saturated fatty acids, a type of fat that’s “saturated” with hydrogen and typically solid at room temperature, raises lDl (bad) cholesterol levels.
The most significant of these reports was the 1961 list of dietary recommendations by the American Heart Association which despite the lack of hard scientific evidence, suggested that people reduce intake of total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol and increase intake of polyunsaturated fat. As a result, many people have been misled into believe that all fats are inherently bad, and should be avoided at all costs; which they do.
Before singling out and vilifying one particular food or nutrient, we must look at the quality of food and understand whether what we are eating is helping our body and cells stay healthy or a sign of damaging symptoms. A re-evaluation of this research in recent years has shown that contrary to past claims, fats actually raise HDl (good) cholesterol levels, protecting the body from both unhealthy cholesterol levels as well as heart disease. Still, across the world, the misconception of fat being inherently unhealthy and, therefore, undesirable continues to remain.
In India, a survey conducted by the online nutrition service The Food Analyst discovered that 50 per cent of all Indians have diets deficit in fats. Fear of gaining weight and increase in blood cholesterol levels were found to be most common reasons for eliminating fat from the diet.
This is a precarious situation for our country because a similar shift in American diets a few decades earlier (as a result of the aforementioned report by the American Heart Association) resulted in the food industry developing a wide array of fat-free and low-fat foods.
Fat is a natural preservative in foods, hence its exclusion has further caused increase in the use of sugar, thickeners, stabilisers and emulsifiers which inevitably caused the obesity and diabetes epidemics currently plaguing the country.
Food analysts worry that if Indians continue to ignore fats, they are likely to find themselves in a similar situation to the US, especially because most people’s profound lack of knowledge on nutritional science is likely to lead them into believing false and outdated facts.
The fact that needs to be inculcated is that not all fats are the same. Certain fats like the ones found in coconut oil called medium-chain triglyceride (MCTs), have an unusual chemical structure that allows the body to digest them more easily, turning them into fuel rather than stored fat. MCTs can stimulate fat burning, thyroid function and energy production.
Some studies have found that eating MCTs on a regular basis produces improvements in body composition (ratio of fat to lean tissue) and enhances athletic performance, helping with weight loss.
likewise, Conjugated lenoleic Acid (ClA) found in dairy products shows similar effects, and has proven to be a potent fat burning substance. When studies in past indicated that fats we harmful to health, they were referring to the processed fats found in butter, refined oils, pizzas, burgers, and margarine and not the beneficial ones found naturally in nuts, oilseeds, dairy, and egg yolk.
Nutrition is a complicated business, and before making any drastic decisions such as removing entire food groups from our diet it is absolutely essential to understand exactly what we’re doing lest we cause unmitigated damage to our own bodies.
Fats are an important and indispensable part of the diet that play a crucial role in many interrelated bodily processes. It’s very important to look at the biological complexity of a nutrient or food before cutting, adding, or replacing them in the diet or else the consequences of such actions will be dire. Nutritional recommendations change with every new thesis, but the truth is each human is created different, so it’s wise to choose foods that your body embraces positively.