Fat is often the overlooked nutrient when it comes to developing a diet. You should know that the human body is unable to produce the fatty acids essential for its survival. Consuming good fats in moderate amounts will only bring benefits to the body without making you gain pounds. Indeed, the fatty acids contained in good sources of fat come into play in several vital functions of the body such as the constitution of cells or the production of hormones. Lipids also supply the body with energy since one gram of lipids is equivalent to 9 calories (the most caloric macronutrient), hence the advantage of limiting its consumption to around 1g / kg of weight.
Of course, there are several families of fats and these are not equal, which is why we talk about healthy and unhealthy fats. The first families to favor are monounsaturated (omega 9) and polyunsaturated (omega 3 and omega 6) fatty acids. Then, saturated fatty acids are lipids which generally come from animal sources and whose daily consumption must be limited (rise in bad cholesterol). In the last position, trans fatty acids are often used in the food industry and therefore very harmful for the body, which must be excluded to the maximum from your nutrition or be eaten occasionally in reduced quantities. To avoid developing diseases, particularly cardiovascular ones, it would be wise to know how to sort fats, this is why the following paragraph guides you in the selection of its good sources.
Fats sources
There are a lot of sources rich in good animal and vegan fats, just choose the ones that provide the best nutritional values and those that suit your taste.
- Animal sources
The first sources of quality in terms of good fats that come to mind are : fat fish (Salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, anchovies, …). With these sources, you will not only have a good amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated lipids, but also an interesting contribution in proteins of high biological value. If your budget allows, you should certainly include a fatty fish in one of your meals, daily. When organic, egg yolks also provide good quality fats. So think of consuming them in one of your meals (breakfast for example).
- Vegan sources
Besides animal sources, vegan sources containing good fats should not be overlooked. Among the sources to be favored : virgin vegan oils (olive oil, rapeseed oil, linseed oil, coconut oil, …), oilseeds (Almond, Peanut, Nuts, Hazelnuts, Pistachio, …) and of course the famous avocados.
- Supplements
In terms of supplementation, the capsules of omega 3 or also called fish oil (fish oil) remain in my opinion the only supplements rich in good fats that you could integrate into your daily diet, to fill the lack of omega 3 in your meals. Indeed, in today’s diet, we tend to consume a very large amount of omega 6 compared to that of omega 3 leading to a harmful imbalance. Supplementing with omega 3 just increases this ratio and restores balance.
How to manage them ?
Still with the purpose of illustrating the distribution of fats over a day, I take the example of the article on protein : an individual weighing 80 kg of bodyweight. When it comes to fats , he should consume an amount close to 80 g / day (between 72 g and 88 g with the rule of + or – 10%).
