Cutting out fats - A good or bad idea?

After what I wrote last week about cooking with oils, a few people have asked me if they just cut out fat if that’s ok/better. There is a lot of confusion about eating fats. Common view: shouldn’t eat saturated fats, shouldn’t eat trans fats, should opt for low-fat produce. If trying to loose weight, don’t eat any fats at all.

The only bit of this that is true is that we shouldn’t be eating trans-fats. These are produced by cooking oil at high temperatures and hydrogenation (making an oil solid e.g. the process of making margarine), essentially the fats found In processed foods and refined vegetable oils. Trans fats stop normal cell function and amongst other things, are linked to cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and cancer.

When it comes to natural, unrefined fats then saturated fats are actually often healthy for you (it’s the saturated fats found in junk food that are bad). Low fat foods are often advertised as healthy, but are pumped with refined sugar and artificial sweeteners that are bad for you.

The truth is we NEED fats in our diet for various functions including making hormones (oestrogen/testosterone/progesterone), proper cell growth and development (including in the brain), proper immune system function etc. Even if you are trying to loose weight, cutting out fats entirely is definitely not the solution and will literally affect your brain functioning, concentration levels etc.

You want to opt for fats making up around 20-35% of your daily diet (thats around 44-78 calories/day for an average adult woman), as a combination of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated healthy fats. Examples of healthy fats: nuts, seeds, oily fish (salmon, mackerel, herring, anchovies, sardines) avocado, olives/olive oil.

FYI fats include omega 3 which everyone has heard of and we all know is good for you