Getting your daily dose of fat

That's right. Make sure you get your daily dose of fat/oil in your diet. I personally eat a ton of Canola, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Flax Oil. That combination gives a lot of Omega-3, -6 and -9 fatty acids.

Use Canola and Olive oil for cooking instead of butter/margarine. Put Flax oil in your protein shakes or on your salad.

You'll be surprised at how increasing your intake of healthy fat/oils will improve your diet and physique.

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Posted by Rush

That's right. Make sure you get your daily dose of fat/oil in your diet. I personally eat a ton of Canola, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Flax Oil. That combination gives a lot of Omega-3, -6 and -9 fatty acids.

Use Canola and Olive oil for cooking instead of butter/margarine. Put Flax oil in your protein shakes or on your salad.

You'll be surprised at how increasing your intake of healthy fat/oils will improve your diet and physique.

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Thanks Rush, for trying to get my fat ass back in shape!

Thanks man, i think i will start putting some Flax oil in my shakes an see if it makes a difference.

Gotta spread the love :(

This is a really useful topic, some people go so wild cutting all the fat they forget the body actually performs better with a good dose of polyunsaturated fats, they are essential to our physiology!

Thanks guys. I found that chart very useful myself. My wife and I already ate all teh right fats, but we didn't know the breakdown of all of them.


FYI, if anyone is looking for Flax oil you will not find it in the regular oils section. It must be refrigerated and is usually in a "health or organic" food section.

Wow.. sunflower oil's fat content is 71% polyunsaturated? That's incredible.

Could someone actually make the argument that might actually be the best oil for some people to use?
Someone who knows a lot more about this stuff than me, please explain.

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Posted by stock

Wow.. sunflower oil's fat content is 71% polyunsaturated? That's incredible.

Could someone actually make the argument that might actually be the best oil for some people to use?
Someone who knows a lot more about this stuff than me, please explain.

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Your body requires all sorts of different fat types. I could list a bunch, but it is not necessary. Getting a good variety of mon- and polyunsaturated fats and reducing your saturated fat intake is a good start. If you are curious as to the benefits and requirements for certain types of fats you can do a wikipedia search. Or anyone can post them here (I just don't have the time right now) but the specifics (as always) need to taken with a grain of salt.

If enough people are interested, I can give a basic biochemical breakdown of different fats, cholesterol, etc. It will take some time so only if enough people are interested.


Oh and one more thing about Flax oil. Do not cook with it. You must take it in its "raw" form.

Yep, cooking turns unsaturated Trans forms of the molecules into the nasty, carcinogenic Cis forms. The Cis forms are more carcinogenic because their shape is less streamlined than the Trans forms, and so they get practically knotted up in cells and in tissues, and their eventual build up can lead to cancer cell growth, as the cells physiology goes haywire. The Trans forms however, are streamlined and pass in and out of cells more easily, without getting stuck.

Taken from my Principles of Biochemistry lecture this morning on Lipids

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Posted by Mastodon2

Yep, cooking turns unsaturated Trans forms of the molecules into the nasty, carcinogenic Cis forms. The Cis forms are more carcinogenic because their shape is less streamlined than the Trans forms, and so they get practically knotted up in cells and in tissues, and their eventual build up can lead to cancer cell growth, as the cells physiology goes haywire. The Trans forms however, are streamlined and pass in and out of cells more easily, without getting stuck.

Taken from my Principles of Biochemistry lecture this morning on Lipids

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So, why is flax seed oil singled out?
Using your logic it would seem that it would be worse to cook with Olive Oil (which I do ALL the time) than flax seed.

More information

It is important to maintain an appropriate balance of omega-3 and omega-6 (another essential fatty acid) in the diet, as these two substances work together to promote health. Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation, and most omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation. An inappropriate balance of these essential fatty acids contributes to the development of disease while a proper balance helps maintain and even improve health. A healthy diet should consist of roughly 2 - 4 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids. The typical American diet tends to contain 14 - 25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids, and many researchers believe this imbalance is a significant factor in the rising rate of inflammatory disorders in the United States.

In contrast, however, the Mediterranean diet consists of a healthier balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and many studies have shown that people who follow this diet are less likely to develop heart disease. It also contains another fatty acid, omega-9 fatty acids, which have been reported to help lower risks associated with cancer and heart disease. The Mediterranean diet does not include much meat (which is high in omega-6 fatty acids) and emphasizes foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, including whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, olive oil, garlic, as well as moderate wine consumption.

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Posted by stock

So, why is flax seed oil singled out?
Using your logic it would seem that it would be worse to cook with Olive Oil (which I do ALL the time) than flax seed.

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Note, I got this from a site, but it is accurate so I just copied the parts I deemed important for this discussion.


There are 3 types of fatty acids: 1) Saturates 2) Monounsaturates and 3) Polyunsaturates. The type depends on the number of ‘double bonds’ in themolecule. Polyunsaturates are further divided into Omega-6 polyunsaturates or Omega-3 polyunsaturates. The difference lies in the position of the double bonds in the molecule. Omega-6 fatty acids have the first double bond after the sixth carbon and Omega-3 fatty acids have the first double bond after the third carbon.

The extent of saturation or unsaturation has practical importance for the use of
fats for our health and also in food applications. The more saturated a fat
mixture is, the more likely it is to be solid at room temperature. For example,
lard, butter and palm oil contain mainly saturated fats. However, butter and
palm oil are softer at room temperature compared to lard. This is because butter and palm oil contain a proportion of unsaturated fats mixed with the saturates.

As the proportion of saturated fats decrease and the proportion of unsaturated
fats increase, the melting point of a fat is lowered. Thus, polyunsaturated fats
are liquid at room temperature and generally they remain liquid in the
refrigerator. Monounsaturated fats also are liquid at room temperature, but they begin to solidify in the refrigerator. Saturated fats are solid at room
temperature and in the refrigerator. Fats, which are liquid at room temperature, are called "oils." Because the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are generally liquids at room temperature, they are called oils. Oils can be vegetable, fish, or mammal in origin. Thus, fats derived from olive, canola, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed, and peanut are all oils. In addition, fats derived from fish and seal are also oils. However, some vegetable derived fats are semi-solids at room temperature because they have a significant proportion of saturated fats. Such an example is palm oil.

In addition to being a determinant of melting point, the extent of unsaturation
is also a determinant of the stability of a fatty acid. Instability refers to
the chemical degradation of fatty acids by oxidative breakdown. If all fats were
kept in the refrigerator in the absence of air, they would all be stable to a
similar extent. However, in the real world the methods we use to prepare and
store food, allow the fats to be exposed to oxygen and to heat. The oxygen in
air can react with the double bonds in a fatty acid to initiate its destruction.
This process is increased by heat. In addition to losing the fatty acid in this
process, the by-products of the reaction are free radical compounds, which can initiate chain reactions leading to destruction of other molecules. This leads to unsuitability for consumption. The final result is known as rancidity.


In Summary:
-Oxygen from the air and heat combine to degrade fatty acids
-Saturates and monounsaturates are more stable than polyunsaturates
-The degradation can produce destructive free radicals and off-flavours
-The end-point is rancidity

Therefore, because flax oil has a high amount of Omega-3 fatty acids (a polyunsaturated fat) and olive oil has a high amount of Omega-9 fatty acids (a monounsaturated fat), Flax oil is less stable than Olive oil.


One more note, the more "virgin" the olive oil is, the lower its smoke point (the temperature in which it starts to smoke) and therefore more virgin olive oils are less apporpriate for cooking.


Below are chemical structures of a Saturated (left ), Omega 9 (monounsaturated) (middle), Omega 6 (right) and Omega 3 (bottom left) fatty acids

Ha ha, I just noticed that the bottom left fatty acid is drawn incorrectly. They have five bonds to some of the carbons, which is not possible.

I wanted to add that the better fatty acids and most found in nature are the cis forms (pictured above) the cis bond causes the fatty acids to be kinked and therefore they do not pack closely together. trans fats are usually caused by processing such as hydrogenation. Therefore hydrogenated oil is not good for you.

This results in their melting/gelling temperature to be lower and therefore cannot be heated to high temperatures. That's why deep fryers use(d) trans fat, so they could reach higher temperatures and make the fried food more crispy.

trans fats, since they pack close together, have been linked to atherosclerosis.

bumped for new members

anopther good source of good fats is Dark Chocolate... Plus it tastes good....

Bumped

alright guys i gotta question, im new to this so bare with me, but just by looking at the chart im wondering if sunflower oil and flaxseed oil is a good combination to get the good fats considering one is mostly mono and the other poly

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Posted by justsaygo

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Your best combination would be Safflower, Canola and Flax oils to cover all the mono and poly unsat. fat.

However, olive, sunflower oils are good too. Different oils are good for different applications because of their different tastes and smoke points

For example, canola oil has a higher smoke point that olive oil, which is higher than extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). Therefore if you wanted to fry something use canola oil. If you wanted to dip bread into something or make a salad dressing, use EVOO. EVOO also tastes better with garlic and pasta like dishes.

I add flax oil to my post workout shake. It needs to be stored in the fridge and you shouldn't cook with it. You can also pour some on a salad.

I hope this helps

thanks i appreciate it