FOOD AND FAT BALANCE: CHOOSING THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY

When we talk about a balanced diet, "hunting grease" is often in the foreground. While it is important to quantify the fat intake, it is important not to remove but to try to balance them.

The fats are everywhere in our food

The fats in the diet are made by "fat" as oil, margarine, butter, cream ?? and all foods containing fat is often called "hidden fat". Thus we find fats in animal products (dairy, meat, fish, poultry, meats, offal ??) in plant products such as oil seeds in sweet products such as cookies, cakes, creams and desserts , candy, ice cream, chocolate ?? In short, many products can contribute to fat intake.

There are fat and fat!

Fats are made of triglycerides (a molecule containing 3 fatty acids). There are 3 types of fatty acids: - saturated fatty acids found in milk fat and meat.- monounsaturated fatty acids found in meat, in vegetable oils. The main representative of these fatty acids is oleic- acid polyunsaturated fatty acids found in vegetable oils, fish fats, oilseeds. These fatty acids have called essential fatty acids that the body can not produce. In addition, fats provide vitamins A, E and D, essential to the body. If we consider our current supply, the fact is that we eat too much fat (quantitative aspect) and the quality of fat ingested is not consistent with the recommendations: - The saturated fat intake is too high at the expense of fat monounsaturated; - In addition, our intake of polyunsaturated fat is too focused on omega-6 at the expense of omega-3.

Choose polyunsaturated fats

Things are indeed a bit more complicated because in poly-unsaturated fats, there are several groups whose health impact is different. It is therefore not enough to eat more polyunsaturated fat, you need both choose. The omega 6, found in vegetable oils, are represented by linoleic acid. Linoleic acid reduces the level of cholesterol but also transforms arachidonic acid, a precursor of prostaglandins, among others, which promote blood clotting. Thus, a diet too rich in linoleic acid lowers cholesterol but does not necessarily protect the arteries that can still clog ?? Omega-3 are represented by the linolenic acid. Today they are very popular, especially because of their protective effect on the cardiovascular system. Even if they do not vary cholesterol, they act on blood fluidity and thus the risk of thrombosis, a phenomenon causing clogging of the arteries. The linolenic acid is converted into two other fatty acids: EPA and DHA. These two acids are found naturally in fish fat. Omega-3 has many other major impacts, particularly on the brain.

Fats in practice

To cover our need for these fatty acids, vegetable oils are interesting. Indeed, there are a wide variety of oils according to their origin. They have been grouped into three main categories: - linoleic oils such as sunflower oil, corn oil, grape seed ?? - Oleic oils such as olive oil, oleic sunflower  oil peanut ?? - linolenic oils such as rapeseed oil, soybean oil, walnut oil ?? How to navigate? For the quantitative aspect, the rule is relatively simple to quantify the added fat intake and beware of hidden fats. For this, it is important to structure your meal around the food does not contain fat (vegetables, starches, fruits, lean dairy products). For the qualitative aspect, the rule is also relatively simple: diversify fat intake by varying the oils. Ideally it should select an oil in 3 groups, eg olive oil, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil. But in practice, we recommend instead of choosing two particularly olive oil (monounsaturated) and rapeseed oil (polyunsaturated providing omega-3) .Some amount of marks: a contribution to 60 g fat per day:

tablespoon of olive oil and rapeseed,

2 tablespoons of cream 15% fat,

1 teaspoon of margarine,

1 portion of 30 g of cheese mostly soft,

1 portion of 100 to 125 g of meat,

1 serving 100 to 150 g fish.  Balance fat intake is central to preventive nutrition which is based on simple rules to combine the pleasure of eating with the pleasure of her body.