We have been hearing that fats are not good for our health. However, some researchers shed light on the debate and revealed that some kind of fats is essential in order to reduce many diseases and even to reduce fat. This discovery happened during the 1960s as people who take more monounsaturated fats had fewer symptoms of heart diseases than others do. These are also associated with lowering depression too.
These fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Since our body cannot produce this fat, we need to consider this through our diet. An unbalanced diet that linked with fats may lead to decreased brain function and hormone imbalance. Therefore, understanding about fats is important. Firstly, there are four kinds of fats, which are monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated and Trans fats.
Trans fat is produced from industries and it is not natural, so extremely unhealthy. This can lead to heart problems, and it increases cholesterol. It undergoes the procedure that converts healthy fats into solid form. You can see this everywhere now from cookies to fast food. Avoiding this kind of fats is essential in order to acquire a better health. In addition, they are linked to increased risk of diabetes.
Even small amounts of trans fats can harm health: for every 2% of calories from trans fat consumed daily, the risk of heart disease rises by 23%. Source
When we think about good fats those are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These are found mainly in vegetable and animal oil. Since these have less hydrogen atoms linked to carbon chain, they are different from saturated fats. You can find these fats in some of the food products like olive oil, avocado, nuts, and sunflower oil.
Monounsaturated fats have a single carbon-to-carbon double bond. The result is that it has two fewer hydrogen atoms than a saturated fat and a bend at the double bond. This structure keeps monounsaturated fats liquid at room temperature. Source
This kind of fat is observed in olive oil. When you refrigerate this oil you can find it as solid. Therefore, replacing saturated and trans fats to this fat could be helpful for our body. You need polyunsaturated fats for blood clotting, inflammation, cell membranes improvement. Omega 3 and 6 are the two forms of this type of the fat. These can obtain from chia seeds, flax seeds, salmon, walnuts, vegetable oil and so on.
A study shows that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats and high-quality carbohydrates has the most impact on reducing the risk of heart disease. Source
Saturated fat is some kind of fat that is between Trans and saturated fats. These means hydrogen atoms, which are linked to carbon chain, are more. This fat is not as harmful as trans, but it is not recommended to consume more than 10% of calories per day as researchers believe that saturated fats are linked to increased number of heart diseases.