The truth about fats!

Having a balanced diet is crucial for you overall well-being. Going on a diet in which you starve yourself of fat or carbs is really not a good idea and definitely not healthy. Forget the food pyramid. That's old school information that I do not find helpful at all in trying to obtain a healthy, balanced diet. A good diet consists of three main components: carbohydrates, lipids, and protein. 60% of the calories you eat should come from carbohydrates, 10-30% from protein, and 10-30% from lipids. This blog is all about fats because 95% of lipids are fats and oils. I'll get to the other 2 components in later blogs.

Depending on your goals, 10-30% of your calories should come from fat. I personally stay at the low end and have a higher percentage intake of protein because my goal is to build lean muscle. OUR BODIES NEED FAT!!!!! Fats have many important biological functions in our bodies, so it's extremely important to have some fat in our diet. Every singe cell in our body has fatty acids in the cell membrane which help keep the structural integrity of cells and aids in cell signalling. Fats are also precursors to hormones including estrogen. And there are several vitamins, including A, D, E, K, and calcium that are absorbed into the body with the help of fats!!!!

Fatty acids are also essential for proper brain function and overall mood. One fun and specific example: Your brain neurons are insulated with something called myelin sheath. Myelin is composed 70% of fat!!!!!! I have a picture at the top of this blog to help visualize myelin's function. (I could not figure out how to insert a picture within the text,....lame). Our neurons act similar to an electrical wire. One neuron will submit a signal to a second neuron. This signal is conducted along the entire length of the neuron. Myelin acts as an insulator and the signal moves on to the next exposed part of the neuron, so myelin aids in signals being conducted very quickly. When Albert Einstein passed away they did an autopsy of his brain. It turns out that he had significantly more myelin than the average brain. Not only do fats aid in you actually being smarter, but they also help with your overall mood too :).

Moral of the story: BE SMART (pun intended). Do yourself a favor and not starve your body of something it needs to function properly!!!! But beware, there are different kinds of fats, and choosing the right fats to eat is important for these bodily functions to optimally work! I'll do a video blog to help yall learn the difference between these fats and what food products to focus on!!!