Essential fats are necessary for your body. They form
protective coverings for vital organs, give your body necessary
shape; keep it warm in cold weather, provide energy, absorb
fat-soluble vitamins from your food, and make different
biochemicals and hormones like testosterone, vitamin D,
estrogen, and bile. Essential fats also provide good
flavor to foods. Fatty acids maintain healthy cells in your body
and brain, so its important to remember that not all fats in
your diet are 'bad', just as not all types of cholesterol are
'bad'.
Essential fats contain fatty acids, which are normally in a
chain of three. This forms triglyceride. Fatty acids are either
saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated. You normally
consume a combination of all three but with dominance of one.
Adequate quantities of Linoleic and alpha-Linoleic types of
polyunsaturated fats are essential for your health and life
itself.
Linoleic acid (LA) is present in safflower, corn, sunflower,
soybean oils, walnuts, and whole grains. This contains omega-6
fatty acid. Alpha-Linoleic acid (ALA) is present in plant
products like soybeans, walnuts, seaweeds, flax, canola, hemp
seeds, butternuts, and in little quantities in green leaves of
plants. Omega-3 fatty acids are present in nuts, seeds of
plants, cold-water fish like salmon and bluefish and in fats of
whales and seals. Your body cannot produce both types of omega
acids.
Lack of essential fats in your body could lead to fatty liver,
reproductive failures, growth deficiencies of brain and vision,
skin lesions and neurological disorders like depression. It is
best to have two to four servings of fats in your daily diet.
Saturated fats stiffen cell membranes, cause diabetes, blood
pressure, cholesterol, and heart diseases. Unsaturated fats
lower blood pressure, cholesterol, heart diseases, increase
flexibility of cell membranes, help in blood clotting and
functioning of brain and eyes.
Some online diet plans do a great job in balancing essential
fats and carbohydrate levels - these include the
South Beach diet,
eDiets,
Glycemic Index Diet, and the
Eating for Life Diet plan,
