Does fat affect your health?

Not always. And often, very good. Lipids, fats, are the way we store our energy reserves. Because our body runs continuously and we do not feed continuously, we need a reservoir of "fuel" to provide energy to the functioning of organs. Our tank is fat. The choice of lipids as a reserve is perfectly rational.

Every gram of fat is able to produce 9 calories, while sugar, the carbohydrate, is only 4. Why carry a big tank if it can be lightened? All foods, proteins, carbohydrates or ingested fats are stored as fat. And what is the reason why since the number of tanks has increased in more and more people?

In the late 1970s, Americans thought the population was overweight because they were ingesting more fats. They found that in many developing countries the prevalence of overweight was very low. By badyzing their type of food, they discovered that it was mainly carbohydrates.

After all, the poorer the people, the more they consume carbohydrates. As a result, health authorities in this country have encouraged their people to use more of this type of food. And in the 1980s, there was an 1800% increase in carbohydrate intake with cereal consumption.

The result we all know. The United States is the biggest country in the world. Fat consumption has long been criticized as being responsible for raising blood cholesterol, one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Subsequently, it was concluded that only one type could perform this activity. l & # 39; action. Saturated fats, which are those in which the junction of their carbon atoms is achieved by a single bond. Then it was concluded that not all the saturated would have this bad action.

The claim that fats existed almost exclusively in foods of animal origin also failed. Coconut oil and palm oil, two vegetables, are extremely high in lipids considered bad. For many years, it has been considered that the main dietary restriction for patients with high cholesterol levels would be the restriction of foods rich in this fat.

The biggest villains were egg yolk and shellfish. Ledo error. The bile made in the liver is stored in the gallbladder and then reaches the intestine. He takes daily from this organ, regardless of what is in the diet, the cholesterol equivalent of dozens of egg yolks. A little more will not make any difference.

Egg suspension is no longer recommended in patients with hypercholesterolemia. It has long been known that the consumption of unsaturated fats, mono or polyunsaturated, not only does not increase cholesterol, on the contrary, it decreases. "Mono" have only a double bond between their carbon atoms and several poly.

Rice, corn and soybean oils are sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids, while the fatty oils of olive and canola oils are mainly monounsaturated.
These are considered the healthiest because they only reduce the so-called bad cholesterol, that of LDL.

On the other hand, some research has also shown that only the restriction of saturated fats has not improved the prognosis of patients with risk factors for vascular disease; although this diet causes a discrete reduction of blood cholesterol.

The explanation that has been given is that this decrease does not affect the reduction of the most harmful particle of LDL – the small and dense LDL. The limitation of fat makes the food less palatable. To compensate, the food industry increases the amount of sugar.

He is an endocrinologist and writes every two weeks in this space