Good fats, bad fats: how do they affect the body?

Good Against Evil, Against Fats, Sugar Against the Butter Industry: What American researchers Cristin Kearns and Stanton Glantz find in their research resembles the short version of a thriller.

The Sugar Research Foundation, based in the industry, had paid scientists in the late sixties to explain in a comprehensive study not the sugar responsible for obesity and metabolic diseases but the fat.

Fats are bad for the body or are they not?

If you eat fat, you become fat and sick – that's the obvious formula. The fatty acids and cholesterol fatty substance led to contracting blood vessels, heart attacks and strokes were the result.

For decades, prejudices have respected. They have also fallen into the guidelines of the German Nutrition Society (DGE).

To date, carbohydrates (bread, pasta, potatoes, etc.) are the most important segment of DGE's ideal diet, but fats confine nutrition experts to a tiny circle segment. Myth 1: Fat makes you fat

Whether it's fried bacon, avocado puree or olive oil in a salad: not all fats taken with food are not stored directly in our body, but at digestion in the stomach and intestines are divided into their constituents, including especially fatty acids.

New biomolecules, including important hormones, are produced in intestinal cells and, especially, in the liver.

However, the liver can also produce fats from other food components, such as sugars and proteins. The amount of calories consumed is critical to the formation of unwanted fat and not in what form we take it.

Myth 2: Body Fat Must Go

In body fat, most people think of thick bellies and massive thighs first. But fats fulfill many vital tasks in the body. Their cushions protect our internal organs from bumps. They help us absorb fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K into the blood.

Fat biomembranes envelop the processes of nerve cells and make possible the rapid transmission of stimuli. Two-thirds of the human brain is fat.

In the form of fat, our body can create reserves. It makes sense from the point of view of evolution. Of course, we do not usually go through any starvation phase, food is available to us in abundance. Thus, the storage of our body can unbalance.

Moderate and light overweight, as many studies show, is associated with increased life expectancy. Only a significant overweight or obesity becomes dangerous. Fat cells also send messengers that encourage inflammatory processes and make diseases like diabetes more likely.

Myth 3: Cholesterol Clogs Veins

The role of fats and their chemical relatives, cholesterol, in so-called arteriosclerosis, has not been clearly demonstrated to date and continues to 39, be intensively studied.

In the blood, cholesterol, which is contained in all animal cells, combines with spherical structures, called lipoproteins. Chemists distinguish two main types, which have very different effects. Low-density lipoproteins, also known as LDL, apparently store cholesterol on the walls of blood vessels.

On the other hand, high density lipoproteins, HDL and cholesterol are secreted in the bloodstream and prevent arteriosclerosis. However, the amount of LDL or HDL circulating in the blood does not depend on the amount of fat absorbed, but is determined genetically.

This also means an acquittal for eggs that have a naturally high cholesterol content. One egg a day is completely correct from a medical point of view.

To avoid cholesterol in food is absurd. The body needs it to synthesize hormones like estrogen and testosterone as well as bile acid and can also produce cholesterol itself

Myth 4: Fat makes sick

The year last, the PURE study caused a sensation. The authors studied the feeding behavior of 135,000 people in 18 countries over an average of 7.5 years and documented their health status.

Their Surprising Finding: People who ate 35 percent fat had a lower mortality risk during the study period than those who consumed less fat. On the other hand, the risk of dying within ten years has increased among those who have consumed more than 60 percent of the carbohydrate diet.

The credo of the authors in the famous magazine "Lancet" was simplified: Who eats big, lives longer.

DGE partially adjusts the recommendations

The CEO doubts the validity of the study, since its participants are predominantly developing and emerging economies. Only three countries examined – Canada, Sweden and Poland – would have nutritional conditions similar to those in Germany.

Nevertheless, German nutrition experts have also adapted their previous recommendations last year. For example, they ignored the warning of an increased risk of overweight or cardiovascular disease.

The DGE also recommends not to exceed 60 to 80 grams of fat per day. In addition, he no longer warns against "invisible" fats in dairy products. These changes also responded to critical physicians who felt that many of the DGE's recommendations were out of date.

The CEO did not change his primary dietary requirements. She also recommends a maximum fat content of 30 percent and a minimum of 50 percent carbohydrate. "But there is no strict limit for fat, it's just a guideline that does not always have to be exactly respected," says Antje Gahl, spokesperson for the DGE

The new differentiated vision

today more about the fats we consume. They roughly distinguish four types of fatty acids: saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and trans fatty acids.

"Saturated and unsaturated fats are the easiest to detect at different melting points," says chemist Bertrand Matthäus of the Max Rubner Institute.

Unsaturated fatty acids are already liquid at room temperature. They come mainly from plants and come as oils in bottles on the market. Rather, they are attributed to health promoting properties.

Butter and margarine, on the other hand, are predominantly composed of saturated acids and sold in the form of cuboids or cups

Omega-3 versus Omega-6

DGE nutritionists have recently recommended consumption of vegetable oils containing a lot of omega. Contain 3-fatty acids. Like omega-6 fatty acids, they are part of unsaturated fatty acids.

"The right balance of omega fatty acids is important," says internist and bestselling author Anne Fleck. Optimal is a ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 of 1: 3. For many Germans, however, it is 1:15 to 1:30.

According to Fleck, the reason for the inadequacy is the fattening of stable animals and fish in breeding crops with grains and soybeans. "Grazing animals have a higher omega-3 content in meat and milk," says Fleck. Even a diet with empty foods and carbohydrates move the ratio of fatty acid in the wrong direction.

Fleck advocates a consistent "kitchen change in the kitchen": more omega-3 fats through the consumption of sea fish, nuts, almonds and seeds. However, you can save omega-3 tablets. A new meta-study with over 110,000 participants discovered: Isolated as a dietary supplement, fatty acids do not protect against heart attacks or strokes.

In addition to the fatty acids in plants, humans also need animal fats. It is only then that our body will be sufficiently fed with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), that it does not produce in sufficient quantity. The EPA supports the formation of anti-inflammatory substances. DHA is important for retinal and brain cells

Children, pregnant women and lactating women in particular depend on the intake of DHA, says Fleck: "In this country, only a few pregnant women are properly nourished with DHA, a serious deficiency of DHA.The embryo and the baby were forced to remove the fatty acid from their mother's most important reservoir, their brains.

Miraculous Flaxseed Oil

The nutrition expert Fleck particularly recommends the use of linseed oil. "The discrete flax seed has the highest proportion of omega-3 fatty acids," points out

The oil contains on average 64% of alpha-linolenic acid, a triple-unsaturated fatty acid.It is one of the essential fatty acids, c & d Are those that the body can not produce itself.It inhibits inflammation and forms the basis for the formation of EPA and u DHA of the body.

Tip: "Linseed oil should never have a bitter or rancid taste, otherwise it is oxidized.It advises small bottles of cardboard, because like all oils, it has three major enemies: the light , heat and oxygen.

The most popular rapeseed oil in private German households is rapeseed oil of more than 78 million liters per year, followed by the 39, sunflower oil (55.2 million liters) and olive oil (30.6 million liters).

Olive oil, important element of the Mediterranean diet, decreases the risk of heart attack and prolongs life unclear.

It is ideal for preparing salads and for frying over low heat. From a temperature of 160 to 180 degrees it starts smoking as well as cold-pressed rapeseed oil.For higher frying temperatures, use lard or peanut oil with a higher smoke point 200 degrees

Avoid saturated fats

Saturated fatty acids were considered harmful in the past. "Although it seems to be proven that some of them have a negative effect on cholesterol levels and increase blood fat levels, no one should get by completely," says Andreas. Koeberle, researcher at the University of Jena. the most important energy storage of cells. "

The secretion that lines the alveoli contains a lot of saturated fatty acids." Against a pork shank in the neighborhood is certainly not reprehensible, "says Koeberle.

Dr. Anne Fleck is D & P Agrees: "Saturated fats are only detrimental if they are consumed in combination with carbohydrates. So scrambled eggs with salmon or yogurt with almonds for breakfast.

The combination of fat and sugar to resist in cookies, cakes or bars of chocolate is difficult. A study by the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne and Yale University in Connecticut now provides an explanation for this.

Foods rich in fats and carbohydrates have a particularly strong effect on the reward system in the brain. In both food components, this occurs in different ways. In nature, there is virtually no food that is both sweet and fat, with one exception: breast milk.

Continue to eat despite the feeling of satiation

"We are likely to be influenced by breast milk, carbohydrates and fats react because it is vital," says Marc Tittgemeyer, researcher

For this, 40 volunteers played food for the computer.To gain food, subjects had to outbid the computer.For the food of fat and carbohydrates, they offered the most money.

At the same time, researchers studied brain activity in a magnetic resonance tomograph.For cakes or fries, the reward center in the brain showed Tittgemeyer concludes: "We are not supposed to say no. That's why we do not usually stop eating, even if we are full. "

Trans Fat Risk

As a health hazard, trans fat is made up of fatty acids that have been chemically transformed to harden them.The body is very difficult to break down and therefore deposits it. on the walls of blood vessels

"In the past, trans fats have often appeared in margarine to create a spreadable consistency," says Dr. Fleck, instead, margarine makers are now using it. However, under the name "(partially) hydrogenated fats", they are still used in many finished products such as pizza.

Trans fats are also produced naturally, for example by bacteria in the rumen of the cows, and thus enter the milk.And at the domestic hearth they are formed when the oils in the pan or deep fryer are overheated.

Many unrecognized characteristics [196] 59005] The fatal consequences also have some bioactive fatty acids that produce nerve cells in the brain, scientists from the Mainz University Hospitals and Munster released. They increase the transmission of impulses to other nerve cells. This can lead to over-excitement of the brain that characterizes psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

With the drugs, the researchers succeeded in inhibiting the production of these fatty acids and thus stop the excessive reaction.

Andreas Koeberle and his team at the University of Jena conduct research in the relatively new field of functional lipidomics (lipids): "These processes are involved in, among other things, metabolic diseases related to age, neurodegenerative diseases and carcinogenesis and therefore of great medical and socio-economic relevance. "

According to Koeberle, the exploration of the many properties of fats is only in its infancy. Found in 1991 in the Alps, the icy man of about 5300 years "Ötzi" was certainly not healthy or unhealthy fats in his diet Thoughts, for him only account the high energy content of his s food.

The researchers now found that half of his last meal was capricorn – power for the grueling escalation to the inhospitable peaks of the glacier world.

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