Today's video is a topic that gets a whole lot of media hype and buzz and because there's so much information out there
I think sometimes it can be confusing to know which sources we can trust
Now some sources say that fats are very beneficial for us and other sources say that we should be avoiding them
Altogether and when there's such conflicting views on the same nutrition topic
I usually think it's because there's some truth to both sides of the story and sometimes it's just media's way of
Sensationalizing things when we see those extremes, but really the question is when it comes to fats and oils
What is the crucial most basic information we need to know? Well, that's what I'm hoping. We can explore in today's video
Now despite what a lot of magazine covers and
Commercials might have you believe fats are not only beneficial. They are necessary. They play so many
Important crucial functions in the human body and they also help our food taste good
But you know what they say about too much of a good thing, right?
so we do need to
Kind of keep our eye on how much we consume and also the sources because not all fats and oils are created equal
So today I'm kind of hoping we can talk about three different kinds of fats and we're gonna start off with the most wholesome
Beneficial kind first which is the unsaturated fat now
These ones are the ones that are found very commonly and a lot of plant-based foods, which is lucky for us
these can be found in most seeds and nuts and olives and avocados and a famous type of
Unsaturated fat is the omega-3 fat which we all know is super important for the functioning of our brain and our central nervous
System now we have a whole article on omega-3 fats on the blog
So if you're interested in learning more, you can check it out visit the link in the description box below
Generally speaking. These unsaturated fats are the ones that we want to consume the most often because they have the most favorable health outcomes
They've also been linked with decreasing the risk of developing heart disease
Which is great the second one of the fats that I wanted to talk about is saturated fats
These are the ones that are most commonly found in animal products like meat and poultry and dairy products
But also some plant-based foods like coconuts and palm oils
Saturated fats are the one a lot of health authorities will tell us that we should decrease limit or avoid
Altogether and there is some controversy around this and how much it can affect our heart health
We pick up lines like to always err on the side of caution saying that saturated fats should be consumed in moderation
Whenever possible
you're probably wondering oh Lord is coconuts fit into the spectrum of all of this because we do use
Coconut products a fair bit in our pickuplines recipes now excess consumption of saturated fats has been linked to cardiovascular
Health problems but there's little evidence of the negative effects for moderate to low
Intake and if like us you've adopted a bit more of a plant-based diet
You're probably already excluding most foods that are high in saturated fats by default
So we don't mind using some whole food sources of coconuts, like coconut flakes and our granola recipes
we also like using coconut milk whether it's full fat or light fat in our curries and in our soups and
When it comes to coconut oil, we like to use it like we would any other oil
So in moderation so take for example our Nutella recipe we used 1 tbsp of coconut oil in that recipe
But it's going to make several
servings and it's something that we're going to be enjoying throughout the whole week now if you're interested in learning more about coconut products in
coconut oil again
we have a whole article dedicated to it the link of which is in the description box below and
Finally the third fat. I was hoping we could talk about is trans fats now
These are the fats that we certainly want to avoid altogether
Whenever we can because of their effects on our heart health, very few trans fats are actually naturally occurring in foods
Most are actually created in a process called hydrogenation
Which turns oils into fats?
So for example think of margarine trans fats are commonly found in foods that are deep fried or in baked treats
So how we can look for them best is to just read the ingredient list avoiding anything that contains the name?
Hydrogenated or shortening so we've covered the types of fats
But what about sources of fats and this is where the pickup lines philosophy is going to be applied again
We always recommend getting our nutrients from food
Supplements or concentrates whenever we can and the same applies to fats
So meaning we get it from whole food sources over something like oils
Whenever we can because the whole food sources are gonna give us these fibers and vitamins and minerals and antioxidants that we might not necessarily
Get in the oils whole food fat sources include avocados and nuts seeds nuts and seed butters like peanut butter or almond butter
Olives and coconuts in any form now. This is not to say that you should stay away from oils altogether
They're useful when we're baking or cooking our simple message is that moderation is important
So you'll notice that we use a bit of oil in our pickuplines recipes, but we also try to keep it to a minimum
leaving room to add more whole food fat sources instead and this is a rule of thumb that we like to follow for the
majority of what we eat at the pickuplines headquarters
But you also know that our philosophy of healthy eating is to nourish the cells and the soul
So that means we don't mind treating ourselves
To occasional treats that might be higher in oils
Every so often and if you are gonna be using some oils in your cooking remember that not all oils are created
Equal some of them have more beneficial nutrient profiles and other ones have higher smoke points
Which means that we can heat them to higher temperatures?
But we can kind of create these harmful compounds if we heat certain oils to temperatures beyond what they were meant for
Now we again have created a really easy peazy PDF for you that you can get in the description box
This is a PDF that lets you know, which oils to use in which circumstances
now the last thing I kind of wanted to share is just
General tips about oil that we use here at pickup limes
The first one is that we try to store our oils in a cool place. That's away from sunlight which prevents it from going
Rancid rancid essentially just means the oil is going bad
We also try to make our own salad dressings and marinades as opposed to buying it from the store
That way we can control how much oil is added and in place of drizzling oil on top of our salads
We like to just top our salads with nuts and seeds and avocados and olives
we also like to grill steamed broil and bake our foods when we're preparing it as opposed to frying it or
deep-frying it and when we're
caramelizing our onions we use less oil and we just deglaze the pan using a splash of water and some of you have mentioned that
You also use a bouillon cube to help you do this the final kind of thing
that might help also is just
Learning to read those nutrition labels checking out the saturated
Fat and trans fat content in a certain food and maybe you can compare it to another one that's on the Shelf at the grocery
store and go for the one that offers less now that was a lot of information to cover in a single video and even still
We didn't touch on topics like cholesterol and heart disease and even diabetes
It's a pretty complex topic, but I hope that you know some of the basics for now
Maybe I hope that you learn something new if I can summarize it would be just to say fats are certainly beneficial for us
We want to get it from whole food sources
oils whenever we can and some sources are just a little bit more wholesome things like unsaturated fat sources compared to
saturated fat sources and those trans fats
We kind of want to eliminate
Altogether if we can
now if you enjoyed this video it always shows us a lot of love and support when you give it a thumbs up and if
You'd like let me know in the comments as well what your favorite whole food fat sources for me
It's definitely olives I snack on them all the time, but also nut butters. That's a hard one probably olives
So let me know what yours is in the comments
I'll see you down there wishing you an awesome week and we'll see you in the next video