Dietary Fats

Heart disease and stroke and, to a lesser extent, cancer, are the plagues of our modern world. Theses epidemics are here now because we now live long enough to get them (interestingly, thanks to the improvements in public nutrition that happened up to about the 1950s in this country). However that is not the only reason. Heart disease and stroke have exploded because of a masive increase in diatry trans-saturated and saturated fats. To keep it simple:

Good

Omega 3 oils

The wonder ingredients of food. They protect us from heart disease and stroke in a very major way. They can be found in all fish, not just the oily ones like salmon and sardines. Fish produce the oil in their muscle tissue to keep it working in low temperatures. We lack the ability to make it ourselves, our only source is our diet.

Don't believe misleading food labels about omega 6 - we get more than enough of omega 6. the ideal ratio of omega 6 to 3 in our diet is 2:1. As a nation we currently consume about 15:1.

Bad

Trans Fats

These fats do not naturaly ocur in nature. There is no healthy amount of trans fat to consume - the less the better. Denmark made them ilegal earlier this year. Fast food and confectionary are the worst offenders.

Saturated Fats

Mainly from red meat, butter and cream - best to keep your intake low. We evolved as hunter-gatherers. The meat of wild animals that we used to eat contained very little saturated fat compared with the farmed meat that we eat today. This, combined with the exordinary amount of fat in modern foods helps to explain the the very high age standardised incidince of stroke and heart disease of the modern world.

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