Healthy Foods That Fight Fat

“We eat food to live, but wrong food eats us” - There is a famous proverb in Germany that we eat food to survive but wrong food eats our body. It has been observed that healthy people when start taking unhealthy and junk food (like pizza, burger, noodles, chips, soft drinks, non-vegetarian and deep fried vegetarian foods) become food-a-holic i.e. they develop an addiction for junk food which is full of saturated fat, cholesterol, preservatives, harmful colours and hot spices in excess. Food-a-holic people do not resort to fixed eating hours and keep on munching something or the other throughout the day. This leads to a disturbance in their digestive system resulting in accumulation of fat in their body. It also makes them lazy and they start avoiding exercise and physical activity which further spoils their bodily systems.

- Shri K.K.Bajaj

Being fat or obese is related to many health problems like heart diseases, stroke, hypertension, diabetes and stroke. The world population is becoming fatter, leading people to believe that we are in the grip of obesity epidemic.

Before suggesting preventive measures to fight this epidemic and recommend foods that fight fat, let us tell you in simple words what is fat (saturated and unsaturated) and cholesterol and how it harms the body.

Cholesterol – Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found in the blood stream. It is an important part of a healthy body but high cholesterol level is a major risk factor for heart diseases. Ideally, body makes its own cholesterol and we don’t need to consume it.

Cholesterol and other fats do not dissolve in blood and need to be transported to and from the cells by special carriers. Excess cholesterol gets deposited in the arteries and leads to plaque formation resulting in blockage of arteries and consequently heart problems. 

Main components of fats are fatty acids which are mainly of three types: saturated, mono unsaturated and poly unsaturated. Saturated fats are the ones which generally remain solid at room temperature and are derived from animal sources like ghee and butter. Other sources of saturated fats are seafood, meat, egg yolk, cheese, cream, butter and ice creams. Some plant foods also high in saturated fat are coconut and coconut oil and palm oil. Saturated fats raise blood cholesterol levels and have a negative impact on our health.

Mono and poly unsaturated fatty acids are derived from plant sources and are mainly liquid at room temperature Eg.: sunflower oil, soyabean oil, mustard oil, olive oil etc.

Mono and poly unsaturated fats have been recognized as important to our health. They tend to decrease the bad cholesterol (LDL) and increase the good cholesterol (HDL) levels.