21 Nov Should You Buy Non Fat Dairy Products?

Great questions!

The answer is…it depends.

It depends where you want to get your fat from during the day.

First it’s helpful to know how much fat you need per day.

The Dietary guidelines for adults is 20-35% of total calories from fat.

With </ 10% of total calories from saturated fat.

Ex. 2,000 cal diet

44-77g of total fat/day, with no more than 22g of that from saturated fat.

Dietary fats are essential to give our body energy and to support cell growth. Fat helps protect your organs and keeps our body warm, as well as absorb certain nutrients and produce important hormones.

When we talk about “healthy fats” this is including mono and polyunsaturated fats.

These fat molecules have one or more double bonds. Typically liquid at room temperature but start to turn solid when chilled.

Omega 3 fatty acids are a type of Polyunsatured Fat.

Our body doesn’t make Omega 3s so it’s important to get them through your diet.

• Salmon

• Abacore Tuna

• Walnuts

• Ground flaxseed

• Chia seeds

• Hemp seeds

• Eggs

• Soybean and corn oil

Omega 6 fattys acids are more easily eaten in the American diet coming from

Monounsaturated Fats

• Nuts

• Olive oil, Canola Oil, Safflower Oil

• Avocado 

• Peanut butter

Saturated fats are typically solid at room temperature and include red meat, whole milk dairy foods, cheese, coconut oil, commercially prepared baked goods.

It’s important to consider the foods you are choosing with saturated fat. 

Lean sirloin steak has other nutrients such as iron, B vitamins and protein.

Dairy foods offer carbohydrates, protein, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and vitamins.

Versus processed high fat packaged foods that don’t bring much else to the table.

Research has indicated that saturated fat isn’t solely to blame for high cholesterol. A diet high in saturated fat in concert with high simple carbs may lend to greater cardiovascular disease risk.

Trans fats are artificially created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils to make them more solid. This helps to increase shelf life and often used in fast food, processed peanut butter, baked goods, condiments. 

The ingredients will list “partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated.” Trans fats can increase our LDL (lousy) cholesterol, and decrease our HDL “healthy” cholesterol, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Fats are important for hormone and nerve functioning and provide a variety of vitamins and minerals. Just be mindful of portion sizes as fat is higher in calories than protein/carbs at 9 calories/gram. It’s helpful to measure out these foods with meals and snacks.

It all boils down to that unsexy conclusion…the poison is in the dose.

A varied diet of all foods within your body’s caloric needs is going to give you the best results.