TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Many people avoid fat for reasons of weight control. In fact, the body needs dietary fat for many biological processes. If you don’t get enough fat in your diet, you may notice symptoms such as dry rashes, hair loss, a weaker immune system, and problems related to vitamin deficiencies.
To help maintain good health, most of the fat eaten should be unsaturated fats monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. These fats are usually found in fatty fish, nuts and seeds, olive oil, and avocados. Not getting enough fat can make it harder for the body to function properly and can lead to health problems. Here are some important roles of dietary fat in the body.
Helps absorb vitamins
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat soluble. That is, the body can only absorb it if you eat it with fat. Lack of fat in the diet can lead to a deficiency of this vitamin, which can lead to various health problems.
Supports cell growth
Fat provides structure for the outer membrane of every cell in the body.
Supports brain and eye health
Omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenic acid (DHA) help maintain a healthy brain, central nervous system, and retina. Your body does not make these fatty acids. You can only get it from food.
Wound healing
Fatty acids It plays a key role in wound healing and blood clotting.
Hormone production
The body needs dietary fat to make certain hormones, including the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen.
Energy sources
Each gram of fat consumed provides about 9 calories of energy. In comparison, each gram of carbohydrate or protein provides only 4 calories of energy.
Types of food fats
Dietary fats can be divided into four categories, trans fats, saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats.
Trans fat
Trans fats, which are found mainly in partially hydrogenated oils, are the most unhealthy type of fat for the body. Hydrogenated oils are often used to improve the taste and shelf life of processed foods. The body does not need trans fats. Eating lots of these types of fats can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
Trans fats can be found in: processed foods such as popcorn, frozen pizza, and biscuits, baked goods such as store-bought pie crusts, cakes and pastries, fried foods such as donuts and french fries, margarine, and vegetable shortenings. To find out if a food product contains trans fats, you can read the list of ingredients on the packaging. If partially hydrogenated oil is listed as an ingredient, it’s best to avoid the product.
Saturated fats
Saturated fats are found in animal products such as meat, eggs, and dairy products. These fats tend to be solid at room temperature. The USDA recommends getting less than 10 percent of your daily calories from saturated fat. Current research shows replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
Single unsaturated fats
According to the American Heart Association, monounsaturated fats can help reduce bad cholesterol in the blood. This can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. Unlike saturated fat, monounsaturated fat is liquid at room temperature. Foods that are good sources of this type of fat include vegetable oils such as olive oil, canola oil, sesame oil, and safflower oil, nuts such as almonds, peanuts, walnuts, and cashews, peanut butters such as peanut butter and butter. almonds, avocado.
Double unsaturated fat
The body cannot make polyunsaturated fats. That’s why you need to get it from food. These fats are also known as essential fats. Omega-3 fatty acids are a certain type of polyunsaturated fat that can help reduce the risk of heart disease, protect against irregular heartbeats, and help lower blood pressure. You can find omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring and sardines, oysters, flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts.
To help maintain good health, most of the fat eaten should be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. How do you know if you’re not getting enough fat in your diet? Dietary fat deficiency is rare in healthy people who eat a nutritionally balanced diet.
Vitamin deficiency
The body needs dietary fat to help it absorb fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamins A, D, E, and K. Not getting enough of these essential nutrients can increase the risk of chicken blindness, infertility, swollen gums, easy bruising, dry hair, teeth rocking, depression, muscle aches, blood clots under the nails.
Dermatitis (skin inflammation)
Research has found fat is an important part of the skin’s cell structure and helps the skin maintain its moisture barrier. If you don’t get enough dietary fat, it can affect skin health and cause dermatitis. Dermatitis is a general term to describe inflamed skin. Dermatitis caused by a lack of dietary fat often presents as a dry, scaly rash.
Slow wound healing
According to research, the body needs fat to make many important molecules that control the body’s inflammatory response. Low dietary fat intake can interfere with this response and cause slow wound healing. Lack of fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A and vitamin D, can also cause wounds to heal more slowly than they should.
Hair loss
Fat molecules in the body called prostaglandins promote hair growth. Eating too few essential fats can change hair texture and research shows it can also increase the risk of hair loss on the scalp or eyebrows.
Sick often
Severely limiting fat intake can weaken the immune system and lead to more frequent illnesses. The body needs dietary fat to produce some of the molecules that stimulate the activity of immune cells. Essential fatty acids are also important for immune cell growth. Specifically, the body needs the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid and the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid for this purpose.
Also read: Don’t Serve Fried Food at Meetings to Prevent Obesity
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