Fats: The Good! The Bad! And the Ugly!

First: the GOOD!

Good fats have an acronym that's easy to remember: MUFA (just say "mooooo-fah"!)

A MUFA is a monounsaturated-fatty-acid. See why I like to say MUFA instead?

If you have ever tried to lose weight before by changing your diet plan, or if you have ever been told to change the foods you eat in order to lower your cholesterol, you have probably learned about low-fat food choices, and you may also know there are three kinds of fats found in our foods.

Here's an easy way to remember which is which: the more saturated a fat is the more solid it will be at room temperature (think the white fat on beef or poultry skin or butter to visualize what saturated fat looks like). Saturated fat is linked to clogging our arteries and rasing the level of cholesterol in our blood, and we'll talk more about saturated fat in a couple when we get to "The Bad".

When we talk about good fats, MUFAs are first on the list!

MUFA's are fats in foods that can have good effect on our health by actually helping to lower the bad cholesterol levels, reducing our risk of heart disease.  MUFAs are also of benefit because - like other fats, they are filling and add flavor to our food. Fats help us feel satisfied when we eat -- that's one reason we have a love affair with fatty foods!

Foods high in MUFA's include olives, avocados, most nuts and seeds, olive oil, canola oil and peanut oil. When you are cooking, choose these oils to add when you absolutely, positively have to have a cooking fat.  A classic salad dressing is oil and vinegar....I like to drizzle a little olive oil directly on my salad, follow up with a squirt of a flavored vinegar ( cider, red wine, or balsamic) and toss -- saves a lot of calories -- and gives me that cholesterol protection I need. Chop up avocado for your salads, add pesto sauce to a 1/2 cup of pasta, have 1/4 cup of nuts as your afternoon snack - these are all ways to ge this healthy fat in your diet plan.

Prevention.com has an eating plan Called the "Flat-Belly Diet" that is recommends a MUFA at every meal.  How can you get a MUFA at breakfast? Chop some walnuts or almonds and add to your cereal or oatmeal.

Some of us may say this is the best MUFA of all:

Yes,  you are seeing right: chocolate! Dark chocolate has healthy monunsaturated fatty acid in it!

To get the healthiest benefits, go for small amounts of the darkest chocolate ( high cocoa content). This way you don't have to cut out a dessert when you are losing weight.

Many people decide to lose weight by swearing off fats, or choosing fat-free everything. Two problems arise: first, it's hard to sustain a completely fat-free eating plan forever. It can be done - Dean Ornish heart patients, for example, often regain better health by eliminating virtually all fat form their diets. But most of us are unwilling to give up fat forever; and most of us can lose pounds and increase heart health by modifying the type - and amount- of fat we consume. The second problem with many fat-free food products is that often food processors add extra sugar and other additives to make up for the difference in the way fat-free foods taste, so while we are getting less fat, we may be getting more calories.

When you change your eating habits to include a MUFA at every or most meals, you do your heart a favor and you still get that "fat-isfaction", but to make sure your waistline also benefits, bear in mind that like all fats, MUFAs have 9 calories per gram as opposed to the 4 calories per gram that you find in proteins and carbohydrates.Go for small amounts, but get big benefits!

So what's on your plate? Got MUFA?