Many people associate fat with "unhealthy", greasy fat, bloated figure, and chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and fatty liver, but in fact, fat is one of our indispensable nutrients, and the body may not function properly without it.
A recent study found that fat can also help the body fight infections caused by bacteria. Life Times (search for "LT0385" within WeChat to follow) interviews experts to interpret the significance of fat and teach you to hoard fat healthily.
Experts interviewed
Tang Molian, a dietitian in the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine
Fang Yu, Director of the Department of Nutrition, Peking University Cancer Hospital
Cheng Yiyong, former chairman of the Chinese Nutrition Society
Fat helps the body fight infections
The University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom published a study in the journal Nature Communications that fat can help the body fight infections.
The team studied Salmonella, a bacterium that causes diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever and sepsis. They tracked the movement and depletion of fatty acids in living stem cells and analyzed the immune response to Salmonella bacterial infections through liver damage, revealing how hematopoietic stem cells respond to infections by obtaining high-energy fatty acids from fat stored in the body.
The researchers say that fighting infection requires a lot of energy, and fat storage is a huge deposit of energy that fuels hematopoietic stem cells to enhance the immune response.
Fats in this way maintain good health
Fat is essential for life and health, and the normal range of body fat rates for adults is 20% to 25% for women and 15% to 18% for men.
Supply energy, store energy
When the body needs it, lipolysis releases glycerol and fatty acids into the blood circulation, releasing energy to meet the body's needs.
Protect the body and maintain body temperature
The adipose tissue around the organ has a support and cushioning effect on the organ to protect the organ from external force damage; fat is not easy to dissipate heat, so it can maintain a constant body temperature and resist the cold.
Save protein
Sufficient fat can protect the body's protein from being used as an energy substance, so that the protein can effectively play its important physiological role.
Promotes appetite and increases satiety
The special aroma of fat can promote appetite; when food fat enters the duodenum from the stomach, it can stimulate the production of enteratin suppressor, so that intestinal peristalsis is inhibited, resulting in a relatively slow speed of food entering the duodenum from the stomach, prolonging the stay time in the stomach and increasing satiety.
Provides fat-soluble vitamins
Fat contains vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, etc., which can provide nutrition for the body, and fat can also promote the absorption of this part of the vitamin.
Endocrine effect
Cytokines secreted by fat, such as leptin, interleukin, tumor necrosis factor, etc., are involved in various physiological processes such as metabolism, immunity, growth and development of the body.
A smart fat hoarding rule
How can you harness the health benefits of fat while controlling its negative effects? Nutrition experts give a scientific advice on fat intake:
Control weight, do not blindly lose weight
It is internationally recommended to use the "body mass index" (BMI) to measure whether a person's weight is healthy, and the algorithm is: weight (kg) divided by the square of height (meters).
The normal range is 18.5 to 23.9, overweight is 24 to 27, obesity is 28 to 32, and above 32 is very obese.
People who are overweight: control their mouths, open their legs, control total calories under the premise of dietary balance and comprehensive nutrition, give priority to low-fat and high-protein shrimp, peeled poultry meat, etc. when eating meat, and pay attention to controlling the intake of fatty meat, edible oil and other high-fat foods.
Reminder: the weight is not excessive, some people's body fat rate is also very high, and even there are problems such as fatty liver, which need to be paid attention to.
People with normal weight and body fat rate: Do not lose weight blindly, excessive weight loss may cause menstrual disorders, dull skin, and yellow hair in women.
Grasp the total amount and eat fat differently
Fats are divided into saturated fats and unsaturated fats, and unsaturated fats are divided into monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Saturated fat should not be consumed in excess
Lard, butter, butter, coconut oil, palm oil in the saturated fat accounted for a relatively high proportion, its heat resistance is better, often used to process pasta, fried food, to create a crispy taste, but contains more cholesterol, too much consumption is not conducive to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health.
Monounsaturated fatty acids are consumed in moderation
Monounsaturated fatty acids are the main components of olive oil, tea seed oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, rice bran oil, canola oil also contains some, moderate intake of such fat is conducive to lowering blood lipids, anti-hemagglutination, delay the formation of atherosclerosis plaque.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids to be supplemented
Linoleic acid, EPA, and DHA are typical representatives of polyunsaturated fatty acids and need to be deliberately supplemented. Linoleic acid is beneficial for lowering blood cholesterol and preventing atherosclerosis.
Studies have found that cholesterol must be combined with linoleic acid to function properly and metabolize in the body. However, linoleic acid cannot be synthesized by the human body itself or synthesized very little, and must be obtained from foods such as soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, and wheat germ oil.
EPA and DHA are also important for physiological functions, generally less food content, need to be supplemented by eating more fatter fish.
It is worth reminding that even if some cooking oils have health benefits, it is still necessary to control the total intake, between 25 and 30 grams per day. ▲
Editor of this issue: Deng Yu
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