When It Makes Sense to Add Extra Fat to Food
Now that fat has overcome its bad reputation , it is becoming fashionable to add fat to food and drinks for health reasons – whether it is adding oil to coffee for questionable benefits or replacing the Lite salad dressing with a drop of bacon fat. But when does adding fat make sense and when is it a bad idea?
Fats have different properties, but none of them are magic
There are advocates of coconut oil, olive oil, you name it – someone is admonishing you to put more of it in every meal you can . But are any of these oils really special?
Oils tend to be trendy because of their fatty acid content: if you’ve heard that flaxseed oil is good for food, it’s because it’s rich in omega-3s.
Any oil or any fatty food will include a mixture of fatty acid types. This chart provides a breakdown of several. For example, lard contains many saturated fatty acids, but also many monounsaturated fatty acids. Here are the types:
- Saturated fatty acids were once demonized, but now they are respected again . They are the main component of animal fats and are found in butter, cream, lard and bacon.
- The medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil and MCT oil supplements are metabolized slightly differently than other fatty acids and may have some mild fat burning properties if used in place of other fats, although there are some caveats. …
- Monounsaturated (omega-9) fatty acids are considered heart-healthy “good” fats. Their most famous sources are olive oil and avocado.
- Polyunsaturated fatty acids include omega-3s found in fish and fish oils and, in a less active form, in some nuts and seeds, and omega-6s , found in seed oils such as corn and canola. Both are needed in our diet for different reasons: omega-3s are converted to anti-inflammatory hormones, and omega-6s are converted to pro-inflammatory hormones. Some nutritionists bundle both together as “good” fats, while others emphasize that theratio is important : most of us should get more omega-3s and less omega-6s.
- Trans fatty acids , at least the man-made version found in cheap baked goods and canned glazes, are almost universally recognized as harmful to you .
Here’s the problem with adding fat to food: The designations “good” and “bad” tend to come from studies that substitute fats for each other rather than eating the same food with or without fat. Thus, you need to make sure that your food can actually use the excess fat; and then, if so, choose the fat that best suits your goals.
So if you are confident that you need more omega-3s in your diet, and if you are sitting down to a low-fat lunch like salad or pasta with vegetables and low-fat sauce, a drop of linseed oil will be a great addition to this dish.
On the other hand, if the food already contains a reasonable amount of fat, adding more will simply add calories, but not necessarily benefit. If this is the case, consider swapping out one type of fat for another that better suits your goals – for example, use coconut oil instead of canola oil when frying vegetables.
Fat promotes the absorption of vitamins
It is true that adding fat to food can help us absorb some of the vitamins it contains. Vitamins are small organic molecules that we need in our diet but cannot be produced in our body. If you eat a varied and healthy diet in reasonable amounts, you are likely to get a lot of all the vitamins your body needs. However, eating ultra-low fat foods will affect the ability of your digestive system to remove these vitamins from food into the bloodstream.
If you are the type of person who ate a lot of salads and vegetables (low fat or not) and are concerned about your vitamin intake, you are probably a healthy eater not at risk for vitamin deficiencies. I’m just saying. But from a biochemical point of view, does adding fat to food help the absorption of vitamins? Damn it.
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, so you need at least some fat in your food to help them metabolize . (This does not apply to vitamin C or any of the B vitamins, which are water-soluble.) Tests on salads with low-fat, low-fat, and high-fat dressings have shown that you absorb more carotenoids (such as vitamin A) from salad with fat dressings . The same is true for salads containing eggs , since the yolk contains fat.
It is reasonable to assume that these principles apply to other combinations of vitamins and fats, such as eating broccoli with butter or cheese, or even a cheeseburger.
Fat in drinks is mostly useless
Dave Asprey, the genius who gave us butter coffee and all its dubious claims , is now selling a product that is even easier to ridicule: FatWater, an emulsion of droplets of fat in water.
The health claims attached to these foods don’t make much sense, as food science researchers have pointed out : while MCT oil may lead to slightly more fat burning when swapped with other oils, adding a tablespoon or two to a drink is unlikely to have the same the effect. Meanwhile, the only thing that helps you metabolize fat has been shown to be fat-soluble compounds like the vitamins we discussed; it does not improve hydration as claimed by the manufacturer FatWater.
Now, if the drink you’re talking about is a smoothie, there are more reasons to add fat. Smoothies are essentially liquid food. Too often, smoothies only contain carbohydrates, but a healthy, filling smoothie should also contain protein and fat . Almond oil (or other nut oils) contain both and taste great; Fatty dairy products, including milk or yogurt, are another option that gives you a hit or two. These additives make smoothies more satisfying and slow down the entry of sugar into the bloodstream.
Some foods require more fat.
Because of decades of bad advice, we’re used to thinking of low-fat foods as healthy; and it is true that it can be less high in calories. But fat helps us feel fuller and counteracts the “carbohydrate coma” that can occur after a meal high in sugar and starch. This means that a diet with a healthy amount of fat (usually 20-35%, although some say you can safely switch to a much higher amount) can help you eat less food in the long run.
Extremely low-fat foods make us miss out on vitamins and are simply unbalanced – so don’t be afraid to add some butter to toast or olive oil to your pasta. But remember that you are just filling in a healthy proportion of macronutrients , not applying the magic elixir.
Photo by Taryn .
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