These delicious and healthy foods will help hit your optimal daily fat intake
Granted, fat is always gonna have a bad rep but in order to hit peak health, who knows how many grams of fat per day is optimal? Fatty foods are rightly associated with heart disease and an unhealthy diet can contribute to all manner of early grave scenarios but there is such a thing as good fats.
“For years, fat was seen as unhealthy so we began a strong focus to remove it from our diets whenever we could,” remembers a nutritional scientist. “But, over the past decade, the perception of dietary fat has changed considerably, emphasising the importance of fat type over total quantity.”
Saturated fats, that’s your fats in deep-fried food, for example are bad. Unsaturated fats, like avocados and fish oils are now considered beneficial. In fact, Shah says good fats may even help lower the risk of heart disease, with intake of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats also helping protect your ticker.
With fat now considered firmly on the menu, here’s everything you need to know.
Fats aren’t just a source of energy, although they do pack around nine kcal per gram, FYI. According to a registered clinical nutritionist and sports dietitian, fats serve a number of critical roles including helping with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, which are vital for various bodily functions.
“Fats are also integral components of cell membranes and are involved in the production of hormones that regulate metabolism and other bodily processes,” the nutritionist adds. “Fats also act as a cushion for vital organs and provide insulation to maintain body temperature.”
Shah adds that good fats also help signal activity between cells, facilitating protein and biochemical cascades that help regulate growth, immunological responses, and reproductive processes.
According to Shah, upping your healthy fat levels can also protect your:
Heart Health
“Omega-3s
reduce blood pressure and may increase HDL cholesterol, protecting your
heart and reducing the risk of sudden, fatal heart attacks by up to 45 %.”
Brain and Mental Health
“Regular omega-3 intake reduces the risk of depression and anxiety, and may protect against cognitive decline.”
Cancer risk
“Omega-3s decrease inflammatory molecules, reducing chronic inflammation linked to heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses.”
The ketogenic diet, in which athletes ditch carbs to encourage the body to rely on fat stores is an obvious example of when focusing on fat may give us an athletic edge.
“Some athletes and bodybuilders use ketogenic or higher-fat diets to manipulate energy metabolism, but long-term benefits for performance are still debated,” warns Shah.
Although Shah does allow that athletes with high fat oxidation capacity can benefit from slightly higher fat intakes (up to 35% of calories), which may help spare muscle glycogen and enhance endurance.
The early warnings about fat weren’t entirely without merit. As mentioned above, certain types of fat will definitely do you harm, as will too much of the good stuff. As always, it’s about balance.
Current UK gov guidelines recommend men limit their fat intake to 95 grams per day, with a maximum of 30 grams being saturated fat.
Exceed this and you’re looking at weight gain, heart disease, and even cancer. “Foods you should avoid include: fried items like chicken and chips, along with fast food choices such as burgers and pizza,” says Shah. “Processed meats including sausages and bacon, as well as cakes and pies, and prepackaged meals containing ‘partially hydrogenated oils’ are also ones to watch out for.
To stay on track, Shah recommends getting 20-35% of your total calories from fat, upping this to 35% of your calories if you live an active life in order to support endurance and performance. Keto diets, meanwhile, might reach 60–80% fat, but Shah warns that this should be medically supervised.
When it comes to how many grams of fat per day you should be consuming, here's the good news: the thing about healthy fats is that they’re mostly delicious and will likely add all manner of extra benefits to your diet, from a wider nutrient profile to more lean fish, and better fibre. Shah says that the British Diabetic Association advises consuming two servings of fish weekly. Other good sources include:
Cacao nibs
“The unrefined, less processed variant of chocolate is rich in beneficial lipids and antioxidants,” says Shah.
Egg yolks
“Frequently
neglected because of cholesterol concerns, egg yolks are a source of
beneficial lipids, essential vitamins, and choline, an essential
nutrient for cellular function,” Shah explains.
Almond Butter
“As
an alternative to traditional butter, almond butter provides healthy
monounsaturated fats and can be a beneficial addition to a balanced
diet,” says Nanavati.
Seaweed
“Certain types, like nori, spirulina, and chlorella, possess small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids,” says Shah.
Dark poultry meat (without skin)
“This
contains a higher concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids compared
to white meat, and also undergoes less processing than red meat,”
advises Shah.