What are heart and brain healthy fats? Thats the real question right!
Heart-healthy fats may help lower your risk of heart disease and boost brain health if you eat them in place of unhealthy fats. DHA is helpful in Brain protection and even useful in brain trauma, concussions and overall brain health.
Eating wild caught fish instead of meat or using olive oil in the place of butter are examples are great choices to boost brain and hearth health. If you are trying to improve your brain health and overall health and reduce the risk of heart disease, include these fats in an overall healthy eating plan:
Omega-3 fatty acids can help lower triglycerides, a type of fat that clogs arteries:
Omega-3 fatty acids found in oily wild caught fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, trout, herring, and sardines.
Wild Caught Fish oils such as Cod Liver Oil, Krill Oil that are high in OMEGA 2 Fatty Acids, DHA and EPA.
Healthy Omega 3 Oils include: organic virgin olive oil, organic avocado oil, flax seed oil.
Other good sources of Omega 3's are ground flaxseed, chia seeds, hemp seeds and flaxseed oil, soybeans, walnuts, and other seeds.
Organic Soy Beans, Spinach, Brussel Sprouts, grass fed meats, provide Omega 3 fatty acids.
Polyunsaturated fat is found in plant and animal foods, such as salmon, vegetable oils, and some nuts and seeds. Eating moderate amounts of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat in place of saturated and trans fats can benefit your health.
Monounsaturated fats include canola, olive, and peanut oils.
Polyunsaturated fats include vegetable oils such as safflower, sunflower, sesame, soybean, and corn oils. These fats can help lower LDL cholesterol but if they are hydrogenated and are highly refined and modified and can lead to other health risks.
Other good sources of healthy fats come from organic eggs, olives, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and nut butters. These fats can help lower "bad" (LDL) cholesterol and raise "good" (HDL) cholesterol.
What are unhealthy fats? Unhealthy fats, if you eat too much of them, can raise your risk of high cholesterol and heart disease.
Try to limit how much of these fats you eat:
Saturated fats are mostly in animal foods, such as meat and dairy.
Palm oil and cocoa butter, are also saturated fats. Coconut Oil is a saturated fats but because of the healthy benefits of lauric acid it has more benefits than risks.
Trans fats include partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Trans fats are in many processed foods, such as cookies, crackers, and snack foods.
Cholesterol is found only in animal foods, such as eggs, whole-milk dairy foods, and meats.
General tips for healthy eating:
Fill up on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Think of gras fed meat or free range poultry as a side dish instead of as the main part of your meal.
Try main dishes that use whole grains, quinoa, brown rice, dried beans, or vegetables.
To get more omega-3 fatty acids, have fish twice a week. Add ground flaxseed to cereals, soups, and smoothies. Sprinkle walnuts on salads.
Bake, steam, or grill foods. Use a stainless steel cooking spray bottle and fill with avocado oil instead of artificial oil sprays or instead of other unhealthy oils is a great way to reduce the amount of oil in cooking but using a safe high heat oil is key too so it does not turn into a trans fatty acid. If you use oil for salads or baking use safe low heat oils like organic virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, avocado oil and coconut oil. For high heat cooking use these high heat safe oils, grape seed oil, avocado oil and coconut oil so they don't become trans fatty acids.