I remember years ago when I was in my early teens, the birthing of the ‘fat-free diet’s’. Back then I had no idea why but I just knew that there was something very dangerous about the idea of aiming to eliminate fat from your diet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, excess saturated animal fats are well known to be bad news for our health, especially for our heart and blood vessels but the omega fats have quite the opposite effect. The benefits for the heart and circulatory system by  increasing your omega fats, again, is well-known know but I still think there is a hangover of fear from days gone by, that blanket ALL fats as responsible for weight gain and so put people off really embracing them as VITAL to health. There are many reasons to increase your intake of those friendly fats, here are a few.

Omega (happy fats) fats are involved in countless vital functions in the body. Hormone production requires them and seeing as hormones are responsible for…….well let’s face it, what aren’t they responsible for ….our mood, our desire…. our internal chemistry is to a large degree governed by our hormones. All the main systems of the body (digestive, respiratory, skeletal etc) are obviously hugely important but our hormonal system……is like the conductor of the orchestra of the body, if the conductor is out for lunch the symphony doesn’t sound too good.

Happy fats are essential in the transmission of nerve impulses and provide a protective insulating sheath around the nerves to keep our circuitry safe,  when you know that, it’s no surprise that fat-free diets can lead to problems in the nervous system.

Fats are essential for a healthy metabolism – they are needed in the ‘engine’s’ of our bodies, in the mitochondria (within the cells), where the body uses/burns fuel (food) to produce energy, knowing this, it is no surprise that lack of fats can lead to metabolic disorders and actually cause us to gain weight and become tired and sluggish as our metabolism slows down, in other words, our engine’s can’t work well – not enough of the engine oil!

The condition of our skin, hair and nails are greatly affected by quality fats. They are anti-inflammatory, which is important for the prevention of degenerative diseases across the board……and amusingly 60% of our brains are made of fat!

So don’t hold back, they are easy to add to your diet……. eat plenty of ……nuts, seeds, (pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower, flax, linseed etc.) avocado’s, lashings of vegetable oils (especially olive, walnut, sesame, avocado) small oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel), egg yolks…. and if you don’t like any of these find a good quality omega supplement.

These fats are called ‘essential fatty acids’ and they are indeed ‘essential’, they are fundamental to our health.