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Health Tips: Bad Fat vs. Good Fat

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Lacey Johnson
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Alex Puzzolo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at C Mich chapter.

 

It’s that time again; spring break is almost here and girls are frantically trying to shed those winter layers by indulging in the latest diet trend and un-indulging their eating habits.

There’s a secret these girls don’t know though. Diets don’t work, changing your eating habits does.

Diets don’t work because they’re temporary, and the majority of people who buy into them gain all or more of the weight back after it’s over. 

So while you’re trying to makeover your body for spring break, why not makeover your eating habits too?

Starting with your view on fat.

Part 1: Bad Fat vs. Good Fat

We need three essential macronutrients for energy and absorption of nutrients: carbs, protein and you guessed it, fat.

The average adult needs at least 10% of their daily calories to come from fat, preferably good, unsaturated fats of which there are two types: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. You can find them in fish, unsalted nuts, various oils, tuna, and leafy vegetables. These good fats help lower bad cholesterol and reduce your risk for heart disease. 

 

A good rule to remember is this: Good fats are liquid at room temperature and bad fats are solid. 

Take Jiff creamy peanut butter for example; It has 16g of total fat, only 3g of saturated fat leaving 13g of good, unsaturated fats.

Applying the rule above, you may think peanut butter is a bad fat because it’s a solid at room temperature, but the catch is in the ingredients where it states FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL. Hydrogenation of oils is simply the heating and addition of hydrogen gas that transforms liquids into solids, and fully hydrogenated oils do not contain trans fat (saturated fat). 

 

As you travel further into a healthier lifestyle, things like this will catch your attention and your knowledge base will expand.

Now, after reading this, you know that fat is not your enemy. Fat does not make you fat, good fat actually burns fat.

Start looking at nutrition labels and outweigh the amount of bad fat you eat with good fat, include this with regular exercise and you’re on your way to a better body for spring break and for life.

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I'm an 20-year-old college girl trying to get my life together. I'm majoring in News Editorial Public Relations some kind of Journalism at Central Michigan University and hoping one day I'll love every minute of it.Eat, Pray, Love is the first book I've ever read whose style is comparable to my own. Read that book, like it, and you might have a sweet tooth for my writing. If not, well, I'm not one to lose sleep over people not liking me. Other than writing my days are spent in class, at the gym, or in my room tearing my hair out because I procrastinated on my homework. Did I mention I like cats?
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Alex Puzzolo is a junior at Central Michigan University. She is majoring in Integrative Public Relations and minoring in Leadership. She is an active member in her sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma, by holding Executive Board positions. Alex is a Co-founder of the Central Michigan University chapter of Her Campus. She is from Mundelein, IL and loves to travel. She has been to multiple countries and just recently completed an internship in Ireland. An interesting fact about Alex is that she has worked in a jewelery store for the past two years and is certified member of the Gemology Institute of America.