Introduction

After decades of research, it is clear that fat and cholesterol relate to heart disease in a complex way that we have yet to fully understand. What is known is that there are good and bad fats, as there are good and bad cholesterol. The good fat and cholesterol are key macronutrients needed everyday for optimum anti-aging health. Both, in their natural states, are antioxidants and protect us from free radical attacks. They can also turn bad, mostly due to commercial processing.

Fats and cholesterol are found intermingled in food. While fats are visible in some foods, such as bacon and French fries, it is not so noticeable in others. In contrast to fats, cholesterol, which is derived from animal products, has no telltale signs at all. A food can be of rich in both fat and cholesterol (fried egg) or low in both (fruit and vegetables). It could also be either rich in fat but low in cholesterol (peanut butter) or low in fat and high in cholesterol (shrimp).

The secret to anti-aging lies in knowing which type is good to take, and which type is the bad type to avoid.

Annual consumption of added fats such as butter, shortenings, and oils in our diet from commercially prepared cookies and fried foods now stands at 66 pounds per person per year.

Fat is one of three main macronutrient groups that supply calories in food (the other two are protein and carbohydrate). Fats in our diet come in the form of solid like the white part on a strip of bacon or as a liquid such as a vegetable oil.

Consuming some fat is essential to part of our general diet. Fats aid absorption by carrying fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K into the cells. Fats can add flavor to food, making them taste better in cooking. Metabolically, fat does not increase blood sugar level in our body as fast as carbohydrates.

Fat is also a superior source of concentrated energy, providing more than twice as many calories per gram as sugar, starch, or protein. While carbohydrates and protein merely provide 4 calories per gram, fat is more calorically dense with 9 calories per gram. A teaspoon of fat supplies approximately 45 calories. It doesn't take too much fatty food to generate many calories.

The body stores energy in various forms. Excess calories consumed are converted into glycogen for storage. Glycogen storage, however, requires water to be effective. One pound of glycogen is accompanied by four pounds of water. When you go on a diet, the first source of energy the body uses is glycogen. Water is concurrently lost during this usage. This explains why crash calorie restricted diets are diuretic in nature. The initial weight lost is mostly water and not fat. This process reverses with water retention when regular diet is resumed and body weight is quickly regained. This accounts for the so call "yo-yo" weight loss syndrome, and the dieter gets discouraged.

After glycogen is depleted as a fuel, the body uses protein as a source of energy. The most abundant source of protein is muscle. But again, muscle tissue is 72% water by weight. A little loss of muscle protein causes a large loss of total weight.

Fat is the last storage place of energy. Since it has a unique chemical structure, fat can be stored much more competently, entailing the least amount of water to support it. Fat is stored in the adipose tissue, with about 85% of the total weight in actual fat.