Bring On the Healthy Fats!
We all struggle with deciding what to eat. We’re faced with recommendations from the USDA, the media, doctors, friends, and not to mention, our favorite blogs (wink, wink). Usually, they’re all saying something different! How are we supposed to choose? It takes a lot of time and energy to try and answer this question. With our new blog series on nutrition, Tessemae’s hopes to help you save both.
We know that fat has a bad rap, but we think it’s an unfair one, and we encourage you to decide for yourself. Starting around the 1950’s, Americans have been told that avoiding fat will help to improve our health and lower our weight. “Fat-free” this, “low-fat” that, and “diet” everything else, quickly took over the supermarket aisles. More often than not, food manufacturers and recipes replace fat with much more sugar, sodium, or both.
However, even with all of these “healthy” (or not so healthy…) choices, incidences of heart disease, cancer, and obesity have skyrocketed. Clearly, someone’s logic may be off… And clearly, cutting fat from our diets does not always have the desired effects of weight-loss and health problem prevention.
“Now what?” you may be asking. Well, through our nutrition series on healthy fats, we hope to show you that not all fats are created equal. Most of us hold the misconception that eating fat will make us fat. True: fat is the most energy dense macronutrient (with twice as many calories per gram as either carbohydrate or protein). However, different types of fat have different effects on our bodies.
At Tessemae’s, we use 100% Cold-Pressed Olive Oil in most of our products and believe in the nutritional benefits of eating the “good” fats that this oil has to offer. It is full of essential nutrients such as oleic acid, which can be associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
We know, we know, figuring out the difference between trans, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fat does not sound like much fun. We hope to simplify this task for you, and to help you make well informed health decisions. Then we can all enjoy some of the delicious recipes that Chef Kristen is about to whip up in the coming months. Join us in spreading a wholesome, healthy, and happy lifestyle!