The thought of consuming fats that give 9 kcal of energy when we consume 1 gram still scares many people. A tablespoon of oil contains, on average, 120 calories. This is a high calorie amount for a small amount of food; However, not every high calorie is "bad". Calories are simply a measure of the amount of energy in food.
What about invisible fat?
All fat in our diet is classified as visible or invisible fat.
The oils you use for cooking or add to your salads are visible fats. Since we know the amount of fats we add, we can calculate their calories.
The fats that contribute to the taste and aroma of a food but cannot be seen are invisible fats. For example; Oils that cannot be easily seen and cannot be separated from food, such as the oil in the cream we add while making soup, or the natural oils found in peanut butter, are invisible. Olive, which we often add to our breakfasts, is another invisible oil-containing food that we consume without realizing it. The fact that foods that we consider as protein sources such as eggs, chicken, and cheese naturally contain fat, and the fact that we cannot notice the sources of fat is before us. That's why, even if we try to count the calories of visible fat, we will always ignore invisible fats. However, invisible fats that we cannot take into account reveal how wrong this thought is. Fat, which is one of the basic nutritional components, is not only a high energy source, but also has a very important role in nutrition and health, depending on the properties of the fatty acids they contain.
Adding oil to a dish; While it increases the taste and pleasure of that meal, it can also contribute to you feeling full.
How do fats help you feel full?
Having fat in a meal slows down digestion. Because fats are the slowest digested nutrient in the body. With this feature, it regulates your blood sugar and It plays a very important role in providing long-lasting satiety by slowing down the discount rate. Therefore, while plain pasta that you boil will increase your blood sugar quickly, adding oil to pasta may contribute to moderate increase in blood sugar by slowing the transition time of carbohydrates from the intestine to the blood during the digestive process in your body.
Oil seeds, salad dressings, vegetable oils, butter, full-fat dairy products and avocado are foods rich in fat and support the use of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K in the body. In addition, oilseeds such as flaxseed and walnuts contribute to your brain health by containing essential omega-3 fatty acids. The antioxidants found in olive oil and cold-pressed oils can benefit your heart health.
As a result, although it is possible to avoid visible fat, it is very difficult to avoid the calories of invisible fat. Trying to eat fat-poor diet by avoiding foods containing high calories and fat can reduce your feeling of fullness and trigger eating attacks, which can put us in an endless cycle. Counting the calories of everything we eat can also make us feel stressed and lead to unhappiness.
This is why, apart from calories, finding a sustainable lifestyle that focuses on our health would be a better approach in every way.
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