Truth’s about FAT

True, we’ve got a lot of uncomplementary things to say about fat. But not all fat should be vilified. On the contrary, there’s some you absolutely need for good body function.

Polyunsaturated fats, which are the kinds found in grains, seeds, nuts, soy foods (such as tofu) and some vegetables, are essential to the body function, because without them the body can’t utilize fat properly. This group of fats provides essential fatty acids called alphe-linoleic acid and linoleic acid.

Linoleic acid is readily converted in the body to arachidonic acid, which is important to the makeup of cell membranes. So you need polyunsaturated fats both to help you store fat – which you have to do to survive – and to help build cell membranes.

But although this fat is necessary, it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to worry about getting enough of it. These days, with such as a wide variety of whole foods available, you get all the linoleic acid you need-whether you’re on a low fat, high fat or ignore-the-fat diet. It’s simply not something you have to worry about, since we rarely need to obtain it from extra vegetable oil in our diets.