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Is Fat Really Bad For Health?

For so many years maybe decades, fat has been blamed for making people fat, giving cardiovascular diseases, culprit in one’s diet, and whatnot.

As the knowledge about food science progressed, we understood some interesting facts about fats

First of all, eating fat will not make you fat. What makes you fat is a caloric surplus diet meaning eating more calories than what is needed by your body

Fat is responsible for performing various functions in our body as vitamins a, d, e & k require fat for their transport and absorption.

The kind of fat you should be worried about is trans-fat which is industrially processed and is capable of increasing bad cholesterol and may also suppress good cholesterol leading to inflammation, heart diseases, etc. It is commonly found in margarine, street foods, baked, and other snack foods. On food labels, look for hydrogenated oil.

Approximately 20-35% of your daily energy should come from fat and consumption of saturated fat such as ghee, butter, coconut oil, shouldn’t increase 10% of your caloric requirement and the remaining shall come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in mustard, groundnut, sesame, olive oil, etc.  

Consume nuts, seeds, & nut butter such as almond, cashew, peanuts, peanut butter which are rich in monounsaturated fats.

Even though fat is required by our body, it’s the most calorie-dense macronutrient & contains 9 calories per gram, and can still be the reason for your gaining weight. Therefore, keeping an account of how much fat are you consuming is the key.

cravings

Practical Tips To Stop Craving Junk Food

Have you heard someone crave broccoli, spinach, or even lettuce? No. Right?

One reason is that they’re not as palatable as other foods which are either high in salt, sugar, fat, or a combination.

Food cravings are real but in essence, you’ve lost control over eating.

Coming to solutions

The first and foremost thing is to keep yourself hydrated. Because a lot of times, the body confuses thirst with hunger and you often end up eating a lot of junk in the process. So it is ideal to keep a water bottle with you at all times and respond to your craving by drinking enough water.

Consume protein & complex carbohydrates at each meal as both these are linked to increased satiety and reduced hunger levels. Several studies have been conducted to prove this. Some examples could be oats, wheat, besan, all dals, rajma, chole, etc., and for protein try including some dairy, soy, chicken, egg, fish, etc. in your diet.

Don’t keep foods that you crave in your vicinity. Because you will end up eating them over and over again. Out of sight is out of mind.

Sleep well as lack of sleep is linked to poor food choices the following day. What is happening here is that if you’re not well-rested, your hunger hormone ghrelin is triggered and the satiety hormone leptin is decreased, leading to increased hunger and appetite for unhealthy foods. Stress affects a similar way as by disrupting the hormonal balance. Stress increases cortisol hormone which results in an increased appetite for high sugar high-fat foods. A good way to curb this is to be physically active, mediate and add more laughter to your life.

plain oats vs masala oats

Plain Oats Vs Masala Oats – Which One Should You Buy?

For the past several years, our social media walls have been flooded with posts regarding the health benefits of oats.

And it surely does have presence of certain nutrients that are linked to various health benefits such as managing blood sugar, reducing bad & total cholesterol levels, preventing constipation, increasing the growth of healthy gut bacteria, and promoting satiety etc. (1,2 & 3).

But a variety of oat products are available in market. Broadly speaking, either plain or masala oats.

Plain is 100% Oats & masala, obviously as the name suggests, is the flavored version.

From a cost perspective, 100% Oats is always cheaper. In addition you can make it as per your preference – sweet or salted.

You have to spend sometime in preparing plain oats however, masala oat packets are almost instant – just add water, boil & you’re done.

One thing to watch out for in masala oats is their sodium content, like the one shown below has 2.3g sodium per 100g.

Image Source

1 pouch is 38 grams, so with each serving of masala oats, you’re consuming about 867 mg of sodium and finishing 43% of your daily recommended sodium with just one product (5).

And, India consumes more than double the amount of sodium than what is recommended by the WHO (6).

The nutritional information shared above is just for one product.

In conclusion, purchase plain oats if you want to save on cost and make your own style of oats and go for masala oats if you are looking for a quick oats option however, make sure you look for the one with least sodium to avoid excessive salt related problems.