Liver Fat

Think fats are all bad? Think again. From your heart to your hair follicles, hormones to hunger control, fats perform a host of vital functions throughout the body.

We’ve all read and hear about how fat coincides with an array of health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. What many people don’t realize is that some fats are actually good for you.

Mono and polyunsaturated fats act to lower bad’ cholesterol (which increases blood pressure) and raises good’ cholesterol (which lowers blood pressure) in the blood stream.

These good fats’ also contain essential fatty acids (EFAs), which help prevent illnesses including arthritis, cancers, heart disease and immune deficiencies. EFAs are also vital for protecting the body’s organs and for carrying the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.

The Department of Health recommends that fats should make up no more than 30 per cent of the total energy consumed each day.

Some fats have beneficial properties, while others can harm your health.

Glycerol is the main fatty acid that makes up fat. It can be broken down by the body for energy and is vital in the transport of fatty acids in the body.

Saturated fat is mainly found in animal products. A diet high in saturated fats raises levels of bad’ low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the blood.

Tran’s fats are formed during the process that solidifies liquid fat for processed foods. Like saturated fats, research suggests that Tran’s fats raise levels of LDL cholesterol while lowering levels of good’ high-density lipoprotein HDL cholesterol.

Understanding why some fats are good’ for you and why other are bad’ will help you to monitor your intake of fat, reducing your risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses.

Mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids are important for our health and well-being, helping to maintain healthy levels of blood cholesterol.

Mono-unsaturated fats help to prevent the narrowing of blood arteries and stave off heart disease. Monounsaturates are found in olive oil, rapeseed oil, nuts, dairy produce, fish and meat.

Polyunsaturated fats lower levels of LDL cholesterol and the most prized polyunsaturates are the essential fatty acids (EFAs), which cannot be manufactured in the body. EFAs are obtained from dietary sources such as safflower, corn, sunflower, walnut and soya bean oils.

Among EFAs are the omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce the risk of strokes, and

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Our diet plays an important part in our over all well being. Some people start eating healthier foods to lower their cholesterol levels, prevent cancer or to lose weight. While others start eating healthier to look younger and some to live longer. The fact of the matter is, eating an all around healthy diet will help deal with all these things and prevent other diseases as well.

In our fast paced lives, it is so easy to get away from healthy living. If mom is working, chances are she is bringing in take away fast food or processed foods that are faster and easier to cook. She may fool herself into thinking that the frozen dinners she has in the micro wave are healthy. After all they have meat, they have veggies and even a desert there for the sweat tooth. Is it really healthy though?

All processed foods after being processed have lost all their nutrients, even if they claim to be fortified with vitamins and nutrients. For a healthy diet think fresh. Fresh fish, meat, poultry, vegetables and fruit. Eat lots and lots of leafy greens as they are choc full of anti oxidants, omega 3 fatty acids and fiber and don’t forget the whole grains and bran’s. If you eat these foods everyday you will have enough vitamins and minerals which you need for a well balanced diet.

A simple guideline for eating healthier is to eat a variety of foods, that way you will know that you are getting all the nutrients you need. Maintain a desirable weight; avoid too much saturated fats and cholesterol laden foods. Eat foods with adequate starch and fiber. Avoid too much sugar and too much sodium and while a little alcohol is fine don’t over indulge. Eat organic that way you know your food is healthy.

Foods other then what you normally eat which you can include in your diet are avocados, they contain healthy fats which improve cholesterol levels, melons are pulpy so fill you up and are packed full of vitamins, figs and bananas contain potassium and papayas have photochemical and antioxidants which fight cancer.

Walnuts contain omega-3 essential fatty acids, green veggies such as broccoli which is proven to boost the immune system and kale. Fresh berries are high in anti oxidants and beans contain protein and anti oxidants. A glass of red wine after dinner helps to fight age related diseases because it contains resueratrol and green tea which has high concentrations of chemicals the body needs. For a little treat you can also eat a small amount of dark chocolate which has a balance of fat which is not harmful to our bodies, but watch it’s high in calories so control your intake. Guava is another fruit that is good to add to your diet as it contains five times the amount of vitamin C then oranges.

Studies have shown that going vegetarian is the best diet to live longer, and you can go another step further by eating your food raw, because when cooking the nutrients are destroyed or leaked out making the food useless. The best way to cook your food and retain nutrients is to stir fry as the Chinese do, but make sure you use a vegetable oil which is healthier.

If you maintain a healthy diet your whole life, you can extend your life expectancy. We all can’t be that good all the time so it can’t hurt to have that cheese burger from take away, just don’t over do it.

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So many people that are concerned with improving their health over look the health of their liver. The liver is called LIVE -R for a reason. The reason is the liver is involved with digestion and assimilation. It processes nutrients to give life to your body, to repair diseased and damaged tissue. It removes toxins and eliminates pathogen from getting into the blood that flow to all of your body cells.

Over 27,000 people every year die from chronic liver diseases and Cirrhosis. People with diabetes have a high number of deaths from liver deterioration. Over 60,000 people die from liver failure. It is estimated that 9,000 die from Chronic Hepatitis C and over 12,000 from liver cancer. Over 25 million people create some form of liver and gallbladder disease every year.

Liver disease is the Seventh killer of American people.

Don’t dismiss the health of your liver as you layout your plans to improve your health. Most people have some from of liver weakness and don’t even know it until it too late. Why not learn what you can do to treat your liver right so it can give you good LIFE.

Here is a list of symptoms that you will have when your liver is not working like it should.

* Frequent headache not related to stress, eyestrain, or shoulder muscle tension

* Frequent menstrual problems

* Blurry vision or red eyes

* Constant bitter taste in mouth

* Excessive anger, depression or moodiness

* Tenderness in the liver area – just under your right rib cage

* Acne, psoriasis, eczema, rashes, and other skin problems

* Weakness in your muscles and joint areas

Any one of these symptoms can be an indication that you have liver weakness. If you have two – three of them for sure you have some liver weakness.

So what can you do if you feel that you have some liver weakness?

The first area to work on is to examine the types of fats and oils you eat and make the changes that will give you better liver health.

Saturated fats, such as found in butter, meat, lard, and other oils are highly susceptible to oxygen damage through the process called oxidation. When these fats are oxidized they become rancid and form free radicals.

But Saturated fats are not the only fats that can be oxidized. Even unsaturated fats, the good oils, can be oxidized. Still it is better to eat most of our fats unsaturated since saturated fats are associated with heart conditions.

All fats can become oxidized outside the body by using them to fry your food or inside your body though the natural oxidation processes.

Liver cells are highly susceptible to free radicals. These free radicals are destructive to liver cell walls and weaken the health of the liver over time.

Also, Scientists have found that 17% of the oxygen you breathe and have available in your body becomes a free radical. These free radicals, again, attack and destroy liver cells.

To counter eating free radicals and the free radicals that are created in your body, you need to take anti-oxidant supplements and eat fruits and vegetables. The yellow and red colored fruits and vegetables are the highest in anti-oxidants. Of course it is best to also limit eating fried food and not use oils that have been sitting around to long.

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It appears that many people still confuse with fat and cholesterol in diet. A friend of mine once told me that peanut has no fat but it has cholesterol. Very often, people voice their concern and make some confusing statement, such as dont take coconut milk, it is high in cholesterol.

High blood cholesterol has been identified as a major risk factor for heart disease, which causes many people to avoid cholesterol from foods. Many have confusingly argued that a low-fat diet is also low in cholesterol, which can be considered only half right.

What is cholesterol? It is a fat-like substance. It is definitely not a fat as its chemical structure is different from fat and it functions differently from fats. Cholesterol is part of all body cells, some hormones as well as bile (which helps the body to digest and absorb fat in the digestive tract).

Cholesterol in the blood comes from two sources: liver and food. Liver is the factory that produces almost all cholesterol required in the body. Cholesterol can only be found in foods of animal origin but fat exists in nearly all foods. Plants do not produce cholesterol as they do not have livers. The good (HDL) or bad (LDL) cholesterol do not relate to food, they only refer to those in our body. Cholesterol in diet may raise blood cholesterol level for some people, but fats in diet definitely have a much significant effect, especially the saturated fats.

Fat is nutrient that human need as it provides essential fatty acids which body cannot produce and helps carry fat-soluble vitamins (such A, D, E, K) in the blood. Fat also produces energy (or calories) needed for physical activities as well as the basic body metabolism. When consumed excessively, however, fat contributes to weight gain.

There are three types of fats, namely saturated, unsaturated, and poly fats. You can refer to my article tiled “A Simple Way to Understand Fats” (if you like a copy of this, do drop me an email: admin@howtopreventheartdisease.com). Scientific studies showed that high fat diet is a possible cause of heart disease.

Saturated fat increases blood cholesterol levels and builds up deposits on the arteries while unsaturated fat helps to lower blood cholesterol levels and reduces the cholesterol deposits on the arteries. Trans fat found in vegetable oils has almost the same effect as saturated fat, except that they not only increase LDL but also lower HDL.

The best way to avoid heart disease is to cut down unwanted fats and cholesterol from your diet.

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Life is constantly providing us with new experiences and resources even when we are reduced to immobility. And without stressing too much on the adage health is wealth, it is very important to live by the rules of healthy living.

It is known to many that proper diet, regular exercise, and utmost discipline are the basic ingredients in achieving balanced and healthy living. But more often than not, people who are either obese of morbidly obese do not adhere to these guiding principles on how to achieve those weight loss goals and often experience severe results.

ALL ABOUT LOW FAT DIETS

Through the years, statistics continues to show that 95 percent of people who try traditional diets fail. These studies also show that improper dieting have caused miserable suffering to those have tried it because they underwent drastic food restriction and deprivation. Aside from the depression caused by failed diet and failure of short-term weight loss goal, these people have also developed chronic illnesses.

One of major reasons why people become obese is that they have high blood cholesterol levels due to fat intake. If you want to achieve your desired weight, make sure that you familiarize yourself first with fats. Basically, there are two major types of dietary fatthe saturated and unsaturated fat. Saturated fats may lead to the increase of cholesterol in the blood while eating unsaturated fats or oils can help decrease cholesterol levels. Fats are also categorized as low fat which has 20 to 30 percent of calories derived from fats and very low fat that has 0 to 19 percent of calories from fats.

Experts say that fat has more than twice the calories as the same amount of protein or carbohydrate this is why a good low fat diet can be helpful in the reduction of weight gain and lowering blood cholesterol as well. Over the years, health authorities and experts agree low fat diets are the best because these enable people to control over weight through lowered fat consumption.

The most typical low fat diets include the Ornish Diet, the Pritikin Diet, Hip and Thigh Diet, Scarsdale Diet, F-Plan Again Diet, Mayo Clinic Plan, Rice Diet, Weight Watchers Diet, Jenny Craig Diet, The 3-Hour Diet, and Anne Collins Diet Program that offer different low fat diets.

Here are some ways to eat less fat:

1. Try eating fewer fried foods. Instead of eating fried foods, opt for grilled, boiled, baked, poached, steamed or dry roasted foods.

2. Stop adding butter, lard, and margarine to food while preparing and cooking. Also, spare yourself from spreads.

3. Cut down on visible fat from meat.

4. Eat less fatty meat products like sausages, burgers, meat pies, and pasties.

5. Consume semi-skimmed or skimmed milk instead of drinking whole milk.

6. Try eating low-fat or reduced-fat varieties of cheeses.

7. Eat lesser high-fat foods like crisps, chocolates, cakes, pastry products, biscuits, and pizzas.

8. Drink low-fat or natural yogurts or creams.

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