Here’s a practical and encouraging post to find balance in your diet from our Nashville Fitness and Nutrition Manager, Janelle! In our Mercy homes, we teach the importance of taking care of yourself: mind, body and soul! We implement learning balance in fitness and nutrition into the daily lives of our residents!
Fats have come back in style. Hallelujah! Healthy fats provide a number of great benefits including:
- Providing energy
- Maintaining blood sugar
- Satiating us, keeping us fuller longer
- Allowing the body to absorb nutrients like vitamins A, E, and K
- Reducing cravings for sweets
- Building blocks of hormones and immune system
Some signs that we are deficient in fats are:
- Dry, scaly skin
- Hair loss
- Low body weight
- Cold intolerance
- Bruising
- Poor growth
- Lower resistance to infection
- Poor wound healing
So what do we do with this information? What kind of fats should we eat or stay away from?
It is all about moderation and variety. In our diets we hope to obtain a variety of foods in order to obtain a variety of nutrients. Some good sources of fat are:
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil and milk
- Avocados
- Whole eggs (white and yolk)
- Nuts- almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia (limit peanuts and cashews)
- Fish- salmon, mackerel, herring
- Seeds- sunflower, safflower, hemp, pumpkin, sesame
- Flax seeds, flakes (flax oil)
- Chicken-with skin on or dark meat
Try to obtain 1-2 healthy fats a day and rotate them throughout the week. Here are some examples of how to use your healthy fats:
- Cook or dress your food with oils like olive oil and coconut oil
- Make a trail mix with a variety of nuts for snack times
- Add real butter or avocado to some toast
- Cook with a variety of proteins like chicken with its skin on or fish
While fat is a great tool to enhance your overall well being, it is important to also reduce unhealthy fat and sugars like fried foods, fast food, processed foods. When we eat good fats we are satiated longer and typically will crave sweets less. We hope that you enjoy these tips and are able to implement them into your daily life!
