Focus on the right fatty foods

“Jack Sprat could eat no fat, His wife could eat no lean” has been in English literature since the early 1600s and appeared in Mother Goose’s Melody in 1765. Young children could tell you that Jack was very, very thin and his wife was fat. Fat as a food or energy source has been known to be associated with fat bodies. Fat has become somewhat of a “dirty” word because of its relationship with shaming and bad health, such as heart disease, strokes, fatty livers, painful joints, diabetes, etc., etc., etc.

It may come as a surprise for some that fat is an essential food. Fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, like carbohydrates but in different arrangements. This makes them easier to store and be available when the sugars of the carbohydrates are used up. Fats are divided chemically into saturated and unsaturated fats. “Saturated” fats tend to come from animal fats (beef, pork, ham, whole milk, ice cream) and “unsaturated” tend to come from vegetables. “Trans” fat is an artificial fat made from vegetable oils in the early 1900s. It has been found to be significantly unhealthy and has been banned from foods since 2020. Small amounts may be found in highly processed foods, so read your labels.