Nutrition- Do not fear healthy fats, growing brains need them

May 10, 2009

EVERY mother’s dream is to provide the best for her children. In this attempt, however, mothers some times end up spoiling their children when it comes to nutrition.

By Halima Shaban

EVERY mother’s dream is to provide the best for her children. In this attempt, however, mothers some times end up spoiling their children when it comes to nutrition.

A child has too much body fat when their weight is more than 20% higher than the ideal weight for a boy or girl their age and height. Mothers rightly fear that their babies are obese and are quick to switch their feeding to a fat-free diet.

With the intense public focus on healthy eating and obesity, many parents have understandably come to believe that restricting dietary fats can keep children from becoming fat and prevent heart disease. But are such diets normal and healthy for children?

Sheilah Nyakwezi, a nutritionist, says fats are the main source of energy for satisfactory growth and physical activity during early infancy.

“This energy requirement is not easily met when diets are low in fat (less than 15 % of total calories). Low-fat diets do not meet the nutritional needs of children and, instead, can interrupt normal growth and development,” she says.

Nyakwezi says children need fatty acids and Omega 3 found in fat, and in the fat-soluble vitamins A, D and E for growth, development and good eyesight.

“Our bodies cannot live fat-free. We need significant amounts of fatty acids to function properly and enhance immunity.

The nutritional deficiencies related to a fat-free diet have been linked to heart disease and headaches,” she says.

Dr. Jeffery Meyers, in his book Back2Health: Your Guide to Better Living, notes that when choosing fats, your best options are unsaturated fats, mono unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

“These fats can lower the risk of heart disease by reducing the cholesterol levels in the blood. Unsaturated fat from plants is the healthiest kind,” he writes.

Nyakwezi says the brain is 60% fat, so high-quality fats are important to keep it healthy.

All cells have a fatty membrane. Good fats are incorporated into the cell membranes and keep them porous so that messages are transmitted easily between cells.

Philip Besigye, a nutritionist, says 35 % of calories from a healthy diet should come from fat, ideally polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats such as olive and sunflower oils.

He says children aged two to three get 30% to 35% of their calories from fat, while those aged four to 18 get 25% to 35% from fat.

According to Meyers, all types of fats have more than twice as many calories as proteins and carbohydrates.

This means the amount of fats needed will be lower than the amount of protein and carbohydrates.

Besigye says: “You do not need to eliminate all fats from your meals. Instead, choose the healthier fats and enjoy them in moderation.”

He says men who do not have enough fat in their bodies risk interfering with essential sex-related hormones such as testosterone, which can lead to impotence and low sex drive.

The same applies to women who are too thin, as they do not consume enough fat to help their bodies manufacture enough oestrogen, a hormone essential to development and reproduction.

Nyakwezi says good fats contain many nutrients we need to keep the body healthy. Despite the fact that many people think their diet is full of fat, 90% of us do not eat enough good fats.

“The difference between good and bad fats is that the bad fat raises blood cholesterol levels. The good fats help lower cholesterol. This will in turn put you at a lower risk for heart disease,” she says.

Healthy fats
Monounsaturated fat
Polyunsaturated fat lOmega-3 fatty acids

Sources of healthy fats
Olive oil, peanut oil, avocado, nuts and sesame
Vegetable oils such as maize, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oils), cashew nuts and seeds

Fatty, cold-water fish
Besigye says most nutritional oils come from seeds, leafy greens and vegetables. “All these are good oils, supplying essential fatty acids.

The human body cannot manufacture most of them, so they must be supplied in the diet.”

Harmful fats
Saturated fat
Dietary cholesterol

Sources of harmful fats
Meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, butter and coconut, palm and other tropical oils.

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, baked goods such as cookies and cakes and fried foods such as doughnuts and chips.

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