Читать книгу The Alkalizing Diet - Istvan Fazekas - Страница 18

The primary building blocks of fats are fatty acids. The two essential fatty acids, linoleic acid and alpha-linoleic acid, are components of certain cell membranes and hormones.

Fats come in two major varieties: saturated and unsaturated. A saturated fat is one that has a surplus of hydrogen atoms clinging to carbon atoms within the fatty acid; the more hydrogen, the more saturated the fat is. These fats tend to be solid or semi-solid at room temperature (for example, cheese, butter, yogurt, palm oil, coconut oil). The fats that have less hydrogen atoms hanging on to their carbon neighbors are called unsaturated and are liquid at room temperature (vegetable oils).

Just when you thought we were done with the technicalities, there is more.

Unsaturated fats are classified by the relationships of carbon to hydrogen. If only one carbon-carbon bond is saturated with hydrogen, it is called monounsaturated. Olive and canola oils are examples of monounsaturated fats. If two or more carbon-carbon bonds are replete with hydrogen, this is known as a polyunsaturated fat. All the other vegetable oils besides olive and canola are polyunsaturated fats (for example, safflower, soybean, sesame).

A really unsaturated fat is fish oil, which is composed of omega-3 fatty acids, having six carbon-carbon bonds. (I know. We now have more bonds than an Ian Fleming film festival.) Fish that have their zip code in cold waters retain the highest amounts of omega-3 fatty acids; the six sites of saturation function as a type of antifreeze, keeping the mackerel from becoming a mackerel-sicle. Research has shown that eating cold-water fish, with its inherent omega-3 fats, can impart protection against stroke, heart attack, and heart disease. Many native North American tribes who have traditionally depended upon salmon consider it a sacred food because of the health-promoting quality of these fish fats and proteins.

This does not work the same with fish oil capsules, which have shown in some cases to be counterproductive, even dangerous. This is likely because it is easy to overdo capsules and take them without the ancillary nutrients to properly process the intensely rich oils.

The double-edged sword here is that even though cold-water fish is healthy for you, it has become challenging to locate fish supplies not contaminated with mercury and other reckless by-products of seaside or seafaring industries.²

Good Sources of Fat:

• Cold-water fish (mackerel, herring, Atlantic and sockeye salmon, tuna, sturgeon, and other)

• Olive oil and canola oil

• Organic butter (yes, it is superior to margarine)

• Cheese (soft and hard varieties, including cottage cheese and cream cheese)

• Free-range organic eggs (more fat in the white, more protein in the yolk)

• Nuts and nut butters (almond butter is one of the best choices)

• Meats (the more unprocessed and affected by commercial additives, the better)