How fat works in your body.

Last week we went over different types of fats. Today we are going to go over the importance of why your body needs fat.

Fat is an energy source. There are several types of energy sources the body uses – glucose, fat, glycogen, and ketones. Glycogen is what is stored in our muscles, from glucose, as an emergency fuel source for when we overextend the glucose and fat that is in our blood stream. A lot of people will say that the primary fuel source for your body is glucose. However, evolution has adapted our body to use fat and ketones as the preferred fuel source. Read on for more.
Fat helps keep down inflammation. One thing I didn’t go over last week was Essential Fatty Acids, which are essential to eat because your body cannot produce them. You have Omega 3 and 6, which are PUFAs. Omega 6 is by far the most consumed, usually from vegetable oils (although they are also consumed from nuts, seeds, eggs, avocados, and olives). The problem with that is that there needs to be a balance between Omegas 3, 6, and 9. Omega 9 is not considered essential because it can be produced by the body, but there still needs to be a balance between the three. The imbalance of the Omega Fatty Acids causes inflammation within the body. Omega 3s are found in nuts, fish, algae and flax. Omega 6s are found, as said earlier, in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, eggs, avocados and olives. Omega 9s are found in avocados, almonds, and several different nuts and seeds. The balance should be 2:1, Omega 3 to 6 and 9. There are also Omegas 5 and 7, which are found in other foods that you can get 3 and 6, so they are usually already balanced.
Fat is essential to keeping your mitochondria working. Mitochondria is what takes the food we eat and turns it into energy our body can use. For those tl;dr, our mitochondria is surrounded by at least two fatty membranes that help the mitochondria do its work. If you’re not eating fat (or rather, foods with fat in them) then those membranes are unsaturated and make it difficult for mitochondria to work. When that happens, you essentially have less energy.