5 things you NEED to know about fats – the good and the bad

Struggling with weight gain, low energy, or the challenges of middle age? In this quick and actionable episode of Healthspan Digest, I share 5 essential tips about fats—the good, the bad, and how to use them to improve your health, lose weight, and feel energized.

In Just 5 Minutes, You’ll Learn:

1️⃣ How to spot and avoid dangerous trans fats hiding in common foods.

2️⃣ The secret to cooking with fats—why smoke points matter for your health.

3️⃣ Why fats are essential for absorbing vitamins like A, D, E, and K.

4️⃣ The role of omega-3s and other fats in boosting brain health and memory.

5️⃣ How fats can keep you full longer and help curb unhealthy cravings.

As a middle-aged coach working with clients just like you, I know the challenges: high stress, tight schedules, and feeling the effects of aging. That’s why these quick tips are designed to fit your life and help you take control of your nutrition and healthspan—the years you live healthy, vibrant, and active.

🔑 Take Action Today:

•Follow the show for more science-backed, actionable tips to transform your health and longevity.

•Check out past episodes on proteins and carbs to master your macronutrients.

•Ready for personalized coaching? Let’s work together to conquer your goals.

Listen now to discover how fats can be your ally, not your enemy, in living better, longer. Your healthiest years are ahead—let’s make it happen!

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Transcript

Five tips in five minutes. Today we're gonna talk about fats. I'm gonna give you five tips about fats, why they're good, some things to look out for, and I'm gonna do this compressed into five minutes. So that's one minute per tip. Don't start your timers quite yet, because let me introduce myself to start with. My name is Aaron Shaw. I am from HealthSpan Physio Coaching. HealthSpan is the length of time within our lifespan that we are healthy, active, vibrant.

free from preventable diseases and dare I say, and related to today's episode, enjoying a little bit of fat. Fat is not completely evil. We need it to live. I'm going to make sure that by the time you're finished with this episode, you're going to know how to utilize fats and actually enjoy them. I am a full-time coach and my coaching clients are typically middle-aged and dealing with the struggles that those of us that are in middle age deal with, which is high stress, short on time.

feeling the effects of age, aches or pains, probably some extra weight, low energy, sleeping problems. And the pillars of HealthSpan that I work with my clients include exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional wellbeing, and preventative care. So those are the five pillars of HealthSpan. And speaking of nutrition, we're going to talk about that particular pillar today. So I've got my timer set here.

And the goal is gonna be five tips, five minutes about fats.

I always have to a deep breath before doing these, because these five minutes go by so quickly and try to pack in so much information. So here we go. I'm gonna start the timer. Five tips, five minutes, starting now. Tip one, avoid trans fats. Trans fats, if you consume trans fats, you're risking heart disease and stroke. These fats are when they take the liquid oils and turn them into solid fats through hydrogenation. And the main purpose of doing that is to extend the shelf life of food. So we're talking.

Any sort of fried foods, if you have french fries, those sorts of things, packaged snacks, chips, cookies, crackers, sadly also includes baked goods, cakes and pies. Consuming these fats will increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. It's a very, very big deal. Instead of picking up these packaged or pre-made things, try to find whole actual real foods. And if you must pick up something that's pre-made, flip it over and see if it says partially hydrogenated oils.

If it says that on the label, put it back on the shelf, it is not good for you. It will literally impact and possibly shorten your life. Tip two, cooking with fats. We need to talk about heat stability. There is what's called a smoke point to fats. That's the temperature at which the fats actually break down and release harmful compounds. We may have heard free radicals. This happens when you heat certain oils.

to a certain temperature. So what we want to look for here is if you're going to use what would be considered a low smoke point oil like extra virgin olive oil or flaxseed oil, you don't want to heat that too high. If you do, it will contribute to these all sorts of these long-term issues through oxidation, through this oxidation process from overheating. Instead, instead of using these low smoke points, low smoke point oils for frying or grilling, use a high smoke

point option like avocado oil or coconut oil. Those can actually tolerate higher temperatures much better. Keep the olive oil for salad dressings. Tip three, the good news, fats are essential for vitamin absorption. Fat is okay. Certain vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K are what we call fat soluble vitamins, which means it depends on dietary fat.

to be properly absorbed and actually utilized in your body. So if you find that you have chronically dry skin, brittle nails, weak bones, frequent fractures, or you bruise really easily, these can be signs that you actually have a vitamin deficiency. So here are the tips. Instead of eating, for example, a fat-free salad, which I feel like some people just try to think that fat is terrible, so they try to stay away from it, take your salad and put some olive oil on it.

put some avocado, some nuts, some seeds, some things that have fat. Because when you're eating your salad, for example, which is full of vitamins your body will be able to absorb those vitamins when it has the fats from the oils. So utilize those oils. They're still good for you. Just mix it right. Tip four, your brain is actually mostly fat. So 60 % of our brain is fat. And so it is essential that we keep

brain function and brain health through having fat in our diet. Omega-3 fatty acids are really like the key components of brain cell membranes. So this is where, you know, this membrane is where it helps cells communicate to each other, which also speaking of myelin production. So there's something called a myelin, which is this fatty sheath that are around nerves. And it is like the, like an extension cord or like a wire and the myelin

The fat that makes up this myelin speeds up nerve conduction between cells. So think about quicker reaction times. Also, fats have great anti-inflammatory effects. So healthy fats reduce inflammation in the brain, protecting it against oxidative stress and kind of the deterioration of nerves. So that is good. It's good for your brain. Quickly, tip five, fats can keep you fuller longer. So fats have a way of satisfying us

having us feel satiated. And part of this is because there are more calories per gram in fat than there are protein and carbs. So it's nine calories per gram of fat compared to four calories per gram for the other two macronutrients. So it will actually slow your digestion down when you have fats. And it'll actually help stimulate certain hormones which release, which tell us that we're full. Now I know that us Americans are really good at chowing down and

fats included in that, if we can have a little bit of healthy fat in our food, in our meals, pace yourself at a reasonable pace, you'll get a stimulation of being full and you'll stay full longer than if you just go to, especially if you go to like a heavy carb based kind of meal. So fats are good. And with that, that's five minutes, man, that is so fast. So what you can do is take your, if you have oatmeal, put a little almond butter in it. If you have salad, put a little

olive oil on it. you have snack craving, have some seeds or nuts. you have, if when you have a sandwich or eggs, have a side of avocado, these are healthy fats. Fats are good for us. Fats are essential. We just need to be mindful of how we cook with it. We need to be mindful of making sure they're not hydrogenated, but they are okay to have. So those are five basic tips so quickly, five basic tips on fats.

I've done other episodes, same kind of rapid fire for proteins and carbs, so you can check those out. These are just meant to kind of plant a seed for you to think about how you engage with fats in your diet. And if you have any questions about your personal diet, your nutrition plan, your weight management, your physicality, your healthspan, that length of time within our lifespan that you are healthy, active, and vibrant, if you're having challenges with that, let me know. I'm a coach. This is exactly what I talk about with my clients.

all day, every day. And until then, go have some healthy fats. It's good for you. Cheers.