Fat, bad or good for?
As a matter of fact, our bodies need fat! That is actually what our brains function off of. Not all fats are created equally, though. There are hazardous fats that we shouldn’t be consuming, but then there are fats that we want to make sure we are consuming daily. Any processed and prepackaged foods will have the unhealthy fats in them because it is what gives those foods the flavor so many of us desire and what allows for them to not rot sitting on the shelves. Sounds appetizing doesn’t it?
Healthy fats can be found in actual real food and not the processed junk. Our bodies not only need healthy fats to function, but fat burns fat and leaves you feeling fuller longer. If you are on some “low-fat” diet looking to lose weight you might see some immediate results from the restricted calories but you won’t obtain life long sustainable results because you aren’t properly fueling your body with the vitamins and minerals it actually needs. Here are some great options of healthy fats to start integrating into your lifestyle.
- Coconut oil
- Extra Virgin Olive oil
- Avocado oil
- Grass-fed butter
- Ghee
- Avocados
- Nuts and seeds
- Omega-3s
Oils can get tricky and confusing when remembering which ones are the healthy ones, what temperature to cook them at without losing the nutrients and so on. Coconut oil is great for cooking because it can withstand higher heats. Extra Virgin olive oil is great for dressings because it doesn’t withstand heat very well. If adding in more healthy fats to your diet sounds like something you need to do, do some research to further educate yourself.
Mayo was one of those foods that was pretty easy to cut out of my diet when I went strict paleo because I honestly never really used it. However, there is becoming a lot of healthier and paleo mayo options on the grocery store shelves these days. Awhile ago I talked about Hampton Creek’s Just Mayo. It has clean ingredients but it does use canola oil. There are a lot of different opinions on the world wide web if canola oil is healthy or not. It isn’t the worst oil out there, but for some reason my body doesn’t like it. I get a pretty bad stomach ache even when I consume it in small amounts so that was the last of Just Mayo for me. Their chipotle mayo was so good so I decided to make my own with a healthier oil that makes my tummy happy! You are going to want to have an immersion blender for this recipes. If you use a different method I can’t guarantee the outcome!
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup avocado oil
- ½ tsp chipotle powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp lime juice
- Place all ingredients in a tall jar. Insert your immersion blender and place it on the bottom of the jar and blend for 20-30 seconds without moving the blender. Then, once it starts to blend and thicken move the immersion blender around to fully blend and mix the mayo.
- Store in an air tight container.