Unsaturated Fats for Saturated and Trans-Fats

The Cornerstones to keeping the healthy aspects of Southern Food and reducing unhealthy ones were detailed by Hu and Willett in a JAMA article.  Three cornerstones were detailed.

1. Unsaturated  Fats for Saturated and Trans-Fats

Mono-unsaturated fatty acids such as olive oil and poly-unsaturated fatty acids such as canola oil should be substituted when possible for saturated fats such as butter fats  as well as trans-fats such as hydrogenated shortenings which remain in the fast food industry.

2. More Omega-3 fatty acids

More fish.  However, cold-water fish are not the only source of Omega-3 fatty acids as Southern fish with adequate amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids are trout, bass, flounder, bream and tuna.  Most importantly don’t forget plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids such as walnuts.  Walnuts were recently highlighted in the PREDIMED Study results.  Other excellent sources of plant-derived Omega-3 fatty acids are soybean, greens and kale.

3. More fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts and whole grains.

This is self-explanatory, and should be a part of everyone’s daily diet checklist.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The good aspects of Southern Food have always been the fresh fruit and vegetables.  Likewise, the bad has always been the saturated fats and trans-fats.  If we substitute the saturated fats for mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats, alter the cooking methods, add coarse grains, increase nut intake and leave off the sweets we can accomplish our goal of a healthy southern diet.