Bad fats are saturated fats and trans fatty acids. Saturated fats come mainly from animal sources and have been linked to increased risks of heart disease and some forms of cancer. Trans fatty acids are produced when liquid oils are hydrogenated to form hard, stable fats. These fats were created to improve shelf life of foods, increase melting point of fat for deep-frying, and allow for high temperature cooking. Trans fatty acids can be up to 4 times as damaging as saturated fats. Check your food labels for both saturated fat and trans fatty acids (hydrogenated anything) content. Best to avoid these ingredients.
Omegas are good fats, or essential fatty acids. There are two polyunsaturated fatty acids that are required in your diet. One is linoleic acid, an omega-6, and the other, alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3. Both are considered good fats and essential to health. Before the days of refined vegetable oils, people consumed small, but roughly equal amounts of both omega-6 and omega-3's. Two things have upset this balance. First, the omega-3's have been removed from our food supply because they can oxidize or become rancid, which reduces the "shelf-life" of foods. Second, the availability of omega-6's in our modern vegetable oil rich diet, provides 10-20 times as much omega-6's as omega-3's. A healthy balance is a ratio of 2:1. This absence of balance with omega-3's has serious consequences for health and chronic disease, as omega-3's generally have health inducing effects.
Best advise, read your food labels. Avoid hydrogenated and trans fatty acid ingredients. Try to re-establish the healthier 2:1 ratio of omega-6's to omega-3's. Great foods would be avocados, nuts and salmon. These foods contain a natural, balanced fat content that we need on our path to a healthier nutritional lifestyle.
