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Do you like your crisps crunchy, your ice cream smooth and creamy and your toast spread with hot butter or margarine? Does the hot fatty smell that comes out of chip shops make you start to feel hungry? Food
cooked in fat, or with fat added, has a texture, smell and taste that
most of us really enjoy. That's why it's so easy to eat too much!
You get a lot of energy from fat. All food contains energy. But fatty foods like chips, fried chicken and burgers often contain the most energy. Each teaspoon of fat contains 45 calories, which can provide enough energy for you to play sport for about six and a half minutes. Fat has more than twice the energy of carbohydrates (sugar and starch) and protein. Trouble is, if you don't run around or play games, then the extra energy may not be used up, and can get stored as extra fat in your body.
Does fat make you fat? Fat contains lots of energy (calories). If we don't use this energy we store it as fat in our own bodies, saving the energy for future use. Sadly the fat often ends up where we don't want it, leading to podgy stomachs and big bums.
To
keep looking good and feeling fit, it helps if you can eat healthily and
get some exercise. Cycling or walking to school is a great way to get
fitter, as long as you don't undo the good work by rewarding yourself
with a fatty treat when you get there!
People tend to think that all fat is bad, but we all need to eat some fat to keep healthy. The healthiest fats are usually those that are liquid or soft. These are oils like sunflower oil and olive oil used in cooking. Healthy fat is also found in a lot of nuts and seeds, and in oily fish like mackerel. The fats that are less healthy are easy to recognise. They are usually hard at room temperature. Butter, lard and hydrogenated fat are all hard fats. There is also hard fat in the fatty parts of meat - like bacon rind. Hard fats contain saturated fat. Over a long time, if you eat a lot of saturated fat, it can damage your heart. There is also increasing evidence to suggest that hard fats are bad for your brain, and that eating healthier oils in seeds and fish might make your brain work better, and make you feel happier.
The wrong types of fat hurt your heart
What you eat can help your heart pump easily. Over many years, an unhealthy diet can make the tubes around your heart fur up. The flow of blood gets restricted, making it much harder for your heart to carry on pumping. Your whole heart system relies on good food and exercise to keep it healthy. Some people do things that could damage their hearts. They take very little exercise, smoke, eat too much saturated fat and salt, and don't eat enough fruit and vegetables. To be more healthy, you don't need to cut out fat altogether. For instance, wiithout a bit of fat in your diet you wouldn't be able to absorb some of the vitamins which your body needs to work properly. Eating some fat is essential to maintain health.
The fat you eat can help you think! Your brain is mainly made of fat - it's the fattiest organ in your body.
Some scientists think that eating fish might have played a big role in helping human beings to develop the complex brains that we have now. They are getting more and more interested in the idea that if people ate more 'good fats' and less 'hard fats', then their brains might function better and they might end up cleverer. They also think that eating fish oils might help stop people getting depressed, because depression can be caused by the brain not working properly.
Fatty foods taste good and are often very cheap. They are also available everywhere. But years of snacking on fatty foods can cause all sorts of health problems. It can be very difficult to work out how much fat you're eating. Food labels are not always clear, and fatty take-away foods don't say on the wrapper how much fat they contain. Where there is a nutrition label, anything containing more than 20g of fat per 100g is a lot of fat. Try to cut back on these foods. Another thing you can do is... well, you're doing it right now. Learn about food so you can take control of what you eat.
Amazing facts about fat Got this far? Then click here to find out some amazing facts about fat! Click here to download activity sheets on the subject of fat, salt and sugar
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Your
tastebuds love fat!
Energy
from fat
Most
of us find it very difficult to lose weight once it's there. Finding out
how to recognise and cut back on fatty and sugary foods is one way you
can start to take control over the way you look, and the way you feel.
Good
fats and bad fats
Your
heart beats about 42,000,000 times per year. If you live to be 70 years
old that will be about three billion heartbeats in your lifetime!
But
if you eat a lot of 
It's
easy to eat too much fat
