The Role of Healthy Fats in the Diet

Many Americans, in their quest for lean bodies, have drastically reduced their intake of fat while shifting consumption to diets rich in protein or carbohydrates, and sometimes both. Unfortunately, the no-fat or too-low-fat approach can be severely detrimental to your health.

Healthy fats and oils play active roles in every stage of the body’s healing, building, and maintenance processes. In fact, they are as important to an active individual’s body as amino acids, minerals, and vitamins.

Healthy fats and oils profoundly affect the structure of the nerves and the brain as a whole. They make it possible to orient your body in space and to move within your surroundings. Especially important to athletes, they lubricate, cushion, and insulate nerves and soft tissue, protecting you from the physical stress and extremes of training and competition. They also affect the sensory and motor integration that enables your body to perform. Sensory nerves relay the position of your feet and hands back to your brain. The motor cortex and the motor neurons generate the impulses that coordinate muscles and limbs. Healthy fats and oils help convert light and sound into electrical nerve impulses, remove potentially toxic substances from sensitive tissue, and provide structural integrity to cell membranes.

The Platinum Bar™ is rich in Omega-3 essential fatty acids — the good fats. Each bar contains three grams of Omega-3 essential fatty acids and 1.5 grams of Omega-6 fatty acids. The typical American diet consists of a 20:1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3, so it’s no surprise that 80 percent of us are Omega-3 deficient. The ideal ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 essential fatty acids is more like 2:1 -- the same ratio of EFAs that our Paleolithic forbears consumed. The Platinum Bar™ has a ratio of 1:2 Omega-6 to Omega-3, which will help to balance the overall ratio found in our bodies. Each bar contains 90 calories and 4.5 grams of essential polyunsaturated fat. Besides being tasty and filling, they are easy to eat while walking, hiking, running, biking, working, or engaging in other activities.

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