Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

Many of the healthy compounds found in vegetables, including:

• carotenoids
  • beta-carotene
  • lycopene
  • lutein
• vitamin E

are fat-soluble nutrients. What that means is that these nutrients are best absorbed from the digestive tract in the presence of fat.

The differences in absorption when fat is or is not included in the meal can be large and significant. For example, as this recent article notes, when an avocado (a fatty fruit) was added to a salad, seven times the amount of lutein and 18 (!) times the amount of beta-carotene were absorbed from the other salad ingredients.

The type of fat matters. The article also mentions another study that found the consumption of unhealthy trans fats actually reduced the absorption of vitamin E.

Vitamins D and K are also fat-soluble, with the latter nutrient found in high quantities in leafy greens such as spinach and kale.

The takeaway is that it’s important to include healthy fats, such as olive oil, as a regular/moderate part of meals to help ensure the best absorption of fat-soluble nutrients. Not all fats are bad.

(Of course, fats are high in calories, so you don’t want to overdo it. The key is reducing the consumption of empty calorie foods high in sugar and refined grains, and replacing them with healthy fats, whole grains, vegetables, and lean protein.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Vitamins, Fats, Trans Fats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.