Role of vegetable oils and fats in a healthy diet

Vegetable oils and fats provide essential nutrients for our bodies. Indeed, to maintain our bodies and organs, we need to ingest essential fatty acids via foods, as we cannot produce them ourselves. This is for example the case of omega 3 or omega 6 fatty acids which can be found in rapeseed oil, camelina oil, sunflower oil or linseed oil among others.

They are also a key vector for vitamin absorption. Several vitamins are fat soluble and need fats for our bodies to be able to absorb them. This is the case for vitamin A (good vision), vitamin D (bone health), vitamin K (blood coagulation), or vitamin E (antioxidant).

Some vegetable oils and fats, due to their fatty acid profile, help maintain or reduce blood cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that our body needs. However, some types of cholesterol (HDL) are “good” for health, whereas other types (LDL) are “bad” for health. Vegetable oils and fats do not contain cholesterol.