The ABCs of Nutrition: Types of Fat

Fats are composed of units called fatty acids and categorized by the predominate fatty acid type:

Saturated Fats
Saturated fats are found primarily in animal products such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, and ham as well as whole milk, cream, coconut oil, and vegetable shortening.

Saturated fats are used by the body to make cholesterol. A high dietary intake can raise LDL (‘bad’ cholesterol) levels in the blood, increasing your risk of heart disease.

The USDA recommends limiting your intake of saturated fats to less than 10% of your total daily calories.

Polyunsaturated Fats
Found mostly in corn, soybean, safflower, and sunflower oils and certain fish oils, these fats may actually lower your total blood cholesterol levels. But they may also lower your good cholesterol (HDLs) and are still high in calories. They should not exceed 10% of your total daily caloric intake.

Monounsaturated Fats
These fats are found in olive, peanut, and canola oils. It is thought that monounsaturated fats may reduce LDLs (bad) without affecting HDLs (good). It is recommended that these fats make up no more than 10-15% of your total caloric intake.

Trans-fatty acids
Trans-fatty acids occur when polyunsaturated fats are hydrogenated to make margarine and shortening. While the jury is still out, it is thought that trans-fatty acids behave much like saturated fats, raising LDL cholesterol.

A quick note on cholesterol: while we are conditioned to think of cholesterol as the enemy, our bodies do need cholesterol. In fact, much of our cholesterol is made in-house, by the liver. The recommendation is to keep cholesterol intake to less than 300mg/day. Note that grains, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds do not contain cholesterol.