WHY FATS ARE ESSENTIAL IN YOUR EVERYDAY NUTRITION
Fats give you energy, and they help the body absorb certain vitamins. Essential fatty acids help the body function, but they aren’t made by your body—you have to consume them. Many foods naturally contain fats, including dairy products; meats, poultry, seafood, and eggs; and seeds, nuts, avocados, and coconuts.
Certain kinds of fat can be bad for your health—saturated fats and trans fats:
- Saturated fats are found in the greatest amounts in butter, beef fat, and coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils. Higher-fat meats and dairy and cakes, cookies, and some snack foods are higher in saturated fats. Dishes with many ingredients are common sources of saturated fat, including pizza, casseroles, burgers, tacos, and sandwiches.
- Trans fats, which is short for trans fatty acids, occur naturally in some foods but are also artificially produced. Because trans fats are not healthy, food manufacturers are phasing them out. But trans fats can still be found in some processed foods, such as some desserts, microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, margarine, and coffee creamer.
Fats that contain mostly trans fats and saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Limit your intake of saturated fats to less than 10 percent of your calories each day, and keep trans fat intake as low as possible.
Replace saturated and trans fats with these two types of healthier fats while keeping total fat intake within the recommended range:
- Monounsaturated fats. These are found in the greatest amounts in canola, olive, peanut, sunflower, and safflower oils and in avocados, peanut butter, and most nuts.
- Polyunsaturated fats. These are found in the greatest amounts in sunflower, corn, soybean, and cottonseed oils and in fatty fish, walnuts, and some seeds.
Oils contain mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and are liquid at room temperature. These types of fat seem to lower your chance of heart disease when they replace saturated fats. But that doesn’t mean you can eat more than the Dietary Guidelines suggests.
To lower the saturated fat in your diet:
- Choose cuts of meat with less fat and remove the skin from chicken
- Use low-fat or fat-free dairy products
- Choose oils, such as olive or avocado, for cooking
- Replace ingredients higher in saturated fats with vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, or lean cuts of meats and poultry
- Read the Nutrition Facts label and choose products lower in saturated fats
Foods high in saturated fats
- fatty cuts of meat
- meat products, including sausages and pies
- butter, ghee, and lard
- cheese, especially hard cheese like cheddar
- cream, soured cream and ice cream
- some savoury snacks, like cheese crackers and some popcorns
- chocolate confectionery
- biscuits, cakes, and pastries
- palm oil
- coconut oil and coconut cream