When it comes to healthy eating, everyone wants to emphasize fat – it’s a confusing & polarizing topic. Here are some thoughts about most commonly asked questions about fat, particularly saturated fat. What actually saturated fat is? – that they have no double bonds; raises the level of cholesterol in your blood; and are typically solid at room temperature. Some common sources are fatty beef, lamb, pork, poultry with skin, beef fat (tallow), lard and cream, butter, cheese and other dairy products made from whole or reduced-fat (2 percent) milk, many baked goods and fried foods, Some plant-based oils, such as palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil.
Much of the interest in fats are studies which concluded that saturated fat is not associated with heart-disease, then it must be healthy. But the answer is ‘NO’. Then reducing saturated fat alone without considering what it is replaced with may not be beneficial.
So, it is clever to do ‘proportional changes in energy’ when it comes to fat and health. Such as, replacing it with unsaturated fat improves cardio-vascular health and reduces risk of heart disease. And in contrary, replacing it with refined carbohydrates does not at all reduce CVD risk factors. The combined evidence suggests that improving the whole eating pattern will promote cardiovascular health. The American Heart Association recommends 5% to 6% of calories from saturated fat; for example, if you need about 2,000 calories a day, no more than 120 of them should come from saturated fat.Â
