Healthy eating: Cutting unhealthy fats from your diet
What are the different types of fats?
Unhealthy fats
- Saturated fat. Saturated fats are mostly in animal foods, such as meat and dairy foods. Tropical oils, such as coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter, are also saturated fats.
- Trans fat. Trans fats include shortening, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Trans fats are made when a liquid fat is turned into a solid fat (for example, when corn oil is made into stick margarine). They are in many processed foods, such as cookies, crackers, and snack foods.
- Cholesterol. Cholesterol is in animal products, such as eggs, dairy foods, and meats.
Healthy fats
- Polyunsaturated fat. Polyunsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. They are in safflower, sunflower, and corn oils. They are also the main fat in seafood. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are types of polyunsaturated fat. Omega-3 fatty acids may lower your chances of getting heart disease. Fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel contain these healthy fatty acids. So do ground flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, soybeans, walnuts, and seeds.
- Monounsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature but get solid when refrigerated. Eating foods that are high in this fat may help lower your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol, raise your "good" (HDL) cholesterol, and lower your chances of getting heart disease. This fat is found in canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, olives, avocados, nuts, and nut butters.
Even though it's better to eat healthier fats, it's still important to be careful about how much of them you eat. All fats are high in calories, so watch your serving sizes.
Test Your Knowledge
If I stop cooking with butter and use olive or canola oil instead, I can reduce the amount of unhealthy fat I eat and replace it with a much healthier fat.
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Why cut down on unhealthy fats?
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| Author: | Ellie Rodgers | Last Updated: May 14, 2008 |
| Medical Review: | Ruth Schneider, MPH, RD - Diet and Nutrition Rhonda O'Brien, MS, RD, CDE - Diabetes Educator | |
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