Fats: The "Bad"

Whole milk, fried chicken, bacon, butter, Big Macs, coconut .....what do these foods have in common?


They are all high in saturated fat.  When we talk about a low-fat diet, a healthy-heart diet, or a healthy weight eating plan, these are the kinds of foods we want to find substitutes for, because while all fats are  higher in calories per gram, these are loaded with the kind of fat that raises the bad (LDL) levels of cholesterol in our blood. Again, saturated fat will stay solid at room temperature...like the skin on a piece of chicken. 

The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends that your saturated fat intake be less than 7% of your total food intake daily. That is, if you are following a 2,000-calorie diet, you should not consume more than 14 grams of saturated fat each day. Seven  percent of a 1500 calorie diet would be about 11 grams of saturated fat each day.



To give you an idea of how the above foods measure up and just how easy it is to consume way too much saturated fat:


A glass of whole milk has 146 calories and about 5 grams of sat. fat.
A KFC fried chicken breast has 470 calories and 8 grams of sat. fat.
Bacon: see the white fat on a piece of bacon? That is what saturated fat looks like.  A serving of bacon typically is 160 calories and more than half of those are from saturated fat.
A pat of butter is about 100 calories, 11 grams of fat and 7.2 of them are saturated.
A cup of coconut is like a Whopper! 283 calories and 24 grams of saturated fat; that one ounce you are likely to eat on a piece of cake or pie? Still has 8 grams of saturated fat.



And that Big Mac?
540 calories and 10 grams of saturated fat!



Remember, these foods that have saturated fat usually also have other fats - generally polyunsaturated and trans fats - in them also. and the more fat, the higher in calories and the smaller the serving size should be for us to keep from gaining weight.



Cheese is an example of a food most of us ( I'm raising my hand high) love, and it's also a food that can have a high level of saturated fat: 5.6 grams in a slice of American cheese.  Same for an ounce of Colby cheese, 6 grams of sat. fat in an ounce of Cheddar.  How much is an ounce? About the size of a pair of dice!



So while the healthy MUFAs and Omega -3 fats do play a role in a healthy diet, plan how often you will have unhealthy saturated fat in your meals and what size portion you will have!