Good Fat?

Question:

Is all fat bad for you?

Answer:

Fat is your body's primary storage site for energy in your body. Too much of anything isn't good, but having the right kind of fat in your diet is essential. You need 20%-35% of the calories you ingest each day to come from fats. You want the majority of fat you take in, about 25 grams, to be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids. These "good" fats are the ones that help lower LDL (low density lipoproteins) cholesterol, or bad cholesterol that gets deposited in your arteries. It lowers cholesterol by increasing your HDL (high density cholesterol); this is the cholesterol that gets cholesterol from your arteries and sends it to your liver. You can find the "good" fats in fish, nuts, supplements, or in any oils.

The fats you want to avoid are the trans fat and saturated fat. Transfats are human-made fats that are partially hydrogenated to help keep food on shelves at the store longer. Even if a product container says "zero transfat" you still have to check the back label to make sure it doesn't have any partially hydrogenated oil in it. (It can still have trans fat in it, just not enough to list it as one gram of fat.) Saturated fats along with trans fats are the bad fats that increase your risk of heart disease. You find these fats in anything fried, fatty beef, sweets, and almost every food that has been processed. So when you buy your next item at the store and you question the fat content listed on the back of the container, don't forget that there are good fats and that they are good for you.

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