Fat has been a topic of conversation for twenty some years now. Many of us associate fat with heart disease. Too much saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet are associated with increased blood cholesterol levels and greater risk for heart disease. It is important to realize that moderation in our eating is a good approach for several reasons. Please consider the following:

• Some dietary fat is needed for good health. Fats supply essential fatty acids that the body cannot manufacture. Like vitamins, essential fatty acids must be supplied from food.

• Fats promote the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

• Vegetable oils are good sources of vitamin E.

• Vegetable oils do not have cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol comes from animal sources only. A food may be high in fat and not have cholesterol. Peanut butter, for instance, is high in vegetable fat, and has no cholesterol.

• And there is the case of foods of animal origin high in cholesterol and low in fat. Shrimp, for instance, is higher in cholesterol than beef, pork or lamb, but is very low in fat.

• Cholesterol is a substance that is essential to life. The body makes its own, and then we add to the body's own supply by way of the foods we eat.

• Fat is the most energy-dense nutrient. In the body, 1 gram of fat produces 9 calories. One gram of protein and carbohydrate produce 4 calories and 1 gram of alcohol produces 7 calories.

• Recommendation 8 advises a fat intake between 15 and 30% of a person's daily calories. Not everyone's caloric needs are the same, but assuming someone's needs at 2000 calories per day, 300 to 600 calories could come from fat.

• The Nutrition Facts Label can help you figure your daily fat intake. Toward the bottom of the label you will see that 65 grams is the upper limit of fat intake on a 2000 calorie diet and 80 grams on a 2500 calorie diet. The % Daily Value tells the proportion of the nutrient (be it fat, or cholesterol, or protein) present in a serving of that food.

• The 'saturated' and 'polyunsaturated' terminology can get confusing. It might be helpful to realize that fat comes in many forms and that one way of classifying it (so we can talk about it) is by their chemical composition.

• With this in mind, let's divide fats in two groups: saturated and unsaturated. What we call a saturated fat has a greater proportion of saturated fatty acids and less of the unsaturated. For instance, more than half of the fat in butter is saturated. The remainder is a mix of various unsaturated fats.

• Saturated fats are hard at room temperature. The presence of the saturated fat in the drippings of roast beef or roast pork contributes to their hardness once they cool down. The same saturated fat in butter makes it hard to spread on bread, especially if the butter was just out of the fridge.

• Let's talk about the unsaturated fat. It can be monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. These are usually liquid at room temperature. Olive, canola and peanut oils are high in monounsaturated fats; most other vegetable oils (sunflower, corn, soybean), nuts, and high-fat fish are sources of polyunsaturated fats.

• Trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids. They are formed when a vegetable oil is processed into a partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (you might have seen this ingredient listed on foods like baked goods, frozen breaded foods, margarines, shortenings, and others). They might raise blood cholesterol level, but not as much as saturated fat.

Tips You Can Use

See Recommendation 8 Background

For more information visit the following web sites:

The American Heart Association at http://www.americanheart.org/newhome.html

US Dietary Guidelines at http://www.nalusda.gov/fnic/Dietary/9dietgui.htm

BACK TO FOURTEEN RECOMMENDATIONS

Prepared 1998 by Bernadene Magnuson, Ph.D.
University of Idaho, Dept. of Food Science and Toxicology - EXTOXNET FAQ Team.