You hear people refer to it all the time—“good fat.” They use it to describe foods like olive oil, avocado, peanut butter…but what exactly does this mean? And how exactly is good fat different from bad fat?
In short, good fat is the type of fat that helps your cardiopulmonary system instead of hurting it. So if you’re looking for a few easy dietary swaps to treat your ticker better during American Heart Month, here’s the skinny on what you should know about fat:
You need fat: First off, and maybe most importantly, fat is essential for good health. Energy dense, providing more than twice the calories per ounce when compared with carbohydrates and protein, fat is found abundantly in animal products, nuts, seeds, and even a select few fruits and vegetables.
Fat digests slowly, so it helps you feel satiated after a meal, keeps you feeling full longer, and reduces the impact of fast-digesting carbohydrates on your blood sugar. It’s also important for numerous bodily functions, including the absorption of certain vitamins and minerals.
Saturated and unsaturated fats: So what kind of fat should you be consuming and what kind should you avoid? Health experts encourage you to consume more monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat, and reduce your consumption of saturated fat. That’s because mono- and polyunsaturated fats improve your blood cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of heart disease.
HDL vs. LDL: Your blood cholesterol levels are made up of high-density lipoproteins and low-density lipoproteins, more commonly referred to as your HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
These lipoproteins transport cholesterol through your bloodstream for vital functions like cell formation and hormone synthesis, but it’s HDL that takes the cholesterol to your liver to be flushed out when all is said and done.
The problem is that most people have lower levels of HDL and higher levels of LDL than they should. Too much LDL causes buildup of plaque on the walls of your blood vessels, which restrict the flow of blood and can ultimately lead to a heart attack or stroke.
What’s so bad about saturated fat?: The reason health experts warn people to watch their consumption of saturated fat is because it raises your blood cholesterol levels (both HDL and LDL). In contrast, polyunsaturated fats lower your blood cholesterol (both HDL and LDL) and monounsaturated fats raise your HDL and lower your LDL.
High consumption of monounsaturated fat—and, in turn, high levels of HDL in your bloodstream—keep your vessels free and clear of any plaque.
Choose healthier fats: Experts such as those at the American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasize that a healthy diet is one of the best ways of preventing unhealthy cholesterol levels.
Focus on keeping your intake of saturated fat (often found in meat and dairy products) to less than 10 percent of your calories per day, and opt for foods that are high in mono- and polyunsaturated fats instead—think vegetable oils (olive, canola, peanut, safflower), nuts and nut butters (peanut, almond, cashew), and seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds). Avocados and olives are also rich in healthy fats.
Plants aren’t free of saturated fat: While saturated fat is most commonly found in animal products, it’s still found in some plants, most notably in tropical foods. In fact, coconut oil has more saturated fat than butter! And saturated fat from plant foods isn’t any healthier than saturated fat from animal products. That’s okay though—you can still have saturated fat in your diet as long as you are moderate and balance it with sources of unsaturated fat.
The ban on trans-fat: You might have heard about trans-fat, a type of fat resulting from vegetable oils that are pumped full of hydrogen to be solid instead of liquid at room temperature. Once commonly found in processed foods, trans fats were a source of controversy because they lower your HDL levels and raise your LDL levels—a double whammy when it comes to your heart health! But trans fats were banned in the United States in 2015 and food manufacturers had until 2018 to phase them out of production.
Watch your cholesterol levels: The U.S. National Library of Medicine recommends people start getting their cholesterol tested early and often, depending on risk factors such as weight and family history. If a child has a family history of high blood cholesterol, heart attack, or stroke, it’s wise to start testing as young as 2 and get tested every 5 years. By age 20, healthy individuals should be tested every five years up until after 45, when they should be tested every one to two years.
Increase your intake of unsaturated fat: If you’re trying to reduce your intake of saturated fat and increase your intake of good fat, try cooking with olive oil or canola oil instead of butter and varying your sources of protein to replace some of your red meat with plant-based sources like beans and tofu. Remember, however, that all fat has the same number of calories per ounce, so people who are watching their weight will still need to be moderate in their consumption.
