Research shows that lowering fats in your diet may help reduce cholesterol levels, keep your weight under control and move you up a rung on the get-healthy ladder. The Harvard School of Public Health notes, however, that it is not necessarily the amount of fat in your diet that puts you at risk for heart disease or obesity. Instead, the kind of fat you consume on a daily basis may make the difference between success and failure when trying for a healthy lifestyle.
Facts About Fat
Most foods, even carrots and lettuce, contain some fat, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Your body needs fat for healthy cellular function. Fat also provides the starting point for creating estrogen, testosterone and other important compounds. It helps keep your skin smooth and your hair shiny. Dietary fat also helps your muscles respond to insulin, a hormone that enables your cells to convert the glucose, or sugar, in your bloodstream to energy.
Types of Fat
Science categorizes fat into several types. Animal foods, such as meat, poultry and dairy products contain saturated fat. Coconut, tropical oils and cocoa butter also contain saturated fat. Fish, nuts, seeds and oils from plants, such as olive oil, contain unsaturated fats. Small quantities of trans-fatty acid, a type of unsaturated fat, exist naturally in animal products, including the butterfat in milk. Trans-fatty acid, or trans fat, also transforms from an unsaturated to a saturated fat during hydrogenation, part of the process used in making margarine and shortening.
Significance
Fats in your diet alter your cholesterol levels in different ways. The American Heart Association notes that saturated fats elevate your bad cholesterol, or LDL. This cholesterol leaves behind a waxy substance that can eventually block arteries. Unsaturated fats actually decrease the bad cholesterol and help increase your good cholesterol, or HDL. This cholesterol clears LDL from the bloodstream and artery walls and carries it back to the liver, which then removes it from circulation, according to Harvard. Trans fats worsen cholesterol more than saturated fats because they increase LDL and lower the good, or protective, HDL.
Considerations
To maintain a healthy balance of dietary fat, the American Heart Association recommends you moderate your fat intake by type as you plan your menus. The total number of calories and fat grams you should get during an average day depends upon age, weight, gender and activity level. A sedentary female, for instance, eating 2,000 calories per day, who is between 31 and 50 years of age, should have no more than 16 g of saturated fat, less than 2 g of trans fat and an overall total of 50 to 70 g of fat. Always check with your doctor before making a significant change in your diet, especially if you have elevated cholesterol or another medical condition.
Theories/Speculation
Along with increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, diets high in animal fat, saturated fat and trans fats may also increase your risk of developing prostate cancer, lymphoma and other types of cancer. While more research is needed to clarify how certain fats increase cancer risks, Harvard recommends you eliminate trans fats if possible and switch the saturated fats found in animal products for the healthier saturated fats in fish and plant oils to help decrease your overall risk factors.
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