Saturated Fat in Foods

Dietary fat has a bad reputation, but it is needed in our diets. Choosing the type of fat to eat is a necessary decision that impacts your health and your risk for disease. Saturated fat is generally considered undesirable in large amounts because of its effect on cholesterol levels, which in turn affect the chances of your developing cardiovascular problems.

Definition

Saturated fat is a solid fat even at room temperature, unlike unsaturated fats such as non-tropical vegetable oils that are liquid when at room temperature. It is called saturated because it is literally saturated with hydrogen atoms. This is a natural saturation; artificial saturation, or hydrogenization, involves turning unsaturated fats into trans fats. Saturated fats are common in animal products such as meat and butter and oils such as palm.

Effects

The body uses saturated fat to create cholesterol. Your body actually needs cholesterol, just as it does fat, in order to maintain your health. This cholesterol is moved around by two different transporting substances: high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein. These are often referred to as good and bad cholesterol respectively, even though they are just the messengers that carry cholesterol from place to place. Saturated fat increases both types, but increasing LDL can result in too much cholesterol trying to squeeze through your arteries, possibly leading to heart disease.

Artificial Saturation

Hydrogenated fats are those that were once unsaturated but then artificially saturated with hydrogen atoms. The resulting solid fat is called trans fat and is marked separately from saturated fat in nutrition labels. However, hydrogenated fats are occasionally lumped in with saturated fats in discussions. These hydrogenated fats increase LDL and lower HDL.

Considerations

Saturated fat is a part of what we eat and isn't necessarily bad in small amounts, depending on the rest of your diet. Walter C. Willett, M.D., a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, says that you have to look at the "whole package of nutrients" to see if this is a food you should eat. His example, peanut butter, contains fiber and potassium. This doesn't mean you can eat all the saturated fat you want, though; keep it to less than 10 percent of the total amount of fat you eat. Colorado State University Extension advises keeping it below 7 percent if you have heart disease, high cholesterol or diabetes.

Triglyceride Type

As if keeping track of the different types of fat in your diet wasn't enough work to begin with, it turns out there are different types of saturated fats. When your body breaks down fat, the fat ends up in the form of triglycerides. Most saturated fat becomes something called long-chain triglycerides, but coconut oil consists of medium-chain triglycerides. The chain length refers to the number of carbon atoms involved. The effect of medium-chain triglycerides gained attention after a 2002 Canadian literature review published in "The Journal of Nutrition." Authors Marie-Pierre St-Onge and Peter J. H. Jones found medium-chain triglycerides might increase satiety when eating and could have a beneficial effect on body weight. However, the research is not conclusive, and the review authors noted a definite need for more research regarding medium-chain triglycerides and weight.