While dietary fats have a negative image when it comes to heart health, your body needs a certain amount of fat to maintain normal functions. Coronary heart disease begins when excess cholesterol and fats create hard plaques on the inside of the arteries bringing oxygen rich blood to your heart. As your coronary arteries narrow and become more rigid, your heart is deprived of the vital nutrients it needs to work effectively. The right type and amount of dietary fat can reduce your chances of developing heart disease.
History
In 2004, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute convened a group of clinicians and scientists to look at the evidence about fats, cholesterol and heart disease. This National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults established consensus about lifestyle modifications that can reduce the incidence of heart disease in the U.S.
Expert Insight
The NCEP panel clearly defined a therapeutic lifestyle changes, or TLC, diet that has since been adopted by mainstream organizations dealing with heart disease prevention. The TLC diet limits total fats to 25 to 35 percent of your daily caloric requirement, recommends that saturated fats make up no more than 7 percent of your total fat and advises keeping trans fats below 1 percent. The rest of your fat intake should come from healthier monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
Sources
Saturated fats are found in animal meats, poultry fats, full-fat dairy products and tropical oils such as coconut and palm. Fish, nuts, seeds and plant oils are rich in both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. While there are some trans fats in meat and butterfat, most of the trans fats in the modern diet are created when vegetable oils are hydrogenated to make them more solid. When these hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils are used for frying or commercial baking, the resulting product contains significant amounts of trans fats.
Effects
Saturated fats are the main culprits behind high blood cholesterol levels. Polyunsaturated fats reduce your risk of plaque development by removing newly-formed cholesterol from your body, while monounsaturated fats can lower total blood cholesterol if you keep your diet very low in saturated fats, says the American Heart Association. Although trans fats are also a type of unsaturated fat, they have a negative effect, raising both LDL, or bad, cholesterol and total blood cholesterol.
Prevention/Solution
To fight heart disease, start with a close look at your daily menus. According to Mayoclinic.com, limiting consumption of saturated and trans fats is essential for maintaining healthy levels of blood cholesterol and preventing heart disease.
References
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: High Blood Cholesterol: What You Need to Know
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute: Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III) Executive Summary
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Introduction to the TLC Diet
- American Heart Association: Knowing Your Fats
- MayoClinic.com: Heart-Healthy Diet: 8 Steps to Prevent Heart Disease
