If you eat fatty foods, shifting your proportion of saturated and trans fats to polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats can revolutionize your diet. According to the National Institutes of Health, monounsaturated fatty acids, or mufas, have been shown to improve cholesterol profiles by increasing good HDL cholesterol and lowering bad LDL cholesterol. To get these heart-health benefits, the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest limiting all dietary fats to 35 percent or less of calorie intake, with 25 percent or less coming from unsaturated fats in healthy foods. In a 2,000-calorie diet, that works out to 65 g of all types of fat per day.
Oils
Unlike semisolid butter and lard, which are animal products, liquid cooking oils come from compressed fruits, nuts and seeds. These healthy foods represent the most common sources of monounsaturated fatty acids, reports the National Institutes of Health. Oils with the highest content, 9 g to 10 g of mufa per 1 tablespoon, include canola, olive and safflower oils, as reported by the USDA Nutrient Database.
Sesame seed, soybean and sunflower seed oils also provide significant mufa health benefits. Like most foods, however, oils contain a combination of unsaturated and saturated fatty acids. The health benefits from the above high-mufa oils come from saturated content of only 2 g or less to a tablespoon, compared to butter's 7 g.
Fruits, Nuts and Seeds
The same "combination" rule applies to other mufa sources, so remember your total fat limit as you emphasize unsaturated fats. The FDA considers food servings with 9 g or more mufas high in unsaturated content. Get big health benefits from small 1 oz. servings of nuts and seeds. Almonds, peanuts, pecans, hazelnuts and macadamia nuts have 9 g to 17 g of mufas per serving.
Pistachios, cashews and Brazilnuts also have significant monounsaturated content. Among seeds, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds have up to 5 g of mufas per 1 oz. Nuts and seeds also have between 1 g and 4 g of saturated fat. While whole avocados have huge concentrations of mufas, these fruits are considered healthy foods only in small 1-oz. servings, due to their overall high fat. One oz. of avocado gives you 3 g of mufas, as per the USDA.
Meats
Meats are less-healthy foods on the mufa list, because those with high monounsaturated content also have greater additional saturated fat. For instance, 3 oz. of beef, pork, and lamb ribs average about 11 g each of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, according to the USDA.
Member Comments