Information on Food Fat

The fat in your food helps enhance the flavor of what you're eating, and also helps your body to absorb the nutrients you consume. However, eating fatty foods can also cause negative effects on your health. Knowing the basic information about dietary fat -- "Fat 101," if you will -- can help you understand the role that food fats play, as well as how to tailor your dietary fat consumption to experience better health and well-being.

Kinds of Fat

In your food, you'll generally find four kinds of dietary fat. The first: saturated fat, found in animal-sourced foods such as dairy products. Second comes unsaturated fats -- specifically polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats -- found in fish and several kinds of vegetable oils. Third are trans fatty acids, which you'll often encounter in commercially prepared baked and fried foods and get created when food manufacturers hydrogenate, or harden, vegetable oil. Finally, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats are commonly found in margarine and butter.

"Good" and "Bad" Fats

Not all fats come created equal. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats get ranked by nutritionists as "good." That's because these unsaturated fats help to lower cholesterol and improve general cardiovascular health. For this reason, some doctors and dietitians may recommend an increased consumption of nuts, fish -- a source of heart-healthy omega-3 fats, which are a form of polyunsaturated fat -- and avocados. In contrast, avoid the consumption of saturated fats, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and trans fatty acids. These have been linked to everything from cancer to heart disease to strokes.

Fats and Weight Loss

With so many diet programs on the market, people who are trying to lose weight can find themselves confused about their options. The restriction of fat consumption works as one possible method of successful weight loss. In 2010, the "Annals of Internal Medicine" medical journal published the results of a 2-year study. This study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, concluded that those who follow any low-fat dietary structure -- a diet where 30 percent or less of the calories come derived from fats -- lost an average of approximately 40 lbs, all without the "adverse" health side effects sometimes associated with other diet programs, such as low-carbohydrate diets.

General Fat Consumption Guidelines

For the most part, healthy people with no pre-existing health conditions should allocate approximately 20 to 35 percent of their daily caloric consumption to dietary fats. In other words, multiply your daily calorie intake by 0.2 to 0.35 to determine how many calories from fat you can eat. Every gram of fat has approximately nine calories. Of your caloric consumption, the maximum healthy limit for saturated fat rings in at 10 percent of your total calorie intake, and the consumption of hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated and trans fatty acids should ideally be zero.