How To Find Saturated Fat In Food

Saturated fat is used to build the cellular membranes (outer covering) of all your cells and helps your body absorb nutrients and vitamins from the food you eat. The World Health Organization (WHO), along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), urges individuals to limit their amounts of saturated fat as it has been shown to correlate with heart disease. A diet high in saturated fats can lead to stroke, heart attack, coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis and high cholesterol. Fortunately, you can easily learn how to find the percentage of saturated fat in the foods you buy.

Step 1

Familiarize yourself with the foods that have saturated fat. Foods high in saturated fat include fatty cuts of meat, processed meats, sausage, bacon, chicken, turkey or duck with skin, sugary pastries, cheese and most foods that come in packages.

Step 2

Locate the nutritional label on the food package. The saturated fat content information is located under "Total Fat" and has a percent sign next to it. If the food you have does not have a nutritional label, visit nutritiondata.com and enter the name of the food you want in the search box to get the nutritional label.

Step 3

Determine if the foods contain no saturated fat. Foods containing less the .5 percent of saturated fat will show up as "0" percent on the "Total Fat" area of the nutritional label. Read the ingredients in the food packaging, and if you find the words "partially hydrogenated" or "hydrogenated" there is saturated fat in the food.