What is saturated fat?

saturated fat is one of the two main categories of fats that appear in food. It is distinguished from the unsaturated fat in that there are no double links between carbon atoms in its chemical makeup, so fatty acids are saturated with hydrogen. Naturally occurring saturated fat, such as fat found in animal foods, solidifies when it is cool, while a naturally occurring unsaturated fat, such as olive oil, remains liquid. Saturated fat is less likely to spoil during cooking than unsaturated fat and more stable.

The World Health Organization (WHO), along with the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), urges people to reduce their intake of saturated fat because many experts linked it to cardiovascular diseases. A high -saturated fat diet can lead to high cholesterol, which in turn can lead to atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease and stroke. SaturatedThe fat system increases low lhladin density of ipoprotein (LDL) - this is "bad" cholesterol. On the other hand, unsaturated fat increases the level of lipoprotein with a high density (HDL), leading to the desired cholesterol profile.

While fat is an essential part of a healthy diet, most nutritionists agree that as many sources of fat should be unsaturated, unhydrogenated fat, such as one in olive oil, rapeseed oil, fish, nuts and avocadas. Saturated fat is mainly found in animal products, including meat and dairy foods, but is also found in some sources of plants. Coconut oil, cotton oil and palm core oil contain, for example, saturated fat.

American Heart Association (AHA) suggests that saturated fat should not make up more than seven percent of everyday caloric intake. You want to handle cholesterol, consider the recordingsaturated fats whenever possible by unsaturated fats. For cooki, use olive oil, instead of butter and choose fish more often than red meat. Unsaturated fat not only increases HDL levels, but also lowers LDL levels. While older FDA instructions recommend that unsaturated fats should not exceed 30% of daily caloric intake, new instructions remove this limit.