Can Foods That are high in Saturated Fat Have an Effect on Normal Cholesterol Levels?

A number of of us are aware that eating too much saturated fat can raise normal cholesterol levels, so if you are trying to reduce your cholesterol you should aim to reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat. If your diet consists of too much saturated fat you are more likely to encounter heart problems as the LDL cholesterol levels in your blood will rise. This is why it is best to reduce your fat intake and to eat food that has unsaturated rather than saturated fat.

Unsaturated fats are beneficial and can help to reduce cholesterol in the body. Two basic types of unsaturated fat exist -- monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats (a lot of people will recognize the terms from television adverts for margarine). It is probably worth monitoring the amount of sugar and salt in your diet if you want to stay healthy.

How do I know how much fat is contained in my food?
It can be tricky to tell the amount of fat contained in some food, so check the product labels. By law, the label must indicate how many grams (g) of fat there are in 100g of the food. Some food labels also include the amount of saturated fat, or just "saturates" contained in the product These figures can help you make an informed choice when shopping for food. When you start to check nutrition labels on food and realize how much saturated fat is in many of them you will understand how easy it is exceed the recommended maximum amount.

How can I calculate how much fat I should eat?
It is important to have some fat in your diet; it is a great source of energy and helps provide some of the fatty acids the body can't make. Between 25 and 35% of your total daily calories should come from fat in your diet, according to the FDA.

This is an easy way to estimate the amount:
Multiply your total daily calorie intake by 25 percent and 35 percent (0.25 and 0.35)·
For example, if your daily amount was 2000 calories you would need to multiply 2000 x 25% giving 500, then by 35% giving 700.

Now although this can be helpful, most people want to know how much fat they can eat every day. We already know that if we eat 1 g of fat it will equate to 9 calories, so to get the amount in weight just divide the calories by 9. In this example, you should consume 56 to 78 grams of fat each day.

What are the foods that contain the most saturated fat?
Foods from animal sources as well as commercially prepared foods are generally higher in saturated fat. Many of the prepared foods - for example, ready-meals or TV dinners - contain coconut, palm, or palm kernel oil, and many contain more saturated fat than foods from animal sources.

Food that is made using vegetable oil must state which oils have been used in the preparation on the label. All vegetable oils, with the exception of palm, palm kernel and coconut oils are low in saturated fat, but in recent years, many manufacturers have replaced tropical oils in their food products with oils that are less saturated such as soybean, cottonseed, corn and canola oils.

Want to read more? To discover how normal cholesterol levels can change due to the amount of fat in the diet, drop by Low Cholesterol Foods